Out of the Ordinary Dinner Fun

Friday night I cooked up some Rock Cornish Game Hens.  I had bought them on sale a few weeks ago and froze them for when we needed a little out of the ordinary "pick-me-up". 

  Everyone got their own and yes, we wasted some meat, but it was worth a great experience!

We all took a lesson from Mommy on how to properly carve poultry.  As we ate, we examined the bones, anxiously searching for the wishbone before it got mangled.  (We managed to salvage one, but I accidently threw it away in my hurry to clear the table after an "incident" that I should probably not share on my blog because I do not want to embarrass those involved, including me;)  But ANYWAYS...   It was a great time, we all learned a lot, ate a lot, and laughed a lot... and now when I do it next time, I want to hide a little something extra special in the cavity, maybe like a pickle or lemon or something

or a gold dollar (washed of course) would be really fun!

This hen has no idea what she's in for...

I was a little nervous sitting next to Elijah. 

He thought he was on Iron Chef.

David spent more time carving than eating.

Kid shot. 

I realize now that everything on the plate is beige! 

I served the hens with organic brown rice seasoned with organic "no salt" seasoning (from CostCo, very yummy)

and fresh pears given to us by our neighbor lady. 

I skinned them though because, like everything else in The Dalles area, they had been covered in knats.

Hannah was afraid of hers.

Ann dug right in

(chatting her way through it of course).

We also learned (from Wikipedia):

"A Cornish game hen, also sometimes called a Cornish hen, poussin, Rock Cornish hen, or simply Rock Cornish, is a young chicken sold whole. Despite the name, it is not a game bird, but actually a typical chicken that is slaughtered at a young age and therefore is smaller in size. Though the bird is called a "hen," it can be either male or female.

Most sources credit Alphonsine and Jacques Makowsky of Connecticut for developing the small bird in the mid-1950s. A Saturday Evening Post article from July 1955 credited Mrs. Makowsky with coming up with the idea to breed the Cornish game chicken, a small bird with short legs and a plump, round breast that she had discovered in a book. The Makowskys began cross-breeding the Cornish game cocks with various chickens and game birds, including a White Plymouth Rock hen and a Malayn fighting cock, to develop the Rock Cornish game hen -- a succulent bird with all-white meat. Their intent was similar, to breed a small chicken with mostly white meat suitable for a single serving.
In addition to commanding a higher price, the game hens have a shorter growing span, 28 to 30 days as opposed to 42 or more for regular chicken. Two-thirds of Cornish game hens sold in the United States come from Tyson Foods, Inc.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture describes the Rock Cornish game hen or Cornish game hen as a young immature chicken (usually 5 to 6 weeks of age), weighing not more than 2 pounds ready-to-cook weight, which was prepared from a Cornish chicken or the progeny of a Cornish chicken crossed with another breed of chicken."