The Cornish Hen Issue

So I was all pumped tonight to make Cornish hens. Those little birds are too fun -- and too easy -- to cook with that I can't believe I didn't revisit the recipe earlier. Of course, there's barely a recipe as I can't seem to follow 'em -- at all. My standard Cornish hen prep includes rosemary, olive oil, salt, pepper and maybe some thyme and onions.

Today was different. I cubed turnips and sweet potatoes to roast, dressing them in olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic salt, with a dash of rosemary olive oil.

Those turned out fine.

As I sit here, we're waiting for our young chickens to finish baking. That's because my Cornish hens just would not thaw out. I read up on thawing techniquest that promised 30 min. and no more, but not, these hens, after an hour and a half, were hard as a rock. I planned dinner to be ready within a half hour of Brian's coming home (predicted: 7:30) and had to text him instead to pick up thawed birds.

Of course there weren't any at Jewel, so he ended up with young, expensive chickens at Whole Foods (a regular fryer chicken would have sufficed, but that's my boyfriend, trying to get as close to hens as possible).

So we'll see how this turns out. I basted it in rosemary olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic salt, then surrounded it with onions. Nothing complicated at all, and I hope it tastes as good as the scent wafting through the condo now ...

UPDATE: The young chickens we substituted turned out seasoned perfectly, and amazingly juicy, too -- made for great leftovers. Brian's charged with making the now-thawed and refrigerated Cornish hens on Thursday.