Chicken and Fennel

I made this recipe from the food network for Chicken and Fennel. I did not make the couscous, but thawed some rice I had frozen...who knew you could freeze rice. I had made too too much in a previous week. It came out OK, the rice. I REALLY like the chicken!!

But I usually like anything with sauteed onions.

This was fun because you kinda saute everything and brown up the chicken, THEN bake in the oven.

I served it with baby Lima beans and rice. Don't worry, no one at that much. I just kept adding for the picture?

Fresh Fennel Salad with Mint

This was a good one. Not great, but pretty good. Unfortuately, I was out of oranges, so I just made a regular balsalmic instead of an orange basalmic. But it was a good combo of the fennel, mint, and basalmic.

I have half a bulb of fennel left, not sure if I will get something else made my June 1st. We will see!

Potato-Fennel Gratin

Hey-O!! I made this super unhealthy recipe of potatoes and fennel and onions and Gruyere. It was delicious. I was so interested in this challenge because I was hoping for a fennel salad recipe. I don't think I have ever had one before...

I was particularly excited that my husband liked it because he has not enjoyed previous fennel attempts. Perhaps it was all the cream and cheese!!

Potato, Fennel, and Tempeh Bacon Pizza

I am a little behind in my fennel postings. This is mainly due to my inability to locate fennel in most of my local grocery stores. Luckily, I finally found some and loaded up.

I made this pizza yesterday and this was not the fennel recipe I intended to make. I intended to use it to make a fennel salad with a tofu ricotta pizza and was flipping through my copy of Vegan with a vegence when I saw the potato and fennel pizza. I thought to myself...hmmmmm....two birds...one stone....why not? The original recipe actually called for tempeh sausage. Tempeh has really grown on me. I make a batch of tempeh bacon and use it to make sandwiches the rest of the week. Decided to use this pre-made bacon instead of the sausage. I made the pizza dough using 2/3 bread flour and 1/3 whole wheat flour in my bread machine. I have struggle with my vegan pizzas...not sure why. I think I need another pizza stone. Any way, after making the dough, rolled it out and topped it with some tomato sauce. I then topped it with thinly sliced potatoes and then sprinkled the thinly sliced fennel and the crumbled tempeh bacon on top. I baked this pizza at 425 for about 20 minutes. This was SO GOOD. I really loved the potatoes like this. Yes, the potatoes did cook all the way! I was very concerned and debated cooking them a bit before hand, but it turned out fine. The only issue was because I had pre-chopping my veggies during naptime, they had browned a bit by dinner time. I had my neighbor over for dinner and she only ate the vegan pizza, and for the first time, my husband had a slice of vegan pizza and not just the cheese I make for the kids. Unfortuately, the success of this pizza was due the potatoes, not necessarily the fennel, but it still counts, right?

Roasted Fennel and Ricotta Gratins with Tarragon...sort of

I found this recipe through cookinglight.com, and decided it looked like something that I could actually do. Well, I mostly did it...had to do some modifications.

I have no gratin dishes or ramekins. (Gasp!) I went to the local big-box store, and they didn't carry them. So I got some little glass dishes, but ended up returning them because they were too big. Oh, well. I also happened to have bread crumbs on-hand, and I'd read where someone else had used those instead of making their own. And I had no tarragon. I did have Ricotta cheese on hand.

So here are my modifications to a recipe that I'd never done with the main ingredient being one that I've never used:
~I used store-bought Ricotta cheese.
~I used pre-made Italian seasoned bread crumbs.
~I didn't use tarragon.
~I did the recipe in a mid-size casserole dish.

So I guess that instead of making "Roasted Fennel and Ricotta Gratins with Tarragon", I made Roasted Fennel and Ricotta Casserole.

It was interesting. I think I liked the flavor, but it was kind of hard to tell over all of the bread crumbs. I think if I make it again (which I probably will), I will double up on the main part of the recipe (so 4 bulbs instead of 2 and twice the ricotta) if doing it in the casserole dish. And I would only use enough bread crumbs to thinly cover it. (It called for 3/4 cup crumbs, so that's how much I used since I couldn't put 2Tbsp on each gratin, and it was WAY too much, which is why I was having trouble with tasting it.) I'll probably also try to use coarser crumbs, so if I don't make my own, maybe use stuffing?

served with chicken/zucchini/pasta

close up... see? all you can see is bread crumbs!

Easy Caramelized Onion and Fennel Tart

I think I am a sucker for anything on a puffed pastry. It is so easy and looks so fancy. However, I feel like I am also disappointed in the taste. Oh well. Used this recipe as a base, but I have a confession. I am a foodie. I cannot caramelize onions to save my life. I have tried over and over, so I found the best way to do them is the crock pot. Simply slice up a bunch of onions and put in crock pot. Top with butter (or maragarine) and cook on low for 24 hours.



Your house may get a little smelly at this point, but ta-da! Caramelized onions!



Back to the recipe, so I sauted the fennel until browned, then added the onions and then topped the pastry with them. It was pretty good, but I probably wouldn't make it again.

Ingredient Challenge: Fennel

This was my sister's idea. Let's share recipes that use fennel!

And just to let you know, the June challenge will be our traditional "cook from this blog - blogaversary challenge" and July will be our farmers market challenge.