Roast Garlic Chicken with Preserved Lemons

I love it when odd items come together unexpectedly and perfectly. We have some garlic from our farm trip that we need to use up; our actual bulbs we'll plant in the fall, but at harvest time a few of the heads were starting to rot so we gleaned the viable cloves to take home. Then, we also have those preserved lemons I tried my hand at earlier this year. Add that to a whole chicken to roast, a rare occasion for us flexitarians in any case, and anticipation for our dinner is high!

The lemons are very salty, usually they have to be rinsed well to even be edible in other dishes -- but I figured putting them in the cavity of a roast chicken would be perfect. And I had probably 8 or more cloves of garlic, so they're stuffed willy-nilly under the skin, inside the body with the lemons, and anywhere else I could squeeze them. A small bunch of fresh parsley that was also languishing in my fridge went in as well, and our oven is now doing its magic.

We'll be cooking our first homegrown kale harvest along with some mashed potatoes and gravy as sides. I can't wait.