the bird is the word

these last few days have been super crazy...parties, movie nights, work, choir, church stuff...just life. kasia and i were excited to be able to finally have some time to ourselves. we have some of the best friends ever, but sometimes it's nice to just relax and be with just us. well, i guess we never really relax...we break out the newest recipe we found and end up spending more energy cooking than if we had a ton of people over. well, saturday night we discussed what we wanted to have for sunday dinner. i figured in honor of my mother, i wanted to make cornish game hen and sauteed veggies. mom makes the best cornish game hen and it was the best way to honor her (strictly food speaking). the problem? i've never cooked those little birds before and had only cooked a whole chicken once. it was going to be an adventure!

we ran to the grocery store around 10:30 saturday night and picked up the birds and trimmings.

i can hold brains, eyes, kidneys, and whatever else we did during high school anatomy. i have the HARDEST time handling a whole raw bird. i don't know what it is...but it makes for an awesome picture!

haha the birds are ready!!

i was just making it up as i go, so i stuffed the bird (my favorite part) with some butter, garlic, 1/4 of a lemon, and rosemary. i also put some butter under the skin on top to help get it flavorful. i topped it off with some salt, pepper, and tony's. we always use tony's!!

i filled the bottom of the pan with a little water so we could baste it while it was in the oven. i also put a few pieces of butter around it to get the bottom juicy! they went into the oven at 350* for about an hour, uncovered.

i love it when i'm home in southern california and mom makes veggies. again, i was just flying from the seat of my pants. i grabbed some yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, and an onion. i cut all the veggies into medallions, only peeling the carrots, and then diced the onion (thanks to the salsa party, i'm a pro at dicing!).

i start with a little butter (about 1/4 cup), the onion, and carrots since they take the longest to cook. i decided to change it up a bit and add a handful of brown sugar. it was so subtle, yet delicious. there were so many veggies in the pans (yes, i had to use 2 pans because of the amount of veggies) that it wasn't overpowering.

i let the carrots cook until i could easily stab them with a fork. i separated the carrots evenly into the 2 pans and started adding the squash until we couldn't put any more in and then just let them sit covered on low heat until tender.

this was what we had...a bird each and a ton of veggies. kasia was so cute and asked me if i could also make some of my honey-mustard rosemary potatoes. i can't say no to her (and i really wanted them) so i happily obliged!! they turned out much better the second time around. oddly enough, the first time i made them was when i cooked my first chicken! the secret? only kasia and i know...