Done/Relishing

Boring sad intro: I have found the end of another tether. Not sure why, though being very tired definitely has a part to play (like, physically exhausted; if I was in any way coughing/lacking sense of smell/feverish I'd be assuming the worst right now, but I'm not any of those), as does hacking through a holiday inbox first thing (one whole day off, mea culpa) before doing the shopping run for my folks and then living on Zoom all afternoon, and then making some tedious discoveries about shared bin etiquette fails (not to be cleared for another week). And, you know. *everything else*, which I think is the real problem. Frustrated, angry, tired, worried. You name it.

Cheerful food bit: So it's a good thing I did an old fave today, a reliably excellent chicken dish with a relish so punchy it could take out a 2m-distancing transgressor. It does want marinading, but that mix takes about 2 minutes to prep, and the dish is otherwise a 10 minute cook. Which is perfect if you had every minute from 7.15am to 6pm scheduled. (I... I'm sure that used to be my usual life? Why is it so hard now?)

Chicken: ideally boneless thighs, marinaded in (for four thighs): 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp cumin, some paprika and chili, oil, 2 crushed cloves garlic. You can leave this marinading overnight but a couple of hours is fine if you only remembered this after lunch.

Cook them on the hob, frying about 2 mins each side on medium high, and an extra 4 mins lower heat to finish. The amount of fat in the pan afterwards will be slightly horrifying, but dispose of it neatly and pretend not to have noticed.

Relish: take pitted green olives and slice. Add lots of chopped coriander and less than half as much chopped mint, and chopped garlic. Add seasoning, lemon juice, oil, and ideally white balsamic (or more lemon, or other sharp thing of your taste, but white balsamic is quite gentle). Literally just mix and serve. (Don't season this, the olives will be plenty of salt.)

Great to have with tomato salad, and pita bread, or anything else that won't take more than a minute to sort. Genuinely nice.