Hen of the Woods

How can it be Monday already? Obviously, when I leave my office on Friday afternoons, I must bump the fast forward button. Maybe it's when I close the door.  Which would make sense why when I open my office door on Monday, time slows down.

We took a couple of days off from House #1 and House #2.  The Cat Ranch needed some attention.  The pile of wood lath needing burned from House #1 was huge, the grass needed mowed, weeds needed pulled, laundry, trash cleaned up, flowers needed transplanted. The list goes on.

Walt Kowalski did the mowing.  I did the trash clean up along the road.  I could clean up trash along our road every day.  (The trash situation along the road is a rant...uh...I mean post for another day.)  Then moved a few hostas from the main garden to the back wall.  Throw in a few loads of laundry, and you've got the day wrapped up. 

Walt Kowalski works with a guy who has a friend that found a truck load of sheepshead mushrooms on his property.  These are the non-deadly variety of mushrooms found in the forest.  This is what one looks like:

They grow in clusters at the base of oak trees.  Oak trees!  We've got lots of those!  We looked in years past with no luck.  Maybe next year.

This year, the friend of the co-worker of Walt Kowalski didn't have the space to clean and store all of the mushrooms he was able to gather.  We were the beneficiaries of the mushrooms.  No complaints from us.

This sink full was just one portion.  After cleaning, we had 5 gallon-sized storage bags full of mushrooms and a lot of wet paper towels and dish towels.

 Here is a close up view. The brown bits you see aren't dirt.  That's just part of the mushroom.

So these mushrooms have been burning a hole in our freezer for the last week when Walt Kowalski brings home another three bags!  We have hit the mushroom jackpot!

Just in time for cool weather.  Nothing says autumn like soup.

And easy soup too.  AND and opportunity to use up some of the homemade broth I have been saving from every chicken and roast I made all summer. 

Carmelize an onion, throw in the mushrooms, add a little flour, and the broth.  Let it simmer for 30 minutes, add a little sour cream and some milk. 

Delicious. 

Soup by the campfire.   I joked with Walt Kowalski that we were camping.  We both smiled and agreed that this was our type of camping. 

Walt Kowalski gets soup for lunch today and we're having more for dinner tonight.

I used about half of one of those gallon-sized bags of mushrooms.  There is going to be a lot of mushroom soup and dishes in our future.  I have never been a big cream of soup kinda person, but this was really good.  Thanks to the homemade broth it wasn't too salty (always a complaint of commercial soups)  I tasted the soup just before I added the cream and milk and it was good that way, too.  Hmmm, another soup idea?

As we were eating Walt Kowalski said "You know what would be really good in here?  Add some chicken.  Then, for the next meal, you could make a few dumpkins for in it.  Then for the next meal, you could put it over a bed of mashed potatoes.  Then..."

There is no better compliment to a cook than seeing smoeone enjoy a meal.  Especially an experimental meal.  I make soup all the time (even in summer) but cream of mushroom soup was a first for me.  It won't be the last.