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Two things it's not: Anise or a bulb

If ever there was a vegetable dogged by misunderstanding, fresh fennel is it.

Because while it may taste like anise and look like a bulb, it is neither. And don't let the grocery workers who love to label it that way tell you otherwise.

While fennel is a relative of anise, they are separate plants. And while the base of fennel is bulbous, that's a shape, not its plant variety. So now that we've cleared up what fennel isn't, let's focus on what it is.

Fresh fennel resembles a cross between cabbage, celery and dill. The taste is assertively (though not unpleasantly) licorice and sweet. The base of the fennel is round with tightly overlapping pale green leaves. Sprouting out of that are long celery-like stalks topped with fine frilly leaves.

Technically speaking, all parts of the plant are edible, but most people will find the stalks too tough to eat.

My kids and I recently had 30 minutes to undertake a week's worth of grocery shopping before we had to be at baseball practice. This is not unusual. As we ran through the grocery store, each flying in a different direction to gather items on the list, my boys asked me an excellent question. They asked me why I don't buy frozen meals.

We happened to be at Trader Joe's, a store full of frozen items that are labeled organic and appear to be very healthy. They reasoned that if I tossed seven frozen meals in the cart I'd be almost done shopping for the week.

Shopping would have taken mere minutes instead of the hour it usually takes to find all the ingredients, not to mention the time spent unloading the groceries and cooking the meals.

My boys asked a fair question, and one I am guessing most parents have asked themselves when they feel frazzled getting dinner on the table.

Here is my simple answer.

A fresh meal generally supplies more . . .

Monitor board of contributors A Concord man's children gave him the gift of a lifetime: the ability to erase regret Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  Paul plays the Saxophone Paul plays the Saxophone Paul plays the Saxophone

Paul Dallaire grew up in a musical household in Lincoln. His three older sisters took piano lessons from a lady in the neighborhood, and every evening the family gathered around the parlor piano and sang songs together.

In fourth grade, he picked up the trumpet - but only briefly.

"The local band director, Mr. McClure, gave lessons and provided instruments for all the kids to use. I had a trumpet," Dallaire recalls. "About three months into the lessons, Mr. McClure announced that it was time for us to buy our own instruments. It was $50 for a new trumpet. So I went home and told my mom, and she said there was no way we could afford $50 for a new trumpet."

Dallaire would not play another musical instrument for 55 years.

In 2007, his daughter Michelle Branch surprised him with a philosophical question: "Do you have any regrets in your life?"

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Be wary of baseline prices, cost add-ons

If you're thinking of cruising during the 2013 "wave season" (January-March) and haven't booked yet, you're on the cusp of being late. Are you putting off booking because you think last-minute deals will pop up or you're nervous about hidden costs?

Bud and I booked our February 2012 Caribbean cruise about this time last year and just made it under the wire for some of the worthwhile promotions. We hadn't cruised since 2006 and found that the landscape has changed a bit.

Pricing and the industry: Not surprisingly, the principle of supply and demand has an impact on cruise pricing. If you want to go where everybody else is going on the ships that everybody else likes, chances are you'll have to pay. And guess what?

Which is more important, the butterfly or the worm?

Everyone knows worms are beneficial to the garden. They provide nourishment and castings that maintain a healthy soil for growing plants. The absence of worms in your soil is an indication of a troubled ecosystem. The soil is hungry for organic waste: the leaves that fall off the trees, the plants that die and fall to the ground in the ongoing cycle of decomposition.

Gone are the days of fussy sit-down meals, today's caterers are getting creative

I've always been a guest, never a bride, so I can say this objectively: Only airline food has a worse reputation than what's served at weddings. Captive audiences can't be choosy.

While air fare will always be a joke, wedding food is evolving thanks to what might be called "no trend left behind." Five years ago brides could get away with putting their budget before their guests' palates. Now all the innovations changing the way America eats are being adopted by caterers and wedding planners - and happy couples themselves - who are taking cues from food television, the farm-to-table phenomenon, the organic/seasonal/sustainable movement and every other flash in the kitchen.

Even food trucks are rolling up to the fanciest receptions. (Cupcakes, however, are apparently off the table.)

West Bank West Bank town populated by Biblical nice guys

In Nablus, being a Good Samaritan is something locals take literally. That's because some are.

I'm on Mount Gerizim, meeting Samaritan Museum Director Husney Kahen. He's wearing a long traditional robe and rounded hat, his gray eyes shimmering.

