MUSHROOMS!!!!!

I was so absolutely bummed to hear that mushroom season 'was ending' already this year. Mostly because this is my first winter since I got bitten by the mycological bug that I have lived away from where there are many. I.e., I now live in the city and am bummed that I can;t go crawl around in the pine needles and mud that is my 'back yard' and come out with several pounds of yummy fungus that I would have to pay upwards of $12/lb for in the city IF I could find them.

So I was very happy to find this morning that my land lady was sorely mistaken - mushrooms were still out in abundance. I didn't even have to crawl - I just walked around the property and in about 20 minutes picked up nearly 15lbs of Boletus (relative of the Porcini - and often what they are called). I gave half to my land lady, and brought the rest home. I cleaned them all up and sliced them up for drying like I do every year, and then remembered that my oven here in SF is new, and doesn't have a pilot light... which has always been essential for mushroom -drying. Hopefully they'll be OK. If I'm really lucky there'll be some still around next week when I go back up...I gave most of the #1's to my land lady (tight little baby Boletuses that are mostly light colored and a bit wet because they haven't even emerged out from the ground yet - hard to find.), so these guys look a little old, but dried they'll be awesome. Hopefully the pepper grinder gives some sort of perspective.