I'm so bad at this

The project fell apart around my birthday and hasn't really gotten back on track. I still intend to do 52 new vegetables, but I may have to double up a couple of recipes. Since my last post, I've added butternut squash and fennel to the list. I love both of these. I've eaten them before, but I had never cooked with them. Squash always seems labor intensive. I grew my own pumpkin a few years ago, to make my own pumpkin puree and found the process sort of tedious. I've been scared of butternut because of it, but man is roasted butternut delicious. I roasted more butternut squash than the recipe called for, but it's great finger food to eat while waiting for the risotto to finish. I finished off the butternut squash risotto with brown-butter sage leaves and parm.



Fennel always looked imposing. Bulb, stalk, fronds, there seemed like a steep learning curve to cook fennel. Really, though, it's very easy. I'm sad I was so threatened by it. I love fennel with apple, sort of like cabbage, so I created my own recipe inspired by german potato salad and served it with pork chops. I just sauteed fennel, apples, and onions with butter (thickened with flour) and deglazed the pan with apple cider vinegar. I served this gravy/sauerkraut-ish dish over mashed potatoes and with broiled pork chops. It tasted fantastic, but the dish is brown on brown and none of my 15 pictures really looked pretty. So, by count I've done 8 veggies. I will need to do 44 more this year. I'm on it. I found a recipe for radish and watercress sandwiches which would knock out two veggies and probably be delicious.



I'm still working on my other resolutions. I've been reading a lot of non-fiction (thanks denver library ebooks). I still need to eat mussels, and I've joined an adult kickball league in an attempt to be more outgoing. I've fallen behind in my quest to be a better me, but I haven't scrapped the plan entirely. I guess this is my second wind.