Fall is finally here! After a stroll in the Land O Lakes on the Grand Mesa to see the changing leaves... for me fall is in full force!
I thought it would be fun to prepare a lovely autumn themed meal to kick off the season.

For a main I have selected roasted rosemary and garlic Cornish hens.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cornish-game-hens-with-garlic-and-rosemary/
I was thinking we could roast some vegetables with the hens:
Carrots, onions, brussel sprouts, leeks, new potatoes  ... etc.


For a starch, pumpkin risotto!

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/pumpkin-risotto

To sip:
White wine

I'm no food photographer but I've seen what food stylist have to do to make food look good on camera and... after that process it is definitely not edible! Overall it was a pretty good supper. The pumpkin risotto was not what I expected, I would have preferred a sweet potato or spaghetti squash! The Cornish Hens and roasted garlic were tasty though and I definitely recommend cooking them until they are crispy! Interested to hear how it goes for you!

Ello dear Alexandra! This was quite the fun project! Brett, David and I enjoyed the autumn flavors and it's been ages since I've prepared Cornish hen so it was a fun ingredient to revisit. As for the recipes themselves, I pretty much followed them to a tee with a few exceptions. I took your advice and cranked the broiler for the last few minutes of hen cooking to ensure crispy skin, in addition to using less oil. I also agree that the pumpkin risotto was just ok, which is surprising since Food & Wine mag claims to have 'perfected' the recipe in their test kitchen. We experienced a bitter taste, did y'all? Perhaps too much onion. Am I being too nitpicky? 

The official menu consisted of the garlic, rosemary roasted Cornish hens (from the above recipe), pumpkin risotto (also from the above recipe), beet & radish salad and Susan Fields chardonnay.

I'm trying my damnedest to take awesome food pictures with only my iPhone. It is going to take some practice. 

This was fun! I'm looking forward selecting next week's recipes!

P.S. My stove unit does NOT diffuse heat from the oven very well (or at all) so my kitchen was literally  450 degrees at one point. The bright side, lost 1 lb in water weight sweating it out while cooking!