Tuesday: hen

Two small dinner parties on back to back midweek evenings this week has me utterly knackered. The night after the second of those dinners, I put a bunch of veg with some chicken sausage into a parchment and foil package and baked it until it was fragrant. No mess to deal with after. Easy.

But guests deserve far better, and I hope I delivered. Tuesday night was dinner with CG in the kitchen, and through a bottle of a sparkling rose and a couple of bottles of Pinot Noir, we had ourselves a lovely evening catching up with her.

I had been able to work at home Tuesday, which gave me an opportunity to start a key part of dinner prep early: brining the Cornish game hens. It's a good technique for birds, though I've learned to reduce the salt in the brine recipe considerably (by half). A nice long while in the oven, basted at intervals with butter, and we had ourselves a tasty plate each.



Of course, we had to play with iPhone cameras before dining...