What a Jerk!

I find it really difficult to find small quantities of chicken legs, so I was forced into having a few friends over for barbecue tonight. I love that chicken legs are so incredibly cheap, come with their own stick and are loaded with dark meat, which I've always preferred to white. The only time I've ever made jerk chicken is with a commercially prepared marinade, so I was impressed when the recipe I found for Jerk Chicken Legs not only looked like a jerk chicken marinade, but tasted like a jerk chicken marinade. I was a little apprehensive about the spices and held back on the peppers, but in hindsight I probably could've gone with Scotch bonnet or habanero over the jalapenos and not have been hated too much. My only complaint is that I didn't make enough marinade to baste the chicken with afterwards and they could've had a bit more sauce, but since they marinated overnight the flavor infused a fair amount into the meat and it worked really well on the grill.

As I've probably mentioned, Shannon absolutely hates okra. I've only made it once and I did the bad mom method (boiled it to death) that makes kids hate vegetables. This resulted in slimy, seedy goblin fingers that weren't the least bit edible and we'd sworn off of it for over a year. I decided to be fair and give them at least one more chance since they're completely disguised and edible in gumbo and it sort of worked with the theme. Jamaican Plantain and Okra was better than previous plantain dishes and the okra was actually quite good. Shannon wasn't here to eat it though and probably wouldn't have if she were. I think the spiciness helped to mask any flavor that okra might actually have, but I'm going to have to give it yet another shot now.

Somewhat as another excuse to repeat Coconut Rice again, I made Jamaican Beans and Rice because a friend of mine was talking about an Indian buffet she went to that had a creamy rice dish that I figured was just rice cooked in curried coconut milk. Well, apparently I was totally wrong because she didn't dig this at all. It was essentially like the coconut rice I know and love with beans in it though, so I loved every delicious minute of it.

To bring in more typical barbecue fare I made a Caribbean Summer Slaw to try and compensate for the lack of barbecue salads. Everyone said that they really liked this and I thought it was a nice blend of veggies with a refreshing citrus sort of dressing. To finish it all off I brewed a couple pitchers of Lemon Iced Tea, of which only a single glass was drank because, hey, we had beer.