Stropharia rugosoannulata (Wine Cap)

Delicious and often enormous, the Wine Cap pops up commonly in the hardwood woodchips used in landscaping mulch around trees and along tended pathways. This mushroom can be identified positively only in the presence of both the young and mature specimens. The buttons are sometimes but not always a Burgundian red wine color on top. When the veil is still closed over the immature gills, there is a coglike star pattern around the stem. In the mature fruiting bodies, the gills change from pink to a dark pinkish grey to grey brown color while the color of the cap lightens to a light brown to beige color. The spore print is purplish black in color.

I recommend eating only the young mushrooms of this species which are firm and bug free. The buttons of this species can reach 5-6” in diameter while still immature. They are meaty and rich and are well paired in meat sauces and sautés.

When large, it can be cut into strips, brushed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sprinkled with herbs, salt and pepper and grilled to perfection.

So once again I have too many mushrooms. Dont feel sorry for me this happens all the time. Seek and ye shall find. I wish in my life it applied to something more than mushrooms.

Fleet Week

Sailors from all points hither cometh to New York City cause its Memorial Day Weekend. The girls go crazy the gays go nuts and the tourists are in awe. It would be senseless to go anywhere close to a popular part of town right now and that is just about anywhere. So since there is no gettin' out of it and when in Rome...well you know how that goes. I am going to try and get as many sailor pictures as I can and post them as I get them....lets see if this years Fleet Week measures up.



All I got is Google, can you believe I did not see a single sailor. We ARE at WAR right now and it isnt as sexy to be a sailor I guess. Past fleet weeks during non war times have included boats and sailors from other countries. The city was a little quiet, the tourist areas were not as congested either. Typical long weekend where it seems like a ghost town - not the usual 20 million people more like around 12 million to make it seem quiet.

Nacho Chips w/ Nacho Cheese

When is this a bad idea? You make some chips you melt some cheese and there you go.

Nacho Chips w/ Nacho Cheese

Dried Mushrooms - just string em up and let em dry.

Mycophagy

Well I made mushroom omeletes and mushroom quesadillas and mushrooms alfredo with linguine and I also made a mushroom



chile and sauted mushrooms with early peas as shown here but I still have some left. Oh I failed to mention there is one food my onivorious child will not eat and that is mushrooms, so I am at this one solo. What i usually do when I have too many mushrooms is to let them dry. Dried mushrooms have a lot of flavor, they pulverize into a fine powder very nicely and they can act like a secret ingredient when added to soups or breads or sauces or even scrambled eggs. I am going to make a pissaladiere next, well actually I am not going to make the whole pizza thing just the topping to spread on other things, crackers, celery who knows.

A Fungus Amoung us

I find them, I buy them and I really want to grow them, I could eat them with anything except for some reason I dont like them raw and that is mushrooms. I have had so many varieties both wild and tame from here to Timbuktu, but today I just have a big bunch of regular button mushrooms and I am eager to try something new. Any suggestions?