Roasted Cornish Game Hens with Wild Rice Stuffing and Zucchini Potato Bake

I spent Christmas 2008 with my boyfriend and his family. We hopped from house to house visiting different relatives, and food was to be had all over the place. Though I’ve only made one pie in my life (a poor, ugly thing that was rock hard in parts of the crust, runny and very un-creamy in its attempt at becoming a triple coconut creme pie, though occasionally tasty when one pursued it long enough), I made a cherry pie and a pumpkin pie to share at the different events.

So come Christmas, I had no Christmas dinner to prepare save for the one for my cats, Finn and Leopold. However, Christmas Eve was a different story, and I wanted to go to town and make something special.

Roasted rosemary Cornish game hens with wild rice and onion stuffing.

For once, I actually did a fair job of planning the meal in advance (versus my usual “vague notion of what shall go forth into the oven this week”) and had all the necessary ingredients in the pantry or else, purchased a day or two in advanced. I purchased two Cornish game hens, thawed them out overnight, and then in the fridge while I was at work, and came home early to get to work on roasting them with tons of fresh rosemary.

Zucchini potato bake makes for a (somewhat) healthy and delicious side dish.

Okra Potato Curry

Okra was always this weird veggie that we didn’t get a lot growing up in Chicago. It’s not like we didn’t get it, we just didn’t use it much. My mom would put it in gumbo, but that’s about it. I always liked it, but thought it was just for certain types of food. I really got into it when I moved south of the Mason-Dixon line.

I adapted the Cookshelf: Indian recipe for Okra Curry for this recipe.  I like my additions better, but the original recipe is a little less intense. My adapted recipe is below.

Potato Okra Curry
1 lb Okra
1 lb Potatoes (I used red)
Hot curry powder, to taste (Original recipe called for 2 curry leaves only)
Sweet curry powder, to taste
Garam masala, to taste
Oil
2 medium onions, sliced
3 cayenne peppers (or hot pepper of your choosing), diced
2 medium tomatoes, sliced
2 tbs lemon or lime juice
Fresh cilantro leaves