Mushrooms? Really? What am I thinking to write a post about mushrooms today? Well, let me explain.
One of the best things I have done recently is become involved in AAUW (American Association of University Women) here in Brevard. While I am not the most consistent member in attendance I do love the mission of the group and their efforts in raising money for scholarships for young women. I have raved about their annual book sale and was happy to be a part of it this past year in a variety of ways. What they manage to do with this sale is the most organized and efficient effort of fundraising that I have ever seen.
Did I mention books? Books of all sizes and shapes, colors and genres are available to the public to pick over and choose just the right ones to take home. I might have written a blog post about the sale.
This time I kind of got stuck in the cookbook section for awhile. There were a plethora of types of cookbooks but some of the most prevalent ones were those spiral bound church fundraiser type cookbooks with Grandma recipes. I absolutely love those cookbooks. I have about a dozen in my own collection and even if I don’t cook from them I still love to have them in my possession.
This little cookbook caught my eye. Mushroom cooking. I never thought there would be an entire cookbook devoted to mushrooms. But here it is. Mushroom Cookery by Rosetta Reitz.
To be honest a lot of the recipes did not really appeal to me in this cookbook but I stuck it in my $5 a box haul with the idea that it would be a great blog post. Well, I am not sure it is a great post but it is definitely a different one.
I tried one recipe out of this book. A mushroom meatloaf. Now it isn’t totally mushrooms as it has a mixture of half mushrooms and half ground beef in the recipe and it ended up being okay. Probably not something I would make again without tweaking it. I do like mushrooms and I couldn’t really taste them in this dish but the consistency of the meatloaf was not as firm as I would have liked it to be so maybe if I made it again I would tweak some of the other ingredients a bit.
I especially love the mushroom illustrations that grace the beginnings of each section of the cookbook.
Mushrooms are one of those things that I think you either love or hate. There is almost always no middle ground about them. I think the haters hate the consistency more than the taste most likely. So let’s take a poll today.
Are you a mushroom hater or a mushroom lover?
Let me know in the comments and remember that each comment made this month means a 50 cent donation to our Comments for a Cause – Books for Africa.
If anyone wants this lovely mushroom cookbook I am happy to send it your way. Just let me know and it is yours.
15 Comments
Leave a commentI love mushrooms and use them a lot in my cooking. Fortunately hubby likes them too. My daughter however hates them and can´t even bear the smell of them. That recipe book sounds great.
I am reaffirmed in my thoughts that you either love them or hate them. There really seems to be no middle ground in the mushroom area. Thanks for sharing your own thoughts on the mushroom. 🙂
I love mushrooms!
I understand your draw to old and unique cookbooks. Randy especially enjoys them and recently found a vintage 50s one from our church at a local flea market. Now that was interesting. I’ll eventually post about his find.
Oh fun! I love those cookbooks and how neat to find one from your church. Can’t wait to read the details someday.
You are right about mushrooms and that you either love or hate them. Me? I hate them. Yuck and double yuck. I pick them out of any dish I’m served. And I have a long history of disliking that fungi….long story which I might have to make into my own blog post someday. 😉 Anyway, mushroom meatloaf sounds disgusting to me but to each his own. By the way, I too have some of those spiral bound church cookbooks and some of the best recipes come out of them! (Without mushrooms! ha!)
Don’t you think it is partly a texture thing as well? I would not rave about the mushroom meatloaf but at least I gave it a go! And I respect your hatred of mushrooms.
It is a texture thing, but I also just don’t like the taste of them. 😝
My husband and I both love mushrooms and cook with them often. I would agree that they are not to everyone’s taste.
Mushroom meatloaf? I’m intrigued. I love adding finely chopped mushrooms to mine, but I’m trying to imagine this ratio of mushrooms to meat. The illustrations are darling.
Mushrooms are the bomb, especially the ones that you collect in the wild! I once experienced an excruciating gut-ache by over-indulging (it was my entire dinner, which was definitely not a great idea, but I was young, then) on “chicken-of-the-woods” mushrooms (they grow inside of rotted logs, and are incredibly firm, and delicious, but not easily digestible, as it turns out). And, I experienced a serious panic attack when I consumed a big toadstool-looking mushroom (some of that particular genus are deadly poisonous) that a friend had done a spore print of, and declared safe (spore-printing involves laying the cap of the mushroom on a piece of construction paper for a period of time, and then identifying the species of mushroom by the resulting imprint). I started doubting that he really knew what he was talking about, and almost convinced myself that I was going to die! I felt ill, was sweating profusely, but I finally managed to calm myself down, and I obviously I didn’t die, or even get sick (my friend was apparently correct in his ID, but I probably wouldn’t do THAT again. HE didn’t eat any, which helped add to my angst, at the time!). Shaggy-manes, chanterelles, cauliflower mushrooms (some over a foot across, 3 or 4 pounds apiece!), morels, they are all delicious! Nothing like you buy at the supermarket; those are pasty, uninspired representations of the real thing. One of the reasons I’d like to retire in Oregon is that the mushrooms abound there… I’ll bet North Carolina is pretty good, too!
I once stole a truffle (more correctly known as hypogeous fungi, which means that they grow below-ground, on the roots of trees, in this case Ponderosa pine) from an Abert’s squirrel! It was delicious, sliced and fried up with fresh elk tenderloin. Here is a fun fact. Truffles are a primary food of Abert’s and flying squirrels, believe it or not.
Hope this comment is worth 50 cents for Books for Africa!
Definitely a mushroom lover, Especially the baby bellas and champignons. It’s wild mushroom picking season in Germany soon and I love getting the pictures from my relatives after they went mushroom picking in the woods. It’s fun and the wild ones are so tasty. But I agree, mushrooms are definitely an acquired taste and there is no inbetween. My son loved the flavor for the longest time but wouldn’t eat the mushrooms. Just recently though he’s started to eat them and like them as well. Goes to show you how our palettes are ever changing and evolving.
Oh baby Bellas are fabulous. I remember going out with my grandma in the woods. She knew her mushrooms. I, on the other hand, would have to ask someone with more experience like my brother about which ones are good to eat and which ones to avoid. But then after I read his response on this post I am wondering if HE even knows. 🙂 For a fun read read Mark’s comment. 🙂
I like the flavor of mushrooms, but I live in a damp climate and worry about adding any more burdens to my body’s ongoing struggle to resist fungus infections.
🙂
I definitely like mushrooms. Nichole grew up eating canned mushrooms courtesy of her parents and thought that she hated them. It took a couple years but finally fresh mushrooms on a pizza convinced her that mushrooms are a tasty addition to anyone’s culinary quiver. Now she eats them on the regular… Just not the kind from a can.