The family took a break from cooking new dishes. Logan continued to cook twice a week, re-doing the recipes he was taught and perfecting them. The days in between were officially cheat days. Tired of cooking and baking everyday, we decided to support the restaurants in our community by ordering take out. It was a good three weeks of Tom framing and putting up a wall in the basement to make an enclosed office space for himself. He and the boys were also busy making me a new backyard garden bed and vegetable garden box, measuring, cutting, shoveling and hauling 8 yards of dirt.

While they did this for me, I gathered perennials at the local garden centres and binge watched Showtime’s “The Affair” (super comfy under a blanket with my hubby’s hoodie during the rainy chilly 2 weeks we experienced before it got super hot.

On our  hiatus from cooking, Hubby and I also went for walks and checked out the moon during the month of Ramadan. Having grown up in the Caribbean where we celebrate every culture that makes up the populations of the islands, I hadn’t really been as aware of the various cultural and religious holidays as I used to be since moving to Canada 32 years ago. But now, even in the smaller communities, people (including me) are more aware of the different cultural celebrations now that Canada is more diverse. This is a good thing. Canada isn’t perfect and we are not untainted by racial discrimination and other social problems, but Canadians as a whole, try to do better and try to evolve and this makes me very proud and comfortable living here.

Anyhow… when food was made at home during this time of hiatus, it was quick and simple with nothing left over. Here is one of the meals we made that was super quick and easy:-

Lemon Pepper Chicken

For this meal, I handed Logan a bag of thawed chicken thighs and told him to make dinner for the family. Chicken thighs are great because they are cheaper and even cheaper still if they are bone with skin on. If you aren’t roasting or frying the thighs maybe you will want the skinless boneless option but either way, its a great alternative to chicken breasts which are a drier meat and more expensive.

Logan seasoned the thighs with lemon juice of 1/2 a large lemon and lemon pepper seasoning. The lemon pepper seasoning I buy also has salt in it so make sure you read the label before you add more seasonings. Logan likes using onion, garlic, chives, basil, tarragon, parsley and thyme to season meat. With all the herb plants transplanted into the garden, everything but the onions was fresh picked. He brushed the baking dish lightly with olive oil and poured melted garlic butter over the chicken thighs and baked covered with foil at first (15 minutes), then he placed lemon slices and lemon zest upon each thigh and continued to bake them at 350 for 8 -10 minutes.

While the chicken was in the oven, he grabbed one of the Uncle Ben’s Wild rice instant dishes which microwave in 90 seconds and are a worthy side dish when you are in a hurry. We also had some corn hanging around in the fridge so he figured he’d boil them and use them as a side to complete the meal.

He mixed up some lime juice and voila (or wah-la as he used to say when he was little), dinner was served. Quick. Easy. Delicious. Da Boy Can Cook!