Puffball Mushroom

Giant puffball!
Found on a walk near Mum's cottage on Amherst Island.

Thick, floppy slices. The interior pure, soft and springy, like marshmallow but not spongy.

The thick, leathery rind peels off all in one piece.

Into the hot butter.

Golden, and filling the house with a deep, earthy aroma.

Just some salt and pepper. Wishing we had a cold Chardonnay or a cold-climate Pinot Noir. 

Next round: smaller pieces to encourage more crispy golden edges.

We tried some with sautéed garlic, too. Absolutely delicious!

BC Camping #1: Flora

This nine-day, 2150 km loop took us through both new and familiar areas.
Lilooet turned out to be a much drier place than we had expected, full of beautiful little Provincial Parks with very easy camping.

We should really know more about the various mushrooms and fungi we meet. I bet some of them would be delicious.

Patches of bright orangey-red lichen, very striking on the dark rocks beside Green Lake.

Anyone who has popped a wild strawberry in their mouth knows the concentrated punch of flavour they pack. These were no exception.

Here is our route, with campsites and other points of interest marked.

View Camping BC, July 2011 in a larger map

Photos from Christmas dinner.

Aya arranging flowers for the table. The centrepiece is meringue mushrooms on snowy rocks on a silver tray, meant to look like an icy pond.

Candied orange peel, dipped in chocolate.

Roast quail with chestnut and cranberry stuffing. Zucchini and kale gratin (Tian) in the background.

The whole menu.

Making the mushrooms for Christmas dinner's yule log cake.

Aya made many stems and caps from meringue in a good mix of sizes. She tried to match the number of caps with the number of stems and didn't mind at all that some stems were bendy. They came in very handy later. Visions of Dr. Seuss at this point.

Keith poked holes in the base of the caps using a dentist's pick which we plan to return some day.

We spread warmed chocolate on the undersides of the caps and carefully inserted the stems. The chocolate held the stems in place when it cooled.

We dusted the buttercreamed log with cocoa before sticking the mushrooms on in groups. The bendy stems worked well on the sides of the cake. The mushrooms were given a light dusting of cocoa for colour.

We dusted the whole cake with just enough icing sugar to cast little shadows under the mushrooms.

The "rotten log" was served along with Liz's classic Christmas cake, candied orange peel dipped in dark chocolate, pears poached in mulled wine and the remainder of the buttercream and mushrooms.