John and Sam enjoy hiking in the woods, especially if they can forage for Pennsylvania treasures. They go after morels in the spring and wild blueberries in July. This has been a perfect summer for mushrooms and at Bill Russell’s weekly mushroom ID chat at Webster’s Café, there have been more species under discussion each week.
Two weeks ago, orange chanterelles brightened the forest floor. Picking is easy since they are so visible in the woods. The guys came home with bags of them and I cooked a very special sourdough pasta that was a sample of a new Grandma’s Frozen Egg Noodles product. The beautiful, extruded noodle was ribbed and fluted along the edge; perfect for holding the tasty sauce. I’m still making Labneh, and using it in all sorts of ways. One of the best was in a pasta sauce with sauteed chanterelles and shallot and lots of fresh herbs. With a light dusting of freshly grated Pamesan cheese, the result was delicious.
Our regular use of the chanterelle is in an omelette. An unusual use was as a topping for marinated “Steak Bites” tofu when we had a gathering in Shingletown on a perfect summer evening. We had so many appetizers that we never did get to our two main courses—a Mixed Grill with Steak and Sausages with Chanterelles, and a Chanterelle Pizza. Kim’s Zucchini and Corn Fritters along with Tomato Bruschetta did us in. We only had room for Peach Pie and the afore-posted Labneh Cheesecake.
The hunters took a break from the woods and “foraged” in our buddy Bucky’s corn field and brought home an armload of sweet corn. Our favorite way to cook that is by microwaving the corn cobs in the husk for two minutes on high, turning them, and then another two minutes. The corn is piping hot, so it needs to cool a bit before shucking. I like to cook up a few extra ears and then scrape the kernels from the cob to have them to add to bean and cheese quesadillas or another batch of chanterelle pasta. Our second batch of chanterelle pasta was even better with those golden nuggets added to the sauce.
We had one corn-less and mushroom-less cookout at Black Moshannon, on a picnic table so loaded with moss and lichen that we couldn’t bear to cover it with a tablecloth. We enjoyed our hot dogs , sausages, turkey burgers, salads, and watermelon on the forest scape, soaking in the beauty of the water-lily covered lake.
Since we had hot dogs left over, we had yet another cookout at Spring Creek Park, again with Jordy and Skye. Both Joann and I forgot to bring hot dog buns! Still delicious. The kids didn’t mind at all and moved quickly to S’mores.
A fundraiser was held for Sc’Eric last Sunday and I don’t have photos of the delicious food that was served and prepared by the talented chefs at Pine Grove Hall, but I do have a photo of my contribution to the silent auction that day. Liz Grove reported that they raised $11,000 to help with his rehab so that was a big effort by a lot of people that was a lot of fun.
The Little League World Series in Williamsport was in full swing and we couldn’t resist driving north an hour to see Kinsley Rasmus, the 12 year old girl, from Alabama who was wowing the crowds. I went prepared to cheer her on but when I saw that they were playing a team from West Chester that had a loud and loyal family following in the stands, I was torn. I cheered for both teams. The Southeast won, but lost the next day to Great Lakes. The finals are this weekend and its quite a treat to see the families from around the world rooting for their determined players.
The hunters went out again for ‘shrooms, looking for chicken of the woods but coming home with a more elusive treasure—black trumpet chanterelles. This mushroom is much harder to spot but the rewards are greater, as this feathery fungus has a redolent, almost truffle-like aroma when cooked. We had to have steak. Immediately. John prepared it all, since I was busy packing to go to Maryland the next day, for a kidney ultrasound, a visit to Brooke and Jon at Johns Hopkins, and the 50th wedding anniversary party for my brother and Barbra in Frederick.
We did it all and enjoyed staying at The Visitation hotel in downtown Frederick. The former girls school is a testament to thoughtful renovation of historic properties and we enjoyed being in downtown Frederick for the night. So nice to see the family from NYC and Iowa, and to mark the historic occasion in an historic property. The Wye Oak Tavern, run by Frederick natives, Bryan and Michael Voltaggio, two “Top Chef” celebrity stars, was very impressive in the former church and dinner was incredible.
And soon we will be heading back out to Wyoming to catch up with these two kiddos. Because—tempus does indeed fugit.
