Food Challenge

Well, I am finally writing about our New Food Night from last week.  Remember, I had my hand wrapped up?  One handed typing is for the birds!  Do you also remember me telling you that our New Food Night for last week would involve a challenge?

One word --- FENNEL

Gary challenged Miss Annette to use fennel in some form. It was her choice what she made with it. Just let him know if it was a main dish, salad, dessert - whatever. Then he could decide what else to make.  She told us she was going to be doing an entree. I think fennel looks kind of funny.

We started our meal with a light refreshing salad.  I made a Strawberry Spinach Salad. I took a pint of strawberries and sliced them up. Tossed these with a bag of fresh spinach and small bag of slivered almonds.  The dressing consisted of sugar, olive oil, vinegar, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds. Whisk this together and pour over the salad.

Oh My Gosh!! This was wonderful!  I can see that this may easily become a favorite of mine for the summer.

Now for Miss Annette's entree. She made Pork Loin with roasted onions, carrots and fennel. This was very good. She roasted the vegetables then added the pork loin to the pan. I had never had roasted vegetables before. They were very tasty.  We did agree that the fennel flavor was hard to detect among the roasted vegetables.

Gary opted to make fresh green beans and new potatoes. He put these in the crock pot with some butter, salt, pepper and bacon bits.  This in my opinion can be a meal in itself!

We also had a loaf of French Baguette bread.  Nothing fancy here - just a store bought  loaf of bread. Sure was good - but then I like bread.

Mr. Rick brought dessert. Earthquake Cake!

This was a layered yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Now I don't know how noticeable it is in the picture but the cake tilts to one side - meaning the cake is higher on one side than the other. This is why it is known as an Earthquake Cake. These have become quite common in Oklahoma as we have become 'accustomed' to earthquakes.  It does not affect the taste of the cake to any degree. I might add that Earthquake Cake can be any flavor - it does not have to be a yellow cake.

 It was brought to our attention that no where on the cake box does it tell you how many layers the box will make.  We decided it was just a given that one box would make two layers.

There you have it - our first challenge meal!  It was a success!  And the challenge has now been issued to Gary.

I think that I am going to have to take some lessons from my friend who writes a food blog on how to photograph food. Her food pictures look better than mine. Check her out: www.accidentalhappybaker.com