My day and a recipe for Hen a la Diabolo!

I had a nice afternoon with a nice guy today, but I’m still getting over the flu and I didn’t realize how hard it would be to make it through a few hours of activity so soon after the bug’s climax. Ah, well. You live, you learn.

I think there’ll be more of that to come, and next time around will be more enjoyable for all, I’m sure. When I’m not feeling myself, I’m very, very off my game and tend to be a less responsive individual, which really sucks. I love getting engaged in a good conversation, and I hate it when I lose my game.

I hadn’t slept well, yada, yada. Such is life. I suspect I’ll sleep like a child this evening, though, since I’m very relaxed, despite being a little disappointed in the day. (Mostly because I wasn’t able to be myself as much as I’d like, and wound up being extremely fatigued by the day’s end. I wanted to have a rich conversation, and know I could've done better.)

To put it in perspective, I’ve actually just finished lying my head down on the desktop for the last five minutes. Something I think I’ve never done before. Hmm. Well, there you have it. A little whooped as yet.

The guy mentioned something about doing a chicken dinner, though, and that got the taste buds thinking “sure, sounds like a plan!” And then I was poking around for a snack (found pineapple) and noticed my frozen Cornish hen in the freezer. Aha! Hen a la Diabolo! That’s tomorrow’s dinner.

Here’s the deal. Preheat yer broiler. You take a hen, crack its backbone and split it, then remove the breast bone and flatten the bird. Now you smother the doomed bird in olive oil, on both sides, then give it kosher salt all over and lots and lots of cracked black pepper. Put it skin side down on a broiling pan, and broil it for about 8 minutes until it’s getting nicely cooked, and a little charred. Turn it, and wait until the skin begins to get a little charred as well, another 8 minutes or so. The juices should run clear, just like if it were chicken. Take it out when cooked, set the bird on a plate, and let the juices sit in the pan for a moment.

Get yourself a bed of nice herb salad. Slice some nice ripe yellow and red tomatoes, and scatter them. Juice half a lemon over the bed of herbs, and the other half into the pan juices. Scrape the nice bits off the bottom of the pan and mix the juices well. Sprinkle the salad with salt and only a bit of pepper (since the bird's so peppery), and then drizzle the pan juices over the herbs. Rest the chicken atop the salad. Serve with crusty bread. (From the Williams-Sonoma cookbook, Cooking for Yourself, an incredible cookbook for the single person who's sick of cooking large recipes that lack the special touch. Easy, quick stuff that results in wonderfully rich single dining experiences. Five star book.)

Awesome meal for one. Light, yet decadent. Seems too simple, but the flavours meld wonderfully, and the warm juices give the herbs just a bit of extra zing. Wonderful. It what will be my first real meal since being sick. Although, damn, that roti was good today. Made me realize how good my chicken wraps are, though, so I’ll need to make those again soon. Looks like I’m buying chicken thighs this week!

*I'm a good cook, and I've been wanting to get back into cooking for the whole winter and think the mood to cook is really getting stronger. Yay. Must try new things. After this old hen trick. :)

HEY! I MESSED UP. Two things, above recipe's for a 1-1.5lb cornish hen. Second, You cook it for TWELVE minutes with the skin side down, then EIGHT on the other side. (And I only eat about half the bird per meal. When you're doing leftovers, just mix a little lemon juice with olive oil (1:1) to sprinkle on the lettuce, then salt'n'peppa it, and be happy.)