Catching up

Here we are on the doorstep of a New Year. It's hard to believe that a week has passed since Christmas Eve. The week between Christmas and New Year's Day is always so busy. Just a quick note that the Christmas Eve supper went very well. The mushroom stuffed cabbage turned out better than they had in the past. Cooking them a day ahead of time permitted the flavors to mingle and mix and they were pretty tasty. I will course chop the mushrooms next year. Aside from the fact that my home grown oyster mushrooms were a bit on the tough side everything turned out really well.

Waiting for the dinner to begin.

by Joe  Contact Me

The final recipe.

I hope that you've enjoyed these recipes and have had the opportunity to prepare some of them for yourselves. Tomorrow is a busy day with lots of preparation for the Christmas Eve supper. In many ways this Christmas Eve Holy Supper is the highlight of our Christmas celebration and more exciting than Christmas Day.

I wish all of you who follow this blog health, peace and happiness for the Christmas Season and for the New Year!

by Joe  Contact Me

Mushroom Stuffed Cabbage (revisited)

Today I made my mushroom stuffed cabbage and this time it turned out much better. Here's what I changed. I doubled the amount of mushrooms to two cups but I chopped them too fine. It is best to course chop the mushrooms. I added the can of tomato soup plus tomato sauce plus some lump tomatoes. I baked them in the oven rather than cooking them on top of the stove. This worked much better for me.

by Joe  Contact Me

Mushroom Stuffed Cabbage

We are almost to Christmas Eve, the mushroomiest cooking day of the year. I have just two more recipes to share.

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Shhhhhhhhhh... the mushrooms are sleeping. Or are they?

Are the mushrooms are sleeping under a blanket of white or are they busy behind the scenes preparing for a specular show next year. How much growth and activity does take place under the ground during the time when the plant world is dormant? Trees continue root growth after the leaves fall. Autumn is planting time for fruit trees as growth continues underground while they establish themselves for the coming growing season.

The same can be said for the Mushroom Club. The activity is not always apparent but behind the scenes we are preparing for our regular meetings, Mushroom Mania, Festivals and, of course, the newsletter. Busy, busy, busy hoping for a good show next year.

A gentle reminder that dues are due for 2006. You can find the form on our website.

For those of you who wondered what to do with that half can of sauerkraut, here's the recipe.

Joe's Sauerkraut & Bean Soup

• 1 can of navy beans
• 1/2 can of sauerkraut
• Potatoes
• Carrots (just a little bit for flavor and color)
• Salt & pepper to taste

Just cook this together with enough water to cover. Perhaps a few mushrooms might perk this up a bit.

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Only one week until Christmas Eve

Today I put the finishing touches on the WPMC Christmas card and have begun wrapping gifts. Only a week to go and so much to do. My wife is baking kolachi and the house is filled with the scent of holiday baking and the bustle of holiday preparations.

Mushroom cooking won't place until Christmas Eve but here is another holiday mushroom recipe to put you into the mood.

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I'm getting more and more into the Christmas spirit. The decorating is nearly complete and the shopping is mostly done. I'm beginning to inventory the mushrooms that we have dried or frozen and I lament the price of store bought mushrooms. If only I could have found just a couple of dozen of nice horse mushrooms or oysters or chanterells or a sheepshead or two. Oh well it ain't gonna happen now the mushrooms are sleeping peacefully under white blankets.

I have a few favorite traditional mushroom recipes that we make for Christmas Eve that I may pass on to you before the holidays. Here's the first one.

Mushrooms And Gravy

This is a recipe that my family made with Honey Mushrooms. Honey Mushrooms are pretty durable and they hold up well in this recipe. It's easy to make and is always a part of our Christmas Eve celebration. It showed up on our table with the first harvest of honey mushrooms or stump mushrooms (as we called them.) You don't have to use honey mushrooms, store bought "button" mushrooms will do.

1 lb. fresh mushrooms or canned mushrooms 4 Tbsp. Oil 4 Tbsp. flour 1 clove garlic, cut up Salt and pepper 2 c. water Vinegar (optional) Clean, wash and drain mushrooms. Cut mushrooms up with garlic. Add 1 cup water and let simmer for about 1/2 hour. Make a brown sauce (Zapraška), blending oil and flour together in a frying pan. Keep on medium heat and keep stirring until lightly browned. Cool slightly and add 1 cup cold water and blend until smooth. Pour this brown sauce into the cooked mushroom mixture. Cook the mushrooms until tender. Add salt and pepper and a little vinegar to taste.

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You found what?!

Today as I was bringing up wood from the wood pile I was thinking about an interesting place that I discovered while hunting mushrooms. That got me to thinking about other interesting finds that I had heard about or witnessed first hand.

On club outings people have found old glass bottles and ink bottles from an old school. One fellow found the biggest chunk of fool's gold that I have ever seen. It must have weighed thirty pounds. He was dead set on finding morels and he wasn't parting with the pyrite either. I don't know how he carried it around. But at the end of the day he still had it in his possession.

The award for finds has to go to the mushroom hunters who found a body in the state game lands a couple of years ago. Top that!

Well back to my interesting place. I was scouting (not finding) mushrooms and came across a magical place where there must have at one time been a small house or farm. I am always cautious about prowling around such places having heard the story of a hunter who fell into an abandoned well near an old farmstead. This place looked like it came out of a Grimm's fairy tale as it was set amidst dark brooding pines in a shadowy forest where the sun beams poked through the mist. Old stone walls or a foundation were visible through the undergrowth and the air was heavy with mist and silent except for the water dripping off of the pines. I didn't find a single mushroom. The gnomes must have gathered them all up.

by Joe  Contact Me

Happy Saint Nicholas day!

I was awake until after midnight hoping to catch a glimpse of Saint Nicholas but I dozed off in front of the fire and missed my chance of seeing him. What did the good saint leave for me? A candy cane, some chocolate and a "Slovakia" mouse pad. Everyone got some small treat, even the cats and the dog. The dog did hear Saint Nicholas. He was barking at something, he never barks in the house, and that is what roused me from my sleep. Perhaps he saw or heard something that was beyond the grasp of my senses.

I have thought of another item to add to the mushroomers Christmas list.

• Dried or preserved mushrooms.

 

I'm still waiting for suggestions and mushroom recipes. Hint, hint.

by Joe  Contact Me

Saint Nicholas and honey mushrooms

Tomorrow is Saint Nicholas day. Put your shoes outside your door and perhaps (if you've been good) Saint Nicholas will leave a small gift or a goodie or two for you. Yes, Saint Nicholas is a real saint but so many legends surround him that it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. There are a lot of web sites with information I found this one interesting.

Locally there is a connection to Saint Nicholas. It happened 84 years ago in a small mining town in western Pennsylvania called Jacob's Creek. The miners of the Darr Mine were requested to work on the Feast of Nicholas. Two hundred of the miners chose not to work but attend the Divine Liturgy celebrating the Feast of Nicholas at their local church.

An explosion occurred at the mine during the Divine Liturgy killing over two hundred men. The lives of the miners were saved by their devotion to Nicholas. There is a historical marker on route 981 as you head to Smithton.

I had a very interesting experience with honey mushrooms and learned a powerful lesson about mushroom safety when we picked honey mushrooms on Saint Nicholas day. I was hoping that the weather would stay warm and the mushroom would again make their appearance this week.

Here's my mushroom story again, in case you missed the first telling.

Before I joined the mushroom club I tried to find "experts" who would help me get back into mushroom hunting (safely). I figured that the old-timers at church would be experts and I went out with one fellow and we found some mushrooms. I decided to discard them after he told me that he "thought" that they were good. We also discussed the silver dollar theory of preventing mushroom poisoning. Never a good idea.

Then by some miracle on Saint Nicholas day (December 6th) the church yard was filled with mushrooms. After church we eagerly gathered them up, but we were only about 80% sure of the edibility and safety of the mushrooms. My wife suggested that we call the Penn State extension service and eventually we contacted a lady who identified the mushrooms over the phone. They were indeed honey mushrooms. Well we hoped they were. I was uneasy with the over the phone identifications.

The next day we had the mushrooms for breakfast and they were fairly tasty. We both headed of to work. My wife to Greensburg and me to Weirton. About ten in the morning I began to feel a bit queasy. And it got worse and worse. I called my wife. "Are you sick from the mushrooms?" "No I'm fine you're just a worrier and it's all in your head." No this was pretty real. I was sick to my stomach and sweating. I kept getting worse so I bailed and went home. Mushroom poisoning? No stomach virus.

Have a happy Saint Nicholas day.

 

by Joe  Contact Me