Friday, February 9, 2018

Fun with fennel

I admit it.  Before today, I had never eaten fennel.  When I saw this beauty last night at Kroger next to a sign that said, "SALE: Organic Fennel 99cents", I couldn't resist.
 It sat on the counter all night while I pondered what to do with it.  This morning, I sliced up the root with some other vegetables and roasted them. 

There's Noah's hand grabbing the roasted vegetables.  They were a delicious breakfast.
Next, I tackled the stalks.  They looked like celery, so I cut them up and put them with our salad for lunch. They added a nice licorice-ish crunch. 

But what to do with those beautiful feathery fronds?  I took one in each hand like a pompom and danced around the kitchen, waving them.  The cats were very interested in that and decided that fennel fronds look like cat toys, so I used them as such.


They all loved playing with the fennel fronds, but when Shadow started gobbling one, I stopped to find out if they're harmful for cats.  It turns out that fennel has no harmful effects on cats.  In fact, it freshens their breath!  So I encouraged all three of them to snack on it.  They all did, but Shadow enjoyed it the most passionately.

I also saved some of the little green feathers to use as a garnish on our salad and roasted vegetables.  In the end, I really enjoyed discovering a new vegetable and used every bit of it.  Definitely 99 cents well spent.

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