Mushroom Bounty

When I was a little girl, my family and I often went mushroom picking. My parents would then marinate those mushrooms, dry them, make soups out of them or just saute them with onions and serve them over potatoes. What can I say? I love mushrooms.

Imagine my insane excitement, then, when I found out that I was the lucky random winner of four pounds of mushrooms from Marx Foods! Last Friday, I had a big box of mushroom goodness sitting and waiting for me by my door (I was so relieved my neighbors are honorable people and did not take possession of my box).

The box included 2 pounds of wild golden chanterelle mushrooms and a 2 pound fresh organic sampler. Let me just say that I don't think I've had chanterelle mushrooms in nearly 16 years! In Russia we call these mushrooms "little foxes" because of their beautiful orange color.

Above is a collage of the mushrooms I've received. Included: chanterelle, enoki, maitake, portabella and oyster mushrooms.

Friday night I sauteed some chanterelle mushrooms with onions and potatoes and added some garbanzo beans for a filling vegetarian meal. Over the weekend I made a mushroom omelet, mushroom pasta and mushroom filled phyllo dough. Stay tuned for these recipes, which I'll be posting later this week.

Meanwhile, here are some recipes you can make with mushrooms: polenta with mushrooms, bacon and onions; potato and mushroom potstickers and fried vegetable wontons.

Thank you again, Justin and Katy, from Marx Foods.