It's almost springtime! Really!

Hi Folks, I know I kind of fell down the rabbit hole a while back. But now I am back in action., honestly, I don't know why I started this silly blog. It was a whim. But now I feel sort of obligated to at least post something once in a while. So here goes: my mom gave me her slow cooker a while back, and I've been experimenting w/various recipes. I made a sort of Indian style chicken w/butternut squash, onions, chicken thighs, and biryani spices, a splash of sherry, and it was goood! Last night I made some roasted fennel, and I must say, it was tasty. I just tossed the sliced fennel w/lots of garlic, some ground coriander seeds, a few anchovies, and nice olive oil. Roasted it for a couple of hours on 300 degrees, and served it w/crabcakes, and some nice beet salad. For those of you who like beets, and you know who you are, take about 2 lbs of beets, roast them, covered, until tender, then dice, toss with diced jicama, diced red pepper, and add some salt, pepper, vinegar, oil, and maybe a dash of pomegranate molasses, and some torn cilantro leaves, and you're done. My friends liked it, it had a nice texture, and it complimented the very rich crabcakes. I will not give a recipe for crabcakes here, because you have to try really hard to screw them up. For people who aren't used to making them, just follow the recipe on the can, OK? All you need to remember is do not salt them. And don't forget the Old Bay Seasoning. That's very important. As far as other interesting food developments in my world lately, I've been subbing alternatives to wheat flour in my baking, like spelt, brown rice flour, etc. I find that the spelt does best at imitating wheat flour, and rice is a bot too fine and dry for holding together, buckwheat is nice, also. I just like to play around and see how things work together, Which brings to mind one of my favorite kid's movies I've ever seen, Ratatouille, for lots of reasons, visually, it's so much fun. But the most important reason I loved this movie is the message, which is relevant to kids as well as adults, "anyone can learn to cook, all you have to do is be fearless, after all, it's only food. What's the worst thing that can happen? You screw it up, throw it out, and order a pizza!" OK, I know that all wasn't in the movie, but that almost sums up part of my philosophy of cooking, if I even have one. Just have fun, and do not be afraid of the food. It's there for your benefit, after all, right? Enjoy Spring and all its bounty, me, I can't wait to just shed some clothing layers, get back on my bike, and start training for the 5-boro bike tour in May. Maybe it'll inspire me to finally quit these damn cigarettes!