Adventures in Cooking

Or should I say, adventures in shopping before cooking! I was in Superstore today and cruising through the produce section on a mission for red peppers and cucumber. That was it, that was all I wanted... And then I saw it... a vegetable I had seen on a cooking show... fennel. The siren call of the fennel pulled me over and stood looking at it... turning it this way and that, wondering... could I cook this?? I looked for the price, but in Superstore, they just have a long horizontal line of prices above the produce cooler... which means you actually have to know what you have in your hand to figure out a price. Was this fennel? There was no Fennel listed, only Anise. Was this anise? I didn't think so... but what else could it be??

There was also something which looked very much like celery root and I had a vague memory swirl up of a celery remoulade, a dish that my grandfather actually drooled over... Hmm... I put the fennel/anise back and picked up the celery root... could I cook this???

My culinary buttons have been pushed and I am intrigued by these two things... but I decide not to buy them, preferring to go home and research recipes first... And yes, Fennel is Anise... go figure.... Anyhow... I have a little clump of recipes printed off and I'm thinking that I might do some adventures in cooking this weekend. Last year it was artichokes and eggplant.... this year... celery root and fennel!!