Mushrooms!
Nope I am not going to tell you about mushrooms....
They have the most astounding, funny names and their Latin names are nearly unpronounceable....!!!
I mean, bitorquis rodmanii.... crocodilinus..... fuscofibrillosus..... .... molybdites
morgani.... cyanoxantha.....xerampelina.....confