Christmas dinner

There's just the two of us so rather than have a turkey, Gord and I had cornish hens for Christmas dinner.

Gord took care of making them ... Cornish Hens with a Grand Marnier Glaze.

½ lb butter cut into about 5 cubes
1 cup orange juice
1 tbsp honey
3/4 cup Grand Marnier
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper

Combine orange juice, honey, and 1/4 cup of the Grand Marnier in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, uncovered, over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until the liquid is reduced to about a third of what you started with.

Turn off the heat and whisk in each cube of butter separately, only adding another cube when the first is completely melted in. Once this is completed, stir in the remaining 1/2 cup of Grand Marnier. Season the inside of each bird with some salt and pepper and put a bay leaf inside of each. Then spoon over some of the sauce.

Here's  Gord making the glaze.

Putting the first glaze on ...

The oven was preheated to 400F when the birds were placed in.

They are ready with glaze to go in the oven!

He basted the birds every 10 minutes throughout. After 40 minutes, he removed the foil, reduced the oven to 350F and let the birds cook uncovered, still basting every ten minutes.

Ta-da ... 75 minutes later they are ready.  

Dinner is served!  And it was delicious ... thanks, Gord!

We don't give Morgan and Crumpet soft food very often ... only on special occasions, like tonight.  But they knew that tonight the night!  Without encouraging them, they are waiting.

Morgan got really impatient and tried to get my attention by grabbing my teeshirt.  "What about us??!!"

Yum!  Yum!  Yum!

Everyone cleaned their plates and had a delicious Christmas dinner and had happy bellies!