"People don't believe that Samaritans exist, that it is a story in the Bible," he says. "People are surprised to find that there are actually such people."

Until visiting the West Bank city of Nablus, once a center of violence during the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israel that broke out in December 2000, I also thought Samaritans were a fable.

Their religion mirrors Judaism, though Samaritans believe Mount Gerizim, rather than Jerusalem, was where the Temple Mount existed and Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac.

Concord More that 15 creators featured in new exhibit

Looking for a different sort of refreshment on a hot summer day? Pop into McGowan Fine Art and check out all the vibrant new work on display.

"We've been joking about it and calling it 'swimming in art' because we've gotten so much artwork in recently," said Sarah Chaffee, gallery director. "We don't normally do a show this time of year but we got in so much artwork, I just thought we really should do a little something to highlight it."

"Summer Selections: New Art in the Gallery," which will run from Tuesday through Aug. 31, features new work by more than 15 artists, several of whom are newcomers to McGowan Fine Art. Chaffee, who is always on the lookout for new artists to represent, said she is thrilled with some of her new finds, including a series of paintings by Craig Stockwell that have been creating a buzz in the art community.

Singer basks in Broadway role

Ricky Martin says Broadway is a monster that requires discipline, concentration and dedication, but Evita's "Che" is feeling so happy and so at home that he can't imagine moving for a while.

"I would love to do Broadway the rest of my life!" Martin told the Associated Press on Tuesday, breaking a months-long silence he subjected himself to in order to preserve his voice.

In an interview at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square, which houses the musical based on the life of Argentina's first lady Eva Peron, Martin said he's never been challenged as much as in the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber spectacle.

Martin has already decided to stay in the Big Apple at least for a while, calling it a "fascinating" and multicultural city for his soon-to-be-4 twins, Matteo and Valentino.

AP: You were born for the stage and certainly for one on Broadway. Any immediate plans to work on other musicals or plays after Evita?

Most kids love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Problem is, this lunchtime staple is high in fat and sugar. So it's time for a remake.

The first step is multigrain or whole wheat bread (make sure the ingredients list includes 100 percent whole wheat flour) instead of white bread. And since even the healthiest of jams and jellies are loaded with sugar, a mixture of all-fruit spread and fresh berries makes a good substitute. Natural, unsweetened peanut butter is the best option, but even that is high in fat. To cut back, bulk the peanut butter up with instant oatmeal to make it stretch further.

PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICH MAKEOVER

1 tablespoon instant oatmeal

3 tablespoons nonfat milk

pinch salt

1 tablespoon natural, unsalted peanut butter

¼ cup chopped fresh berries

2 teaspoons all-fruit spread

2 slices multigrain or whole-wheat bread

Band's film playing for only one night

Asked to characterize Shut Up and Play the Hits, a concert film that documents LCD Soundsystem's final, oft-mythologized show at Madison Square Garden, James Murphy deadpans a television promo.

"Middle-age guy stops band. Pictures at 11."

The film, which plays in theaters for only one night tonight, is a kind of "The Last Waltz" for a new generation: an adored band going out with a self-induced, possibly premature bang. But it's also, as the filmmakers Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace say, "a character study" of Murphy, whose decision to end LCD Soundsystem is as curious to the man who made it as it is to anybody.

New Batman film on tap next week

With Batman lurking, the prehistoric critters of Ice Age: Continental Drift ran off with the box office, earning $46 million in their opening weekend, according to studio estimates yesterday.

The animated film from 20th Century Fox is the fourth in the Ice Age series and the first in 3-D. The North America performance of Continental Drift was on par with previous Ice Age movies but well below the opening weekend of the second installment, The Meltdown, which opened with $68 million in 2006.

There has now been a decade of Ice Age films, allowing the characters voiced by Ray Romano, Queen Latifah and John Leguizamo to become increasingly familiar to audiences, particularly international ones. The film had already done robust overseas business ahead of opening in the U.S. This weekend it earned $95 million internationally, bringing its overseas total to $339 million.

Couple plans to move from home they built together in 18th-century barn

John Lenaerts has never been afraid of change. At just 17 years old he left his home in England for a better life in America. After a stint in Korea courtesy of the U.S. Air Force, he moved to Greenwich Village for two years to experience all the city had to offer. And upon retirement, he and his wife left the life they'd known for decades and followed their dreams to the quiet countryside of New Hampshire.

But even if he's ready for life's next big transition, it won't be easy for Lenaerts to part with the one-of-a-kind home he built here from a late 1700s-era barn. Hugging the southern slope of a sunny meadow at the edge of Pittsfield, the home is handcrafted from top to bottom and filled with unique features.

"I'm not a planner. I just sort of made it up as I went," said Lenaerts, who plans to move with his wife, Marion, to Havenwood Heritage Heights when the home sells. "People would ask about my drawings and I'd say, 'I don't have any.' "

More eyes focused on pets left in cars

Good Samaritans, temperature guns and tougher laws are the newest tools in the campaign to keep animals out of hot cars, where just minutes can mean death.

More calls are coming in about overheated dogs - and officials say that's a good thing, because more people are aware of the problem and calling before it's too late.

Still, despite annual warnings, pets continue to die or suffer serious injury in hot cars. Before summer was even two days old this year, the Associated Press reported the deaths of five dogs in hot cars in Oregon, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

No one keeps tabs on annual deaths or injuries because so many different agencies handle calls. But agencies say calls have increased to 911, police departments, fire departments, animal control officers, shelters or veterinarians.

One thing I enjoy most about summer is visiting other gardens. Local garden tours are the best; they give you the opportunity to see what's going on in your neighbor's backyard. It is amazing just how much effort people put in to their gardens and the lengths to which some people will go to make their landscaping usable, productive and eye-pleasing. Digging ponds, creating waterfalls, clearing views, building stone walls, terracing hillsides, and paving walkways and patios - I admire their energy and vision.

There is also lots of creative garden art. I'll never throw away another worn out tool until I see if it can be incorporated into some kind of funky sculpture.

Women have been at center of entertainment conversation

At the box office, the summer of 2012 may be about breaking records with movies about boys and their toys ("Hulk smash," indeed). But culturally, the season's been all about the girls. Beginning with Snow White and the Huntsman, continuing through Brave and with a dash of talk-worthy premium cable thrown in, girls seem to have taken over screens both large and small, their inner struggles magnified into mythic battles, their most mundane problems examined with probing, disarmingly frank intimacy.

I was at the Concord Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago, and I was asked this question: "Should dogs be allowed to come to the market?" It was a discussion going on between a vendor and a customer. Apparently what prompted the question was a small convention of dogs that had blocked the way through the narrow market street. Dogs were checking each other out, people were talking and showing off their dogs - all this to the dismay of people trying to do business at the market.

Sampling was once the wild frontier

In May, Washington go-go band Trouble Funk took rap pioneers the Beastie Boys to court and didn't even know it.

Trouble Funk's publishing company, Tuff City, claimed that the group's tunes were illegally sampled on the first two Beastie Boys albums, License to Ill and Paul's Boutique. Trouble Funk's signature anthem, "Drop the Bomb," starts with two tumbling drum fills. The Beasties had cut them out and transplanted them into their songs. Now it was time to pay up.

But Trouble Funk leader "Big Tony" Fisher had no idea that this meant going after the Beastie Boys. He told me that he didn't even know the Beasties had sampled his music. The two groups had toured together in the 1980s. He liked them. On top of that, Tuff City's timing was nightmarishly bad. Founding Beastie Boys

member Adam "MCA" Yauch died of cancer the day after the lawsuit was filed in White Plains, N.Y.

Film Review Surprise ending simply falls flat

Red Lights culminates with a twist ending that doesn't just change everything that came previously, it actually negates the entirety of the film. Rather than leaving you in an awestruck state of "A-ha!" it's more likely to make you wonder in annoyance, "Really?"

There are actually two big character revelations, one of which isn't terribly hard to guess much earlier; the other, however, just rips gaping holes in the narrative. The story was pretty flimsy anyway, and never nearly as serious or important as writer-director Rodrigo Cortes seems to take it.

Just because a vegetable has grown past its prime doesn't mean it's for the birds Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  Pea Falafel Tired pea and bolting lettuce soup

One problem with having a garden is that every summer without fail you will be vacationing far from home when something really wonderful, something you have carefully nurtured from a seedling, protected from bugs and birds and deer, something you have been hoarding recipes for since last December, gets ripe. You will arrive home, rush into the garden looking to see if your treasure is at last ready, only to find it was, in fact, ready three days ago. And though it is not rotten or completely inedible, your treasure is well past its prime, a bit shriveled, bitter, tough - over-ripe. You'll treat the erstwhile treasure like trash, and throw it onto the compost heap, or feed it to the chickens, vowing never to go on vacation during garden season again.