Failures and triumphs

So some things have NOT gone well and some have.

1) I am having issues with fennel. Fennel is a difficult vegetable for me. I am not finding ways to cook it that are enjoyable. We tried a fennel, bleu cheese, and tomato pizza. Eric didn't slice the fennel thin enough or cook it long enough, but even still, it was just overpowering and gross. I picked it off my pizza.

Then we tried a fennel, escarole, and orange salad. It was incredibly bitter and unpleasant. I couldn't even finish it, and I asked Eric to make me a regular salad. Yuck.

My latest is that today I am making carrot and fennel bread in my new breadmaker. It is mostly carrot and calls for fennel seed, but I am using the leaves instead (they look like dill). I am hoping that it will be tasty. If so, I will post the recipe.

2) We also had issues with the radish chips. So, radishes shrink up when they're cooked, so don't season them too heavily as the seasoning will concentrate. Also, they didn't cook to chip crispness and instead where weird radish soggy things. That didn't so much work either. I'm sure more radishes will come, so we will try again.

3) On the tasty front: today we made devonshire splits with Devon cream and homemade jam. Our new breadmaker also makes jam, so when we ran out we fished out some frozen berries, let them defrost, and then threw 2 cups of them in the breadmaker with 1 cup of sugar and a box of pectin. The jam was awesome, though very sweet. Next time I am buying no sugar pectin. The buns didn't work the first time, there wasn't enough liquid in the mix. When we upped the amounts they turned out perfect. It was 1 1/4 cup vanilla soymilk, 3 cups flour, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, and yeast. Honestly I might have added more sugar to the mix, which wasn't quite as sweet as I expected, and taken it out of the jam. But, all together, a lovely cream tea and a lovely Sunday brunch. 

4) We also had diet root beer and homemade vanilla ice cream floats to use up the last of the ice cream. That was a snack after my terrible and frustrating soccer game.

5) Tonight for dinner we are doing stuffed mushrooms, the red pepper pasta with tomato and basil sauce, and the ever present salad. If they turn out, recipes added.

Photos for the last few entries will get added tonight, I've just gotten lazy.