Why is it the Anniversary Special? Well, because we recently celebrated our 27th wedding anniversay – not on the day we ate the hens, but that had been the intent when I bought them.
This is a picture of wild rice – just plain wild rice. What is special about it is that I “cooked” it in a vacuum bottle! As you can see, it came out perfectly! I have tried boiling it in a pan, using the rice cooker, steaming, and a combination of these three methods. But this time I pre-heated (fill it with boiling water; then empty it out in a few minutes) a three-cup Nissan Thermos vacuum bottle, put in about three quarters of a cup of wild rice, and then filled up the vacuum bottle with boiling water. I then ignored it for about four or five hours. I was relatively surprised to see how perfect is was. ;->
Then, to make the actual dressing, I sautéed onions, celery, yellow pepper, mushrooms, and fresh spinach. To season it, I used some Montreal Steak Seasoning, Italian seasoning, poultry seasoning, Cajun seasoning, onion powder, lemon pepper, and a bit of Vegesal.
I didn’t actually stuff the hens with the dressing; just served it on the side. I had intended to put sliced almonds in it, but forgot to do so. I’ll add them when I serve the leftovers. That will be a better use of them anyway! ;->
Adventures of Dorrie Anne 
Congrats for your wedding day. That’s really a wonderful meal to celebrate this day. Hope you had some good wine, too or even champagne, virtual hugs Mitza
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No wine! Neither of us has a taste for it. But the food was very enjoyable! Thanks for the wishes!
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mmmm this plate looks amazingly tasty and fresh.
Happy anniversary! 🙂
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Thank you! We are hoping for many more game hens to be needed for these occasions! ;->
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Happy Anniversary – and congratulations on being married for so long. I was never able to manage that – wish I could have. But I remember when I was married to the kids’ dad, kind of early on, I used to buy Cornish Game Hens and bake them for special occasions. They were relatively inexpensive in those days, and so fun to cook. Your meal looks delicious! I’m going to try to rice in a vacuum bottle trick. Great idea. 🙂
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Thank you for the wishes! We are hoping for many more years together. The hens were on sale for Valentine’s Day at two for five dollars – so a real bargain! Even at the regular price of twice that, they are not too exorbitantly priced since one bird serves both of us easily, and there are so many nice bones left for broth!
When you try vacuum bottle cookery, be sure that you have a really, really good one – like the Nissan-Thermos brand. The plain Thermos, and most of the other brands, just simply will not do the trick. They don’t hold the heat long enough to really cook the foods.
If you try white rice, be aware that it is the hardest to get right. I have two massive failures under my belt with white rice. The trick is to use a combination method. Be sure not to put more than twice the amount of water as rice into the vacuum bottle, and don’t leave it in there for more than about three hours. After three hours, it won’t be “done”, but just take it out and put it into a pan on the stove and bring it back just to the boil. Then cover it and let it sit with the cover on for about half an hour, or maybe a bit more. It will depend on what has taken place within the vacuum bottle. You will need to experiment with what your particular equipment and stove do in these regards.
Once you get the method down, it will be a joy to do it this way. It comes out much nicer – at least I think so! ;->
Split peas and lentils will cook pretty much to completion, but brown rice, barley, bulgur, and other grains can be done this way, too, but you will need to experiment to see what works for you and your particular equipment. Just about any long-cooking ingredient can be done this way, even though it may not be ready to eat directly out of the vacuum bottle. The head start makes it like “instant” food when you are actually ready to eat it.
If you are going to be gone all day, or several hours, you can put something into the vacuum bottle before you leave, and then it is a short-term job to complete the meal when you return. Makes it easy to keep your diet on a healthful track.
In fact, I have used this method to soak up a mixture of lentils and split peas, and then just put them into the refrigerator for the next day. On “Soup Day”, I just sauté up some onions, celery, and carrots, add the legumes – et voilå – delicious soup with almost no effort. And usually plenty left for another day.
I find that the three-cup (24 ounces) size is just perfect for my needs. Any smaller and it doesn’t retain enough heat; larger . . . well, it is just too much food.
One new trick that I just started employing is to put the vacuum bottle down sideways on the counter on top of a plate (I usually use a foam tray) in case of leakage. Somehow this more evenly-distributed fluid to air space seems to cook more evenly. It is easy to see why when you think about it.
Let me know how it works out for you. I think you will wonder how you ever functioned without this benefit! ;->
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Congratulations for your anniversary, Judie! Your rice dish and the Cornish hen look absolutely delicious! 🙂
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Thank you! We had the other one on Tuesday night, and it was still delicious ! It was nice not to have the whole meal to fix again.
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Congrats on your anniversary!!!
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Thanks! ;->
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