Thanksgiving mushroom experiment

On a previous visit, some fellow cottagers stopped by. They had been out mushroom hunting for shaggy manes and saw us working and so stopped by to see the progress. They had only found one (a very small meal), but showed it to us and talked about how delicious they were.

I have a book of edible mushrooms at home, but so far had only ever tried morels, which are so easy to identify that I never questioned their edible-ness.

Anyway, the very next time we were up at the cottage (Thanksgiving Day), must have been prime shaggy mane season, cuz they were sprouting all over. I managed to pick a good assortment of very fine looking ones. Once I got home, I dug out the book and double checked. There really were no poisonous ones that were close enough to mistake them for.

So I made a delicous cream of mushroom soup for dinner. Shanna was there for dinner and I made her a vegan version as well. Though I noticed that she scrutinized the pics and descriptions VERY closely before agreeing to try the soup. Bill on the other hand refused to try them, opting instead to see if I was alive in the morning.

The soup was delicious (and of course the creamy non-vegan version gets my vote). And as you can see (I AM typing this afterall) I survived, so Bill happily ate some leftovers the next evening and agreed that it was very good.

So, this was a successful experiment. And I was thankful.