Ick. And fennel. Not necessarily related.

I ended up not running yesterday either. It just seemed prudent to remain near the facilities, and I apologize if that's TMI.

Got a LOTTA rest yesterday and slept very well last night and am hoping this is the end of it. Being sick at the end of four days away from home means there's a lot of catching up to do. The laundry – including bed and bath linens – is all done, thank goodness, and that's a big deal. It was pretty yesterday so I dried the sheets outdoors and they smell so delicious.

Am having a sensible and small breakfast of a banana with plain yogurt sprinkled with cinnamon. We're attending a pig roast for lunch, but I doubt if I indulge.

I dreamed about fennel last night.

Somehow or another, one fennel bulb has grown to maturity in the herb bed. There's an open packet of fennel seed in the seed box, but I don't remember planting any and if I did I would have planted it in the big garden, not with the herbs. Perhaps a bird dropped it, or the wind carried it from somewhere else.

At any rate, it's mature and I've picked it. Now to figure out what to do with it. I've never eaten fresh fennel before, and only occasionally added fennel seed to various recipes. Roasting appears to be a popular method of preparation, but I'm also thinking of making this salad.

My dreams were one cooking session after another, as if I were watching a fennel marathon on the Food Channel. Very weird. Pinterest has quite a variety of ideas, and I have several vegetable and/or vegetarian cookbooks on the shelf for inspiration. If any of you have a favorite fennel recipe, please leave a link in the comments!

It appears that fennel seed is good for digestion. Here's hoping the vegetable has similar properties and I can be done, done, done with feeling icky.