eating

The Giant Puffball Mushroom

~ thedailydish ~ 14 Comments

Nature is FASCINATING. Especially for someone like me who loves food. Although I’ve never been daring enough to collect and consume wild mushrooms – mostly b/c I have no idea what I’m doing and would likely wind up dead or whacked out of my mind – I still enjoy discovering the abundance of fungi out there. Just look at this one I found in Vermont, which looks quite egg-y to me:

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Or this one, also from VT, which resembles a giant puffy pancake.

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My husband recently introduced me to this online program – a mushroom catalog, detailing which are edible and which lethal. I particularly like the little emoticon faces – from happy to ill, and worse.

I visit a local nature refuge several times a week.  This fall has brought forth several remarkable mushrooms, each the size of a soccer ball.  I was FLOORED the first time I saw one. WOW! Look at the SIZE OF THAT THING!  Of course my husband and I – being the way we are – immediately grabbed one and began kicking it back and forth to each other.  After a few kicks…BAM! it exploded, and we were left with large white chunks.  We realized the whole mushroom had been solid, rather than hollow.  It struck me as so remarkable that I decided to take a few photographs and do a little research.

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When I got home, I googled “GIANT PUFFBALL” and Whaddaya know?! CHA-CHING! The Giant Puffball Mushroom, or Calvatia gigantea

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Giant puffballs resemble the white button mushrooms you find in every supermarket, but are smooth solid white globes, lacking gills of any sort. The ones we’ve found have been no more than 12 inches in diameter, but puffballs can be as small as golf balls or as large as medicine balls – some weighing up to 40 POUNDS. The young, all-white mushrooms are edible and said to be quite tasty, w/ a flavor akin to tofu or melted cheese. For more detailed information on consuming giant puffballs, see the following RecipeTips entry.

As the Giant Puffballs age, they eventually split and turn yellow, and then brown, as they begin to spore.  I found a specimen at Tinicum which had opened and begun the process.

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Once they reach this stage, giants puffballs are INEDIBLE. (Not that anyone in their right mind would be interested in gobbling that mess up.. But still. I offer the warning.)

For more information on Giant Puffballs, check out the following websites:

Tom Volk’s entry w/ FUNNY PHOTOS is definitely worth a click.
Wikipedia entry on Calvatia gigantea
Wildman Steve Brill’s entry on the Giant Puffball
David Fischer’s American Mushrooms entry on BEST EDIBLE WILD MUSHROOMS: Giant Puffball

The NEW AND IMPROVED Daily Dish Recipe Site

~ thedailydish ~ 10 Comments

…..IS LIVE!!

CLICK HERE to CHECK IT OUT.

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YES. I know I wanted it done last month, but I also wanted it done right. And sometimes that takes a bit more doing. After much exhaustive work and the collaborative efforts of my beloved husband, the new site is up and running. Good as gold. I love the new layout, the clean look and improved features. The site is now fully indexed and searchable. The RSS feed so many of you requested is NOW AVAILABLE – and each of the recipes can be critiqued through comments. Please take a look at the new site and let me know what you think. It has been A LOT of work and I am very proud. Speaking of work, Having to update everything and go through each and every recipe (334 at last count) was both grueling and surprisingly wonderful. I am grateful beyond belief to all of my readers, who have made this endeavor so rewarding, as well as to my family for helping me accomplish so much.

Last, I know many of you enjoy looking through my photos. Although the site has no direct link currently, the gallery can still be accessed HERE.

ATTENTION DAILY DISH RECIPE SITE READERS

~ thedailydish ~ 7 Comments

WHERE IS THE DAILY DISH?? WHY CAN’T I REACH THE SITE?

WHAT IS GOING ON?!

Long story short.  Our right to the domain (www.thedailydish.us) expired at midnight night before last, making the website unreachable for anyone – myself included.  We own a large number of domains, and normally the company we register with alerts us well ahead of time to ensure there’s no lag in service.  Because The Daily Dish is a .us site, the registration process is more complicated that w/ standard .com sites, and we had to register the domain with a different (and much less reliable) company.  Not only did this company not alert us of the expiration, but they have been less than helpful w/ the re-registration process.  My husband is an IT professional, and has been corresponding w/them, but has not yet been able to complete the registration process due to a problem on the company’s end.  We are hoping to have the registration completed successfully, and have the website up and running once again ASAP.

Thank you to all who have emailed me w/ questions and concerns.  I appreciate your patience in this matter.  It is unbelievably frustrating for us as well.

Weekend w/ Mommy part two

~ thedailydish ~ 10 Comments

It’s hard to top the March Madness that was Weekend w/ Mommy (part one), but we were willing to try. That’s right everyone, my Mommy is HERE.  IN PHILLY. RIGHT NOW AS I TYPE!!! take THAT, Atlanta.

Saturday night. The Borgata. After the buffet, a decent $5 chardonnay and 2 cloyingly sweet but free white wines, here were the totals.  Me $161.50. NOT TOO SHABBY. John $69. WOOHOO.  My mom: HAD FUN ANYWAY.  And we’ll leave it at that.

Sunday. Peddler’s Village. Brunch @ the Cock n’ Bull. The corn pudding was excellent and the petit fours a dream.  Post meal roundup: Me, Mommy, Maddie & Georgia, ALL OKAY.  John: NOT.  B/c John got food poisoning and spent the car ride home vomiting into a shopping bag.

Afterward, John & I went to the Eagles game. YES MY HUSBAND IS A TROOPER.  And thank Goodness.  B/c the game was AMAZING. Except that this was my view.

And this was John’s.

Yes, that is a security guard sitting on my husband’s lap.

Although my husband put a brave face on things, by the end of the game it had gotten OLD.  When we complained, we were cursed out by the higher-up security guards on the field – the one even threatened to beat the hell out of John.

On a good note, I was not sat upon. And after the game, David Akers threw his wristband to ME! And I also caught Deshawn Jackson’s sweaty towel.  Both of which I immediately put on.  ANd even though everyone around me said EWWWwWWwWwW.   I said AHHHhhHHHHHHhHHHH.