Adventures in cookery

I've gotten behind on responding to comments and commenting on my flist due to RL busyness, but I AM going to catch up sometime this week! In the meantime, let me talk to you about fennel. I tried the actual vegetable (did you know it's a vegetable too, and not just an herb only suitable for flavoring? I didn't!), and sauteed, with a pinch of artificial sugar sprinkled over the results, tastes exactly like black/licorice jellybeans in vegetable form. It is deeply weird, but also pretty good.

We're exploring new and different vegetables because we've sort of gone low carb. Well, my mother has, and she's sticking to it the best, but my dad and I are joining her for solidarity and weight-losing purposes. It's actually done interesting and tasty things to our meals. We discovered quinoa, which is like rice but better--still amenable to being flavored by any sauce or spice you care to add, but chewy and firm, which I like in a grain. The other night we had guacamole and salsa over chicken with melted cheese (and today we're going to do basically the same thing, except with black beans instead of chicken). I even got my mother to eat fish, specifically tilapia, with a delicious sauce she made up using key limes, turmeric, garlic, and parsley. Om nom nom!