Spiced Spatchcoked Cornish Game Hens (Ground 2 Table Sponsored Post) ... and a mea culpa

This post is sponsored by Ground 2 Table, though the views expressed herein are entirely my own

 I suck. That's not really the recommended way to begin a sponsored post, but the fact is I am shockingly late in posting this. The Ground 2 Table people contancted me months - months! - ago and I dutifully promised that I would post about their product (though I did not make any promises as to what I would say) in exchange for product samples.

And I made a lovely roast chicken with the fresh single-use packet of herbs they sent me. And it was very pretty and the herbs were lovely and ...

... and then .. my camera acted funny. (To be technical.) The photos just weren't crisp and I wasn't happy with it at all. And then  I thought I fixed the problem .. but as it turns out I didn't.  And I offered my apologies and said I'd get right on it. And then .. days turned into weeks turned into months of me feeling guilty and pouting about my camera.

And then of course I had to spend an inordinate amount of time feeling too guilty to even write to the nice woman frm Ground 2 Table and apologize .. and then I remembered: I have an old iPhone. And it takes pretty kickass photos.

And so here we are. Far too much time had elapsed in the interim for me to use the fresh herb packets, so I went with one of the oodles of dried herbs they sent me:

I had a lot of fun opening and smelling these packets to choose the right one for my Cornish game hens - I went a little nuts and used the fish, rather than the poultry blend, as I thought the citrus and garlic would play nicely with my chicken-stock-and soy-sauce braised baby bok choi. And I was right.

The deal behind these little packets is that you open one, you use it all, and you don't end up with a cupboard full of spices that are slowly but surely hermorrhaging flavor. One packet was just enough to rub all over my two little hens, along with some butter, salt, and pepper. I spatchcoked them (cut out the spine and smashed them flat) to aid in even cooking, plopped a slice of lemon on top of the herb/butter rub, and baked at 400 F for 40 minutes.

Perfect.

Now I just wish that life always went as perfectly as the cooking of these hens did, and that I have regained at least a fraction of my blog karma. Sorry Ground 2 Table! I hope it was worth the wait.