Fall Fungi Foray

Through the Cable Natural History Museum organized by Emily Stone 

and under the leadership of Tavis Lynch

of Tavis's Wild and Exotic Mushrooms of Cumberland, Wisconsin.

This is some of what we found. 

Chanterelle, Black Trumpet, Wolf Fart puffballs, Oyster, Shrimp of the Woods, 

and Bear's Head Tooth.

A participant who is already an experienced forager brought Lobster and 

Chicken of the Woods for us to try. Both were excellent.

We sorted and IDed them.

And then we cooked them up.

The Black Trumpet mushroom is easy to identify and has a very interesting, truffle-like taste.

The group found enough of these that we each got to take some home. After sautéing some for breakfast I made this. It was great.

Wild Foraged Black Trumpet Mushroom Spread

1 tablespoon ghee or butter

2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic scapes or shallots

1⁄2 cup coarsely chopped black trumpet mushrooms(cleaned)

8 ounce cultured cream-cheese

1 pinch sea salt (real salt) to taste

1 pinch white pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a skillet over medium/low heat, sauté garlic scapes in ghee until soft.

Add in black trumpet mushrooms continue sautéing until mushrooms are cooked through and any liquid is evaporated.

Reduce heat to low, add cream cheese (cut or scooped into roughly 1 tablespoon sized chunks). Stirring constantly until the cream cheese is melted and mixed thoroughly.

Transfer to an air tight jar or container and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours prior to allow the flavors to come together.

Remove dip from at the refrigerator roughly 30 minutes prior to serving to allow it to warm to room temperature. Serve with crackers, toasted bread or raw vegetables.

Recipe Notes:

Use 1 ounce dried black trumpets that have been reconstituted in warm water in place of the fresh.

This recipe makes 16 servings

Chad the Container Car

American country cousin to Thomas the Tank Engine.

Hanging out in Bloomer, Wisconsin.

Looks like he's got a mischievous streak. 

And possible gang affiliations. 

We'll be looking for the episode in which he goes to visit his posh relatives.

Trouble, or at the least hi-jinx are likely to ensue.

Free Puppies!

Remember the bromeliad? 

She's quite the champ. Here is her fifth pup.

Going to a new home now that it is weaned.

We wouldn't blame her if she retired from the whelping biz, but it has been fun dividing and sharing her offspring.

Will there be more?

Secret Society

Found in The Bottom Line monthly publication Up North.

We want to join, but who are they and where do they meet?

It reminds us of another group we once belonged to. The Rainbow Ladies back in the day could put a similar announcement in the Fish Wrapper with only the date and "The Rainbow ladies will meet. Call for information." If you were one of us no more needed to be said. 

For those who were dying to join us it must have been very frustrating. 

So now we know how it feels. If you are reading this and belong to the Moral Social and Uplift Society please contact us. We have both refreshments and stories to contribute and are in desperate need of both social and moral uplifting.

Thank you. We await the call.

Party!

Look who's ready for some New Year's Eve fun!

Always the hit of the party. 

Penguins reminiscent of Wallace and Gromit's arch nemesis, Feathers McGraw,

bring smiles in the buffet line.

But nobody wants to take the last one off the platter. 

Who could eat a face like that?

From Betty Crocker's Best Christmas Cookbook.

Chlorociboria aeruginascens

Chlorociboria aeruginascens (say that five times fast) AKA Green Elf Cups.

Spotted by a keen-eyed nature lover while on a blackberry picking foray.

The rainy summer has brought out some amazing fungi, but this one is particularly charming. 

 9 out of 10 elves agree.

Nonna Was Here

Spotted in Tivoli, Italy.

Guerrilla grannies at work?

We would love to have seen them surrounding the tree on ladders of various heights, 

with crochet hooks flying. Probably under cover of night.

The nonno soundly snoozing in a completely upright position on the park bench below did not move a muscle as we carefully maneuvered around the tree to edit him out of these shots.

He must have been exhausted just thinking about how hard someone worked to create this lovely bit of street art.

Really! They Were Just There a Minute Ago!

At the time we visited the quilt exhibit at the American Swedish Institute this delightful space was in place for the small visitors to the castle.

We entered the village walking past friendly trolls,

crossed over the old troll fishing hole,

stopped by the roaring felt campfire,

and finally arrived at the 

quilter's studio.

It was all very charming, but apparently we dreamed it or are seeing things.

Exhaustive attempts to search both the ASI website and the internet show no traces that the lovely little troll village does now, or ever did exist and is as imaginary as Gus the Griffin.

Oh well. You will just have to trust us that it was cute. In our dreams!

There is a Balm in Bromeliad

The title of this post makes no sense, but it is what we think when we see or say "bromeliad".

Anyhoo.... this weird plant came from a a craft fair about five years ago. 

We were assured it would eventually bloom.

One day when giving it a drink down the center as we were instructed, and as it would naturally capture rain and dew, we saw this.

Which became this.

And then this.

And soon it was a real flower-like thing.

This pretty pink emergence is just an extension of the plant leaves as are the colored "petals" of the poinsettia plant.

But soon it started to send out true little flowerlettes from the bracts.

Multicolored no less.

Our reading about the life cycle of the bromeliad tells us that this lovely event is actually the beginning of the end.

The plant will start to slowly die, but if we are lucky it will send out some side shoots called "pups" that can be re-potted to start new plants. That is how we got ours. Apparently the lady who sold it to us has raised many litters of pups and finds good homes for all of them. No paper training or shots needed. 

Sheep Wreath

Sheep in the holiday spirit?

Can you guess how the farmer got his friendly beasts into this orderly formation?

Shotgun Wedding

We were at the John Michael Kohler Art Center and the event in their auditorium looked to be classy.

No air of hurriedly made arrangements.

Just a hint of true Wisconsin crept in with the golden shotgun shell boutonnieres.

But the exhibit of the season was Wisconsin through and through. 

"Seeing Wisconsin" had elements of the old curiosity cabinet.

And a long view of what the deer sees while the hunter is trying to see him.

But the famed art center attractions that people come from near and far to see. 

The ones that remain as the galleries undergo change of artist and theme several times a year are the washrooms. 

Artists, with support of Kohler and use of their foundry were invited to create the washrooms of their dreams.

This one near the main entrance is called simple "The Women's Room".

If you go to Sheboygan to go to the Art Center make sure you "gotta go" cause you are going to want to see them all.

And, this is one place where gender will not keep anyone out of the "ladies" or "gents" as a kindly docent would be happy to help you investigate any of the facilities as long as the "coast is clear" of anyone trying to actually do their business in any of them.

Go! Have a look in the loo. And then go some more.

Jelly Angels

Vintage Kerr jelly jars feature an angel above a crown image.

There are squat jars with the angel on the inside.

And slender jars with the angel embossed on the outside bottom.

We cannot find a really good explanation of why this image was used, 

but we like it very much anyway.

Maybe we like it even more because it is inexplicable.

Don't we all need angels watching over us in our domestic endeavors?

It is the most likely reason for our high success rate of jelly and jam setting despite our disregard for following directions to a T.

If only light bulbs came with a guardian to protect us every time we stand on a wobbly chair to change them.

Spatularium

One fine Northumbrian day we took a walk along the lovely  Haltwhistle Burn path to Haltwhistle.

We checked out the town, had lunch, and met an elderly gentleman who asked us about the current election in the states and what we thought about "That Noisy Fella". The man stated that he thought the candidate in question "could wreak havoc in an empty box". Spot on, fine sir!

Moving along we passed a window display that informed us that we were not at the Spatularium showroom, but that if we wanted to be we should keep walking a mile or two down the road and we would be there. This of course was way too intriguing to ignore.

We walked to the edge of town and finally arrived and found the "showroom" was actually a woodshop, and backroom office full of plastic totes stuffed with product.

No worries, the staff was friendly and accommodating showing us the wares and telling us all about the business. Then the spatula artist himself showed up and gave us the workshop tour including instruction on the basics of spatula creation.

Tim Foxall is a very enthusiastic and congenial guy. His spatulas reflect his spirit.

We couldn't choose, so we went for the quantity discount. 

It was a bit like going to the dog pound and trying to leave all the puppies but one, behind. Fortunately the spatulas take less care and travel well so we could be a bit more generous in giving them homes.

If you are ever in Haltwhistle, UK we recommend you stop in at the spatularium to see Tim and his crew and all their little spatula friends.