By Last week of kindergarten for Mason. He brought home a folder full of the year's work — drawings, writing exercises, math worksheets — and we sat on the couch and went through it together. The first drawing, from September, is a house with four stick figures (still no Daddy — or maybe Daddy is the small figure near the edge, I can't tell and I don't ask). The last drawing, from May, is a detailed picture of a dinosaur skeleton with labeled bones, some of which are accurate and some of which he invented. The distance between those two drawings is a year of growth, a year of change, a year in which his mother had cancer and his parents' marriage died and the world kept turning and he kept drawing.
He got a certificate: "Mason Wilder — Outstanding Reader." He held it up with both hands and grinned, and the gap where his teeth used to be made the grin enormous and ridiculous and perfect. I photographed it. I photographed everything. I am a woman who almost didn't get to see kindergarten end, and I am documenting every second with the fervor of someone who knows that time is not guaranteed.
Scott's first deployment of the season came Thursday. Fire in the Boise National Forest. He packed his bag and kissed the kids and didn't kiss me and drove away, and the house shifted into solo-parenting mode with the ease of something well-practiced. I know this drill. I am good at this drill. The drill is: get up, get kids, get through, get dinner, get them to bed, get through the night. The drill is manageable. The drill is not the problem. The problem is that the drill is my whole life, and it shouldn't be, and I am starting to think it always will be.
Brett and Claire officially moved in together. They found a ground-floor apartment in the North End with wide doorways and a roll-in shower and a small yard for Claire's garden. Brett called me from the apartment, surrounded by boxes, and said, "I live with a woman. Voluntarily. Who am I?" and I said, "You're happy," and he said, "Yeah. I am. It's weird," and I laughed and he laughed, and his laughter sounded different than usual — lighter, less guarded, the laughter of a man who has found someone who sees him as he is and stayed anyway.
I made a big sheet pan dinner — lemon herb chicken thighs with roasted vegetables. One pan, thirty minutes, minimal cleanup. Solo-parenting food. The kind of meal that gets dinner on the table without requiring the cook to also be a philosopher or an artist. Sometimes dinner is just fuel. Sometimes fuel is enough. Sometimes the sheet pan is the hero and the cook is just the person who turned on the oven and got out of the way.
Scott was barely out of the driveway before I was pulling chicken thighs out of the freezer — not because I had a plan, but because chicken thighs are always the plan when it’s just me. This garlic mushroom version has become my go-to on deployment nights: everything onto one pan, into a hot oven, and I get thirty minutes to help with bath time before dinner is ready. The sheet pan does the heavy lifting. I just show up and turn on the oven, and somehow that’s always enough.
Garlic Mushroom Chicken Thighs (Sheet Pan)
Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 lbs)
- 8 oz cremini or baby bella mushrooms, halved
- 1 lb baby potatoes, halved
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (for serving)
Instructions
- Preheat. Heat oven to 425°F. Line a large rimmed sheet pan with foil or parchment for easy cleanup.
- Season the chicken. Pat chicken thighs dry with paper towels. In a small bowl, stir together garlic, 2 tablespoons olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, thyme, oregano, paprika, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Rub the mixture all over the chicken thighs, getting under the skin where you can.
- Prep the vegetables. Toss potatoes, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer on the sheet pan.
- Arrange and roast. Nestle the seasoned chicken thighs skin-side up on top of and around the vegetables. Transfer to the oven and roast for 28–32 minutes, until the chicken skin is golden and crispy and an instant-read thermometer reads 165°F at the thickest part.
- Rest and serve. Let the pan rest 5 minutes before serving. Scatter fresh parsley over everything and serve directly from the pan.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 390 | Protein: 33g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 16g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 510mg