How’s everyone doing tonight? For me, today I felt hungover from the news, from watching so little consequences fall on terrible, White bodies. I don’t know why I watched snippets from the Jim Crow Caucus, and I don’t know why I watched Cheeto Hitler tell White supremacists that he loved them. But I’m feeling like that’s the last time for me on that criminal turd from hell.

It was so hard to believe that the Jim Crow Caucus continued with their hot turd of a cynical action AFTER the insurrection. I luckily went into my meeting with my sacred Power Circle, a writers group I will be writing about soon. We laughed at how adorable it was that I was going to post my friend’s wonderful fennel & apples salad.

This morning, as my kid pushed new boundaries around attending home school and cried under the dining room table because he’d been caught with LEGO, I got up and went into the kitchen to just chop the fuck out of some vegetables. The CSA hauls had piled up to about two weeks' worth of seasonal veggies, and I needed some drooling time, a thing I've come to value highly over the past year, and another thing I will be writing about.

And so, here's the goddamned salad, with so much gratitude to Dena, who is my friend in health, humor, and spiritual strength. I love you, Dena!

Dena’s Fennel Apple Salad

We used to get lovely fresh fennel bulbs in our very, very hippie FSA that was delivered by a man on a bicycle, and we always grilled it. It’s delicious that way, so I have never done anything else with it. I had kind of forgotten about it until my friend Dena raved about the salad that was making her feel great as her family adjusted to new dietary restrictions.

• Fennel bulbs and seeds are highly nutritious, and the pleasing crunch of the bulb and stalks is delightful in salads.
• Apples are another superfood.
• Ginger ginger ginger. Fuuuuuucking love ginger root. It’s just on our grocery list every time now.
• Lemon zest.
• Pomegranate.
• Salt & Pepper to taste.
• Optional- bits of the fronds, 5-spice, Garam Masala, bacon…🤤 🤤 🤤

What to do with the leftover fennel fronds?

Don’t toss ‘em! Google search “fennel frond pesto,” it is amazing.

And, lastly, stay tender, find time to drool (be careful if drooling while chopping veggies!) and love each other.