A Snack Fit for a Prince!

Today in my rush to class I stumbled on these lovelies just outside the Biology department! Their botanical name is Agaricus agustus, but you can call him The Prince. I made sure the cap stained gold and the flesh smelled of rich almonds before snatching them up and bringing them home! I took a tip from my Mycology professor and decided to quickly saute them with onions and spread it on toast.

Absolutely delicious!

The Other Hiking Bar

Here's my latest attempt at a hiking bar. It came out to be incredibly delicious, but a bit messy (to the benefit of a couple chipmunks on the trail). I started out with one of Alton Brown's recipes, and reworked it into this:

1/2 cup Hazelnuts

1 1/4 cup Cashews

1/4 Shredded Coconut

1 cup Oats

1 cup Flaked Emmer

1/4 cup Camelina Seeds

1/4 cup Hemp Seeds

1/2 cup Honey

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 oz. Unsalted Butter

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla

I toasted all the nuts, seeds, oats, and emmer in a 300 degree oven just until they began to brown (about 15-20 minutes). Meanwhile, I melted the butter with the honey, sugar, and vanilla. When the dry things came out of the oven, I turned the heat up to 350 and tossed everything together and then pressed it into a buttered 9-inch square baking dish. I let bake for about 30 minutes. Then I should have let it cool completely before removing it from the pan, but instead I got impatient and it fell apart a little bit.

Mandy Cakes!

Oh the things I do for my friends... Believe it or not, these little cakes do not contain any gluten, dairy, eggs, or soy! And yes, they are edible and actually quite tasty - I thought the texture was a little off, but for someone who can't eat the real thing, it's about as close as you can get! I started with the Joy of Cooking's standard blueberry muffin recipe and substituted egg-replacer for the eggs, Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose flour for the flour, water for milk (I should really use hemp milk next time), and huckleberries for blueberries ...I also tweaked the ratios slightly so the dough was the right consistency with all the substitutions. I greased the muffin pans with coconut oil, which made the muffins incredibly easy to get out of the pan - something I'm going to do more often! The frosting is coconut oil with lots of powdered sugar and some pink food coloring, then I sprinkled granulated sugar and grated coconut on top.

My Favorite Breakfast!

Whenever I have time to enjoy the morning, here's the jist of what usually happens:

Syrup made from last summers frozen raspberries, brown sugar, and butter.

Whole wheat waffles, Stumptown french-press coffee, Skagit Valley Ranch bacon, raspberry syrup, and sun shine!

Fruits of Spring!

We've been having ideal mushroom weather here in western Washington lately; frequent rain showers with mildly warm weather and sun breaks. The morels especially love the sun breaks. At the farmers market this past weekend, Foraged & Found Edibles had an impressive plethora of morels along with a small basket of Gyromitra montanum. I had no idea Gryomitra's were edible, as they're commonly called "false morels" - I just assumed that meant they were not morels and therefore inedible. But after consulting several sources I was convinced that they're not only edible but a popular (and cheap) morel substitute. Then on my bike ride home today I slammed on the breaks at the sight of a log bulging with white mycelium and a collection of whitish, gilled, shelf-mushrooms emerging. It could only be one thing - Oyster Mushrooms!! Naturally, I came home and made a mycological feast:

Here's the cast of characters from left to right:

Pluerotus sp., Morchella esculenta, and Gyromitra montanum

Below is a quick and poorly done picture of the finished product. I made some pasta with olive oil, salt, and pepper. On top is a saute of the mushrooms, four different Allium's (leeks, baby onions, green-garlic, and walla walla onion scapes), chard, and sea beans (Salicornia) - delicious!

Beef Bourginon, it's what's for dinner!

Amidst my studying, I was suddenly hit by an insatiable craving for beef bourginon. All things considered, it's incredibly simple and quick to whip up, I need to do this more often. Oh and I added chard. I have officially discovered the importance of chard. yum.

Food on my Mind

Spring quarter has begun at UW and I've fallen comfortably back into a relatively monotonous, yet efficient, pattern of cooking and eating, nothing worth noting on a blog anyway. However, due to popular demand, here's what I've been thinking:

-Empire's new Stumptown coffee ice cream is terrifyingly addictive (I'm eating some now in fact)

-In the lab at school I've been growing some edible fungi on agar...naturally my mind has wandered to wonder what it would be like to fry up one of these, agar and all. I don't think I'll be investigating this anytime soon. However, I did happen to read about agar and other plant-based gelatin replacements in Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, and learned that they are all carbohydrates (unlike gelatin which is protein). Also, agar is not digestible by humans, meaning it just passes through as dietary "fiber".

-I was recently sent an awful article about how bad agave syrup is (it's a big new health-food trend, if you haven't heard). Intrigued, I did a tiny bit of research and discovered it is, in fact, inferior to regular old table sugar. Basically, agave syrup is just fructose...Highly concentrated fructose to give it a syrupy consistency, which could easily be called "high fructose agave syrup". We've all learned how bad high fructose corn syrup is, it's the same story all over again, just with a different plant source.

-At the farmer's market a few weeks ago we found ourselves in desperate need of coffee, which lead us to discover my new favorite bakery: Fresh Flours. It's on Ballard Ave. right in the middle of the Sunday farmers market. Their skilled barista serves Stumptown coffee and their pastries are utterly divine and wont break your wallet.

-Maple blossoms were selling at the farmers market today - they're in bloom EVERYWHERE! Get your own for free! (apparently they're edible, I'll let you know when I try them....maple blossom salad anyone?)