Fennel Vegetable Stew with Polenta Rounds, and Roasted Plums

The next recipe in my cookbook called for fennel, and I have to admit I had to run a Google image search to figure out what exactly I was looking for in the grocery store. This:



What kind of a vegetable with a bad hair day is that? I also had to look up how to prepare it - turns out the bulb is the main part for the stew, you can eat the stalks like celery sticks, and the feathery stuff you dice for spice flavoring. This is a very hardworking multi-purpose vegetable, readers.

Prepared in a stew such as:



It becomes very tasty. Pair it with toasted polenta rounds:



And serve with a sprinkling of goat's cheese:



And it becomes delicious!

For dessert, roasted plums in a few tablespoons of brown sugar, with cool whip (or whatever ridiculous overpriced organic "whip" Whole Foods sells - how in the world do you even make cool whip organic?):