mushrooms~

I was gifted with some mushrooms! Yum!! 

My brother came over yesterday with a 1/3 of a giant puffball - he and Mom kept some and my nephew Mark kept the rest ... but I'm not complaining :)

Then when I was at the grocery store this morning I ran into my friend Leslie, her and her hubby grow and sell shiitake mushrooms at the farmers market.  She said she had a few left over and was wondering if I was interested in them ..... well  ....  like she even needed to ask ~ yeah I'm interested in them.  

I love mushrooms.

Thanks Eric and Les!

What to do with them now ... the shiitakes we'll eat fresh; but the puffball I'm going to put up for later. So...

~melt some butter in a pan ... good ol' butter ... when you start with that you know it's going to be good :) ... you can tell I'm an ol' farm girl.

Peel off the outside skin of the giant puffball and cube it up like big marshmallows.  

Sprinkle on some granulated garlic and cook for a few minutes, stirring to coat the puffball in all the melted butter and garlic.  ( I already did some cut into steak fries ... that's what's sitting on the tray)

It only takes a few minutes of cooking and they will begin to brown and reduce in size by about half.

I spread them out on a baking sheet and then into the freezer for a flash freeze.  Once frozen I then vacuum seal them for later use.  

Now my house smells like mushrooms and garlic.... and once again ... I am NOT complaining.  It smells like fall. 

I can't wait until next spring ~ Leslie is going to get me started on growing my own shiitakes :)  Yay!!  

Until next time ...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel