PAN SEARED CORNISH GAME HEN
ATTLEBORO ??? Pan-seared Cornish game hen with cranberry demi-glace is the focal point of a dinner at Attleboro High School Thursday, Oct. 25, the finale to the 2018 NEA Big Read program in the city. This year???s book selection, ???Five Skies,??? revolves around three men living ??? and eating ??? in a camp in the mountains of Idaho while they strive to complete a special project.
Working off that theme, the Culinary Arts Department at the high school has planned a four-course sit-down harvest meal in the Blue Pride Bistro at the school.
Tickets are $10 and available at the Attleboro Public Library. The maximum seating in the Bistro is 70, and the Big Read finale dinner traditionally sells out.
The doors open at 6 and the meal will be served at 6:30 p.m. Attendees need to enter through the door off the traffic circle for B1 Cafeteria.
In accordance with the rural theme of the book, the appetizer will be fried almond-crusted rainbow trout on a bed of baby spinach saut??ed with garlic. It will be served with onion jam and toasted almonds.
The salad will be smoked oyster Caesar salad with roasted red pepper and sun-dried tomato, followed by the game hen entr??e served with cranberry orange salsa and herbed wild rice. The side will be roasted autumn root vegetables with ginger maple butter.
Pumpkin bread pudding is the dessert, and it will be served with the Culinary Arts Department???s own homemade vanilla ice cream topped with caramel sauce. Sparkling apple cider, coffee and tea will be served during the dinner.
Sponsor for the dinner is the Attleboro Rotary Club, which provided a $500 grant. All proceeds from ticket sales will go the AHS culinary program.
Other upcoming NEA Big Read programs include:
Saturday, Oct. 13, 10 a.m.-noon: A fairy house exhibit at the Richardson Nature Preserve off Wilmarth Street. Rain date Oct. 14.
Wednesday, Oct. 17, 7-9 p.m.: Keynote speaker Neil Swidey, author of ???Trapped Under the Sea,??? at Bristol Community College on Field Road.
Saturday, Oct. 20: the YMCA fall festival at the Outdoor Center off Old Colony Road in Norton.
Monday, Oct. 22-Friday, Oct. 26: Massachusetts STEM Week city ??? Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics ??? in the public schools.??
A complete list of the two-month-long celebration of ???Five Skies??? by Ron Carlson can be found at the attleboros1abc.org website or call the Attleboro Public Library at (508)222-0157 for more information.
NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.