So, yesterday went a different direction than I had planned

Remember yesterday when I said I'd be making citrus chicken if I could find the recipe? I didn't find the recipe. But I already had the chicken thawed, so I took a look in our pantry for ideas. Citrus chicken turned into jerk chicken when I saw we had three (3!!!) jars of jerk paste. Jerk chicken still went with the side I'd planned (more on that later), but I couldn't get the idea of roasted citrus out of my head. I thought it would go with the jerk chicken, and maybe make it brighter. So, to the computer I went!! I found an article about roasting citrus on Epicurious.com (https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/how-to-roast-lemons-oranges-grapefruit-recipe-article) which seemed simple enough. So, I started the meal prep.

I'm usually pretty good at planning sides, but sometimes I get caught up in the moment, and forget to plan them, like when my sisters and brother in law came to visit at the end of last year. Walter and I had planned to make a brisket, but we didn't talk about what sides we were going to have. As he took the brisket out to rest, my sister Karen asked what sides we were having. He told her to ask me (it's usually my job since he's doing the main event). When she asked me, the blank look on my face told her and Alicia I had completely forgotten about it. I looked around the kitchen and found some potatoes, so mashed potatoes it was. Alicia got on the phone and ordered some mac & cheese from a local restaurant, and I think I found something green to cook in the fridge. It all went off well, which it usually does. We laughed all night, enjoyed the impromptu sides, and the amazing brisket!! Now back to last night...

I turned the oven on and went to the fridge. I pulled out a bulb of fennel that we had, and two oranges, two lemons, and two limes. I sliced all of them up and put them on the baking trays. I also saved the fennel tops to put into the other side - potato pancakes! Here's the pictures of the prepped veggies. I will not be showing a picture of the chicken marinating in jerk sauce - no one wants to see raw chicken!

Fennel with lemon olive oil and salt

Sliced citrus

What's left!

For the potato pancakes, I had leftover mashed potatoes and kale we made earlier in the week so those got re-purposed. I turned them out into a bowl and added about a 3/4 of a cup of smoked gouda, about a cup of yogurt (in lieu of other dairy like milk or cream), an egg, and the fronds from the fennel to echo the flavor of the jerk and roasted fennel bulb.

MMMM, potatoes and cheese!!

I realized that I had no idea how long to roast the chicken, so I pulled out my Joy of Cooking. I swear, you can find almost anything in there! So after roasting, pureeing, frying, here's the finished product!

All the things!!!

Those of you with sharp eyes may notice a biscuit on the side of the plate that wasn't in this post. My Auntie Lorraine made biscuits earlier in the week and sent a picture of them. That inspired me to make some biscuits, and there were two so we had them for dinner.

What was good: The potato pancake was amazing - crunchy on the outside, oozy and soft on the inside. The fennel was crisp tender, the chicken had amazing flavor, and the flavor of the citrus relish really did make the flavors come together

What could have been better: The chicken skin wasn't crispy, so next time I'll broil it for a few minutes after it's done cooking. And the citrus relish, well, it did not turn out as I envisioned. The peels got too hard when it was roasted and ruined the mouth feel of the whole thing.

All in all, the meal was good, but it could have been better. I turned the relish into a marmalade that is AMAZING so it turned out to pretty good in the end. We had a pineapple tequila highball with our dinner, which went really well with all the flavors.

That's probably more than enough for today. I'll see you tomorrow - In the meantime, let's all take care of ourselves and each other.