Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

In after Baud. Damn.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Cooking / Open Thread: Thursday Night Menu (Valentine’s Day Ed.)

Open Thread: Thursday Night Menu (Valentine’s Day Ed.)

by | 86 Comments

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Take it away, Bad Horse’s Filly:

Every year around this time, one of my local grocers offers Cornish Game Hens in packages where they are cut in half. I decided I needed to do something with this idea, so the Valentine’s menu was born. When they are cut in half, it reduced cooking time enough for the recipe to be workable on a week night. Since Valentine’s falls on a Sunday this year, using whole game hens seems reasonable, too. Longer cooking time, but worth it. In case you’re feeling really ambitious, click here for JeffreyW’s wonderful stuffing recipe. And if you’re looking for a more elegant dessert for Valentine’s Day tomorrow I’ll repost the recipe for Raspberry-Chocolate Cupcakes in Raspberry Sauce.

I’ll be cooking this recipe again on Saturday, so check back for any tweaks I might have.

On the board tonight:

Cornish Game Hens w/Stuffing
Buttered Peas and Carrots
Tossed Salad
Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Click on the link for recipes and shopping list.

P.S. from Anne Laurie: WordPress plays no favorites; my own access to this site has been spotty for the last couple days.

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  1. 1.

    Harle

    I never knew how much I needed Balloon Juice until I couldn’t access the site. Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!

  3. 3.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Cornish Game Hens w/Stuffing
    Buttered Peas and Carrots
    Tossed Salad
    Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

    I’ll take a side order of Scalloped Potatoes with Iced Tea to drink. I will pay you Tuesday.

  4. 4.

    Annie

    Recipes sound awesome. I think we will try them. Especially the Raspberry-Chocolate Cupcakes in Raspberry Sauce. After the snow this week, we are looking to celebrate this weekend. We lost electricity and started looking around the kitchen for food that didn’t need to be cooked. We had lots of tuna, and the cats started getting worried when we moved closer to their food…Also, with no electricity, no heat, so the four of us, two adults and two cats slept close to fireplace…Cozy, but something I don’t want to repeat for a long time.

    So thanks. We are just right for something special!

  8. 8.

    Annie

    LOL. I just went to edit my post and found that I did not have permission to edit my own post.

    Now, I am wondering, exactly who does have permission to edit my post….Should be interesting, and I think will start a whole new tradition on BJ….Just think of the possibilities if we can edit each other’s posts….

  11. 11.

    JGabriel

    rootless_e:

    Marcy Wheeler is very annoyed to be associated with Grover Norquist.

    Searched twitter.com for “emptywheel” and read the feed from there. Frankly, it looks like you’re harassing Marcy for Jane’s faults.

    .

  12. 12.

    mr. whipple

    Marcy Wheeler is very annoyed to be associated with Grover Norquist. Who knew?

    For real? That’s precious. So sad.

  14. 14.

    rootless_e

    @JGabriel: I do not believe that Marcy can write about Rahm as if the Jane/Grover alliance happened on another planet. She claims that she can be silent about her employers alliance with the Republican masterpuppeteer and still credibly write about Rahm Emmanuel? Fuck that.

  15. 15.

    rootless_e

    And I said the same thing to BTD about Jerralyn’s endorsement of Scott Brown – ok, her call for people not to vote for Coakley as if there were not only two people on the ballot.

  18. 18.

    SIA

    Mr Screaming made a lovely pot of chili ’cause WE’RE HAVING SNOW IN ATLANTA!!!! I hope when I wake up everything is covered in the white stuff! SNOW DAY HELL YEAH!

    /southerner

  19. 19.

    robertdsc

    I finished Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead the other day. I had a very difficult time in reading through it and the last few pages took forever, but I found it interesting. Not compelling and by no means great, just interesting.

  21. 21.

    Yutsano

    @SIA: I just feel the need to make the point that I have a good friend from college that moved to the Atlanta area to A) chase a guy (didn’t work out but she found another one that was about a thousand times better) and B) to get away from snowy weather. I’m just going to sit back and enjoy my Schadenfreude with a heaping dollop of French vanilla ice cream.

  23. 23.

    Yutsano

    @SIA: I think if there’s one positive that might come out of the climate change mishegas it’s ending that God-awful drought they were going on about when I went to her wedding in 2006. Tell me that got better at least.

  24. 24.

    IndyLib

    BHF – Thanks for the link for the raspberry-chocolate cupcakes with raspberry sauce. I love Jennifer Crusie.

  25. 25.

    asiangrrlMN

    @MobiusKlein: Oh crap. I hope it’s only a 24-hr bug or something. Get better soon!

    @SIA: Wait a g-d minute. Atlanta got snow? There is no justice in this world.

    @Annie: No electricity and no heat? Even I would have a hard time with the latter. Hope you’re all safe and warm.

  27. 27.

    SIA

    @Yutsano: Yes, definitely that long drought (several years) is over. All of the lakes are at normal level I believe. The pattern we’re having now is the same as that ol’ El Nino from the late 90’s – think it was 1997. My memory of that period is one of a gray, rainy, soggy blur.

  28. 28.

    asiangrrlMN

    @robertdsc: I would like to ask why you read the book, and not in a snarky way. I have no desire to read any of her work. I read The Fountainhead way back when, but I don’t remember it at all. So, what compelled you to pick up Rand and read her?

  30. 30.

    Yutsano

    @SIA: Heh. Sounds like home to me.

    @asiangrrlMN: Hi hon. I’m just about ready to tear my hair out. I swear I had folks screaming at me all damn day at work. I’m probably exaggerating, but the grumpy gene was definitely being expressed tonight. At least I’m home and off for two days.

  31. 31.

    asiangrrlMN

    @SIA: Oops. I misread your post. Still, snow in Atlanta when we have none is just wrong. OK, we have a foot or two on the ground, but that doesn’t count!

    @Yutsano: Aw, that’s tough. Especially since it was probably their damn fault, anyway. So you have your weekend? Good for you. Hope you get some rest and some convo with the Dawg.

  32. 32.

    Morbo

    Bah, I got so gypped by the speaker at my graduation at my alma mater I didn’t bother going to commencement. Clinton spoke the year after, and Obama’s the commencement speaker this year, dangit.

  33. 33.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: I get to go see my eye doc in the morning so there’s that at least. Plus my car is screaming at me to change the oil so that’s on the agenda at some point this weekend. I also somehow volunteered myself for making baked risotto and a tres leches cake at work next week. Good times.

  34. 34.

    AnotherBruce

    @robertdsc:

    I read The Fountainhead about 30 years ago, and I found it to be uninteresting fiction, or to more precise, I found it to be uninteresting science fiction.

    Maybe more fantasy than science fiction, but aggressively unreal. With underdeveloped cartoonish characters.

  35. 35.

    SIA

    @AnotherBruce: I’m getting confused – is The Fountainhead the one with Gary Cooper and the drill? With what’s-her-name watching him from above? Patricia Neal! Not too subtle.

  37. 37.

    SIA

    @asiangrrlMN: How can you not have snow? You live in MN right?

    I did hear on TWC that they’ve had more snow in DC than Anchorage. I lived in AK for 4 years as a kid and find that hard to believe!

    I’m sending requests to the magic snow bunny that you’ll get a bunch of snow too!

  38. 38.

    robertdsc

    I would like to ask why you read the book, and not in a snarky way. I have no desire to read any of her work. I read The Fountainhead way back when, but I don’t remember it at all. So, what compelled you to pick up Rand and read her?

    Well, it boils down to the idea that I have to find out what people are talking about when they talk about going Galt and speak of things in Randian ways. As I’m a big book collector (1800+ volumes & counting) I’ve seen Rand’s books in and around the bookstores I used to frequent, so I decided to pick up copies of her work. The ongoing gags here at BJ about going Galt prompted me to dig her work out of my storage shed and start reading.

    The Fountainhead was at turns extremely dense and grotesque. It wasn’t a joy to read, (like say James Clavell’s Shogun, also dense yet great to pick up and flip through a section) but given Rand’s connection to ongoing events in the world today, it was something to get ahold of sooner or later.

    I asked a while back about the proper reading order for her books and folks were kind enough to point me to the right way. Next up, Atlas Shrugged, but not after a few fluffy military and science fiction novels to lighten up my mind a bit.

  39. 39.

    AnotherBruce

    As I remember, The Fountainhead as understood by dear Ayn, was the hero capitalist industrialist who alone has made the world possible. Without whom civilization would not be possible. Of course it’s bullshit, a real civilization stands on many pillars, and not all of them tied to lucre, but Ayn would have us emotionally, intellectually and of course physically fellate her hero as much as possible.

    I guess it was an important book, as badly written as it was, and as shallow as its ideas were, because that seems to be exactly what we (who is this “we” white man) seem to be doing.

  40. 40.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Good luck with your eyes. I hear you about the oil change, and the cake? Yum!

    The Fountainhead. Ayn Rand wrote the screenplay.

    @robertdsc: Hm. That makes sense. Thanks for the thoughtful reply. To me, I have enough books I want to read that I am not going to struggle through something I know I am going to loathe. I will let others like you read and give me the shorter.

    @SIA: Like I said, we have a foot or two on the ground, but only a measly three or four inches in the last couple weeks. I’m so jealous of the Mid-Atlantic people.

  43. 43.

    AnotherBruce

    Then again, I might have gotten it mixed up with Atlas Shrugged. I think I was trying to impress a Randian girl at the time.

  45. 45.

    asiangrrlMN

    FYWP Part II

    @robertdsc: Hm. That makes sense. Thanks for the thoughtful reply. To me, I have enough books I want to read that I am not going to struggle through something I know I am going to loathe. I will let others like you read and give me the shorter.

    @SIA: Like I said, we have a foot or two on the ground, but only a measly three or four inches in the last couple weeks. I’m so jealous of the Mid-Atlantic people.

  46. 46.

    MikeJ

    Then again, I might have gotten it mixed up with Atlas Shrugged.

    They’ve not yet made a movie of it, but there is yet another attempt underway, with the normally good Charlize Theron. Pray for a meteor strike.

  48. 48.

    Marshall

    Cornish Game Hens don’t need that much time in the oven. So, I’ve never understood the need for a halved one. Hell, if you need to halve it a good knife does the trick just fine.

  49. 49.

    Yutsano

    @SIA: OMG that soundtrack! I guess when you don’t have actual dialogue to drive your movie you have to fill it with something but JEEZ that was terrible!

    @asiangrrlMN: Yeah I think I’m due for some good Dawg time. I’m thinking he’s back being busy or burying folks out of the snow. I dunno, I’ll take an hour. Just an hour.

  50. 50.

    asiangrrlMN

    @J. Michael Neal: I’m not very good at guestimating. Um…let me check…

    OK. I took a tape measurer outside, and by my highly scientific methods, there is an average of a foot and a half of naturally-fallen snow. The piles of shoveled snow reach up to four feet.

    What I am really bitching about is that we have not had a blizzard where we get a foot or two at a time.

    @Yutsano: I hope you mean he’s shoveling them out and not burying them.

  52. 52.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Yeah. Sure. I’ll just go with that. :: whistles innocently ::

    I keed, I keed.

    @Tattoosydney: Buona notte, mi amici! Shall we keep speaking in various random Latin languages for awhile? Fair warning: my Romanian isn’t really up to snuff.

    My orange kitteh is curled up on his box purring contentedly. I’m starting the whole chill out mode, it’s starting to feel good.

  53. 53.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Tattoosydney: Squeeeeeeeee! It’s fake-hubby #1! Missed you, too, babe. Oooh, that cake looks good. How goes it?

    P.S. Did you see that I have another fake-hubby? El Cid. He said I already proposed to him, but I don’t remember that.

    @Yutsano: Awwww, sweet. Nothing better than purring kittehs. Well, few things better.

  55. 55.

    Tattoosydney

    @asiangrrlMN:

    All good (well, aside from the having to go to work bit) – Contemplating new careers, have a sore throat after avoiding illness (mostly) all the way through Asia and Europe, very hot here today (82 degrees in your fahrenheity thing), off to dinner soon. Have many pictures to upload with which I will be tormenting you all.

    How you?

  56. 56.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: It’s not exactly a long hawt night of sex true but as far as things go it’ll do. I really am starting the slow decompress mode. Supposedly I get an answer about the promotion tomorrow but possibly not until Monday. I’ve officially decided to be fatalistic about it, and I might open up another avenue in the company. If not, well, I have been getting the moving itch again. I think it’s inherent in all military children.

  58. 58.

    Tattoosydney

    @Yutsano:

    Shall we keep speaking in various random Latin languages for awhile?

    I can do Portuguese, English and the language of lurve. Beyond that I’ve got one year of primary school French, which is not very helpful unless you need to know what gender a horse would be.

    Our Portuguese teacher was a hoot. She had about fifteen faces signifying “what the fuck are you doing to my beautiful language?” which she could wheel out at will.

  59. 59.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Tattoosydney: Heh. Well, since you were off gallivanting around the world with your REAL hubby and Yuts was pining over his Dawg, what’s a grrl to do? He just swept me off my feet!

    I’m tired. I need to sleep. Sleep, on the other hand, does not need me!

    @Yutsano: Yes. That would be better, but alas. Where would you move? Ever consider the Midwest?

    Bon soir, mes maris. Comme-ce va?

  63. 63.

    Yutsano

    @Tattoosydney: I more or less murder Italian and French. I also happen to sit right in the middle of the vast majority of the español speakers at my work, so I’m more or less absorbing quite a bit just by listening to their calls. I’m slowly getting better. There’s one lady there named Hilda, she’s a riot (she’s also who conned me into making the cake) and every time I try to say something she just giggles and encourages me. I think she’s leading me on.

    Alguns dos meus melhores amigos são hooers.

    I now see how you landed your husband. :)

  65. 65.

    J. Michael Neal

    @asiangrrlMN: You must not have to shovel at your place. No thanks on a couple of feet at a time.

    After saying how healthy Eddie has been in a different thread, I came home to find him hiding under the bed, which usually means he doesn’t feel well. Just hope it’s nothing serious.

  67. 67.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Tattoosydney: I don’t know Portuguese at all, but I understood this perfectly. You said, “but no. It’s a compliment. Some of my best friends are hoors.” Right?

    @J. Michael Neal: Nope. I do not shovel. You are right on that. So, I can take a sybaritic attitude towards snowfall.

    Aw, poor Eddie has had more than his share of trouble in his life, hasn’t he? Keep us updated. Fingers crossed he’s just tired.

  68. 68.

    Yutsano

    @SIA: My father was Navy for 21 years. Long time bull nuke and chief of the boat when he retired. Have a really funny story about how he and my mom went to a movie and she embarrassed him major but it’s a long one. It’s gonna kill him when he finally meets the Dawg.

  71. 71.

    Tattoosydney

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Right?

    Sim, verdade. If you know a little French or Italian and a lot of English, you can usually work out Portuguese. Of course if you know Spanish you pretty much change the endings and every y to an e and there you are.

    We learned swear words in Portuguese that might come in handy:

    “Vai a merda” is literally “go to shit” but used as “fuck off”

    “Vai tomar no cu” is literally “go take it in the arse” but is also a “fuck off”

    ETA: Whore is, of course, puta.

  72. 72.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Are you saying you’re easy again? Sheesh woman, you’re like the Energizer Bunny sometimes! I kinda like it!

    @Tattoosydney: That is one of the drawbacks to Japanese. There are really only a few curse words. “baka” means idiot (which in intelligence-consicous Japan makes sense as a curse) and “bakayaro” means basically asshole. There’s a word for bitch (which means loose woman more than anything) but I can never remember it. That may not be a bad thing come to think of it.

  74. 74.

    Tattoosydney

    @Yutsano:

    I was always told the Japanese word for thankyou – origato – was a bastardised form of the Portuguese “obrigado”, but the wikilord tells me this is false. Interestingly however, there seem to be quite a few words of Portuguese origin in Japanese.

  76. 76.

    Yutsano

    @Tattoosydney: The link between Portugal and Japan is one of the oldest East-West links. There are a few words of Dutch origin as well (they more or less took over Japanese-European trade after the Portuguese showed themselves more interested in souls than goods) and of course after WWII a huge flood of English words and phrases. In fact, flipping someone off is considered a cute Americanism instead of a grave insult in Japan.

  77. 77.

    J. Michael Neal

    Okay, Australia’s all out for 225. Now the West Indies have at least a shot at chasing them down. Chris Gayle needs to have a big innings finally. C’mon, Chris.

  78. 78.

    J. Michael Neal

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I like learning the swear words first thing. Helps you blend in with the crowd.

    No, no. When going to a foreign country, the two most important things to know are how to order a beer, and how to find the bathrooms.

  79. 79.

    Yutsano

    @J. Michael Neal: Biiru o kudasai! O-tearai wa doko desu ka? There, now y’all can travel to Nihon safely.

    By the by I may haz to get me some mini chickens now cause it’s been awhile since I made a good Cornish game hen. I could also get lazy and say screw it and not cook all my days off.

  80. 80.

    asiangrrlMN

    @J. Michael Neal: I actually agree on the bathroom thing. The problem is, if you say the phrase in perfect _______ (insert language of country you are visiting), then expect the answer to be rattled off to you in a rapid fashion. That happened to me in Taiwan and China when I did my semester in Asia. I was then forced to ask for the answer in English.

    I don’t drink beer, so I have no use for that phrase.

    And now, I’m outie. Night, bitchez. Be well.

  82. 82.

    Yutsano

    @Tattoosydney: Yeah, that’s not too far off in Spanish, although they drop the casa part and just do baño. Well at least among the Mexicanos I know.

    And I fear I must dash off as well. Early appointment in the morning. Ciao a tutti!

  84. 84.

    JK

    Bon Appetit!

    An Intellectual History of Cannibalism
    Catalin Avramescu
    Translated by Alistair Ian Blyth

    “This book is a true banquet, a lavish succession of courses making up a real blowout of facts and references, some spicy, some less so, all served up with delicious side dishes and copious drafts of heady intellectual wine. A few readers may find the whole meal a little more filling than they might have wished, but it is certainly a major scholarly feast.”–Simon Blackburn, Times Higher Education

    h/t http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8927.html

  85. 85.

    aimai

    I think we are making:

    Duck Breasts with a dried cherry/pomegranate sauce
    Roasted carrots with cumin
    polenta with corn and cheese
    sauteed escarole

    fennel/lemon salad

    chocolate budino (warm melty chocolate cakes) or home made chocolate truffles shaped like hedgehogs

    aimai

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