Lemon & Herb Roasted Chicken Thighs

Sometimes you have all these plans.  A planner full of play dates, a menu full of meals, jobs scheduled, volunteer hours to complete.  Sometimes, instead of any of these things happening, you spend the night in the emergency room with a very sick child instead.

All those plans? All that preparation?  It goes out the window when your daughter's fever spikes up to 105 degrees.  And sometimes you feel like the most helpless person in the world.  For as much Tylenol, Motrin and mom cuddles that you give, nothing helps.

Last week was like that for me and my family.  On Monday the secretary from Lily Claire's school called and said she wasn't feeling well.  I went and picked her up early and could tell she was sick. She was running a temperature and seemed pretty miserable.  Tuesday wasn't any better.  By Wednesday I was starting to get worried and we went to the doctor.  She did a few tests, but seem to think Lily Claire had a virus.  Thursday evening her fever was at 104 and we couldn't get it to come down.  We decided to take her to the ER.  They took it very seriously and started running tests immediately.  Chest x-ray, blood cultures... All inconclusive, the only thing we all agreed on was Lily Claire was a sick little girl.

Friday Lily was seen by another doctor who ordered more lab work.  She suspected Lily Claire had the Epstein Barr virus (also commonly called mono).  Friday evening Lily Claire's fever reached 105 degrees.  As a mother I've never been so worried.

We were so tired on Friday, hadn't slept well in days... The dogs had barely gotten any attention all week.  With an 8 month old lab puppy that is a recipe for disaster.  And so when we woke up on Saturday morning and discovered Lily Claire's beloved doll, Sara had been literally "gutted" by River we were distraught.

In complete and utter panic mode, I texted my friend Gina who is a seamstress and costume designer. I asked for a miracle, but was pretty certain that Sara was not going to survive.

When your child is sick you would go to the moon and back to give them what they want.  Sara was something I could not fix.

Thank God there are angels out there, because Gina fixed Sara.  She stuffed her full of original stuffing and used a favorite old shirt of Lily Claire's to make her dress.  She sewed new arms and cut new hair and she used Sara's original face.

My little girl has her sweet Sara back.  Lily Claire is feeling better.  We are on the road to recovery after 8 days of fevers between 101-105 degrees.  With the exception of a few hours, when she was getting repaired, Sara has been by her side every minute.  We still don't know what caused Lily Claire to get sick.  Her blood work indicated that there could be an underlying auto-immune issue.  It could have just been a bad virus.  I'm not sure we'll ever really know.

But I do know, without the kindness and artistry of a very dear friend, my Lily would be heartbroken.

Gina's having dinner on me tonight.  There's nothing I can do to repay her kindness, but cooking is what I am good at and it comes right from my heart, the same way fixing Sara came from her's.

Ingredients:

6 chicken thighs, patted dry (bone in skin on)
1 fennel bulb cut into chunks
1 head of garlic, removed from the head, skins still on cloves
2 lemons sliced
handful of fresh thyme
olive oil
salt & pepper
fresh parsley for garnish

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Heat a cast iron skillet over high heat for 3-4 minutes.  Add a couple tables spoons of olive oil.  Season your chicken liberally with salt and pepper and place skin side down in the skillet.  Brown for about 5 minutes, then turn to the other side and brown for 5 more minutes.  Add the fennel and lemon and top with the thyme.  Place in the oven and continue to cook for about 35-40 more minutes.  Top with fresh parsley and enjoy!