We have always been very big into celebrating Halloween, literally spending weeks decorating inside and out. It seems to be fairly unique to the United States as to how much adults get into the spirit of the season (pun intended). Since we will not be holding our annual Halloween party this year and won’t be decorating, at least not much if we do, we thought that we would participate in this challenge and share some Halloween photos from the past. For today’s challenge, spooky, we chose this picture of decorations from our front yard ten years ago. And if you are curious, we built all of the props as well as the bodies, there are no live people in the photo (once again, pun ). 😀
Spook with GuillotineThe Whole SceneOur Daughter Hamming it Up
When the kids were growing up, we started the tradition to fondue on New Year’s Eve and watch a marathon of movies. We would pick movies that had multiple movies in the series like Harry Potter, The Pirates of the Caribbean, Jason Bourne, Lord of the Rings, Batman, Ocean’s 13, etc. Whatever the movie, it was about being together as a family and eating a meal that was a shared experience.
Fondue Plate
Our children have all grown up and moved onto their own lives, but we continue to spend our New Year’s Eve eating fondue and watching movies until about an hour before midnight. We do a peanut oil fondue with steak, chicken, mushrooms, and green peppers (we used to do hot dogs when the kids were younger). Then we do our family curry sauce, chutney, and béarnaise sauce for dipping. Although we love a good cheese or chocolate fondue, this is a perfect fondue for creating a hearty meal, especially when needing to offset all of the glasses of wine that lead up to our midnight toast.
Fondue Table
Our New Year’s Day tradition is pork and sauerkraut, which is a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition that is meant to provide good luck throughout the coming year. It works out really well since it is a slow cooker meal and we are usually moving a little slower after New Year’s Eve. We’ve decided to share with you our curry fondue sauce recipe, which is obviously simple and can be used with other meals besides fondue.
Cooking in Peanut Oil
Ingredients
1 cup Mayonnaise
3 tbsp Whole Milk (Skim can be used to lower the fat and calories)
4 – 5 tsp Curry Powder
1/2 tsp Tabasco Sauce
Instructions
In a medium size bowl, combine mayonnaise, milk, curry powder, and tabasco sauce. Whisk together and chill for 30 minutes. If it is too thick, simply add a dash more of milk and stir.
When entertaining, we will often serve game hens so that everyone can have their own hen. For this recipe, we served them whole, but when having guests over, we will usually cut the hens in half so that it is easier to eat and is a smaller portion. This recipe is really easy and the flavor of the hens was sensational. It would even be good as a holiday meal and works great for a special occasion. The vegetables soak up the flavor from the hens and the pancetta, making them decadently delicious. Rice Pilaf or stuffing would make a great accompaniment or you could add potatoes to the vegetables for a simple one pot dinner. We only cooked two hens since it was just the two of us, but we’ve provided the recipe for six people.
Herb Roasted Cornish Game Hen with Pancetta
Ingredients
6 Cornish Game Hens (approximate 24 oz each)
1 Onion – roughly diced
6 Stocks of Celery – roughly diced
36 Baby Carrots (or 6 Large Carrots – roughly diced)
2 Large Red Peppers – roughly diced
3 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 tsp Fresh Rosemary – finely chopped
3 tsp Fresh Sage – finely chopped
3 Garlic Cloves – minced
1 tsp Fresh Cracked Black Pepper
2 tsp Kosher Salt
6 Thin Slices of Pancetta
VegetablesHerbs
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Combine the onion, celery, carrots, and red pepper in the bottom of a roasting pan or baking dish. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper. Set the hens on top of the vegetables and drizzle with olive oil. In a small bowl, mix together the garlic, rosemary, sage, black pepper and salt. Rub the herb mixture over the hens until well coated. Lay a piece of pancetta over the breast of each hen and secure with wooden toothpicks. Roast the hens for 15 minutes. Decrease the temperature to 350 degrees and continue to roast the hens until fully cooked, 45 to 60 minutes. Let sit at room temperature for 3 to 4 minutes before serving.
Hens on Bed of VegetablesHerb Rubbed HenPancetta on HensRoasted Game Hen with Pancetta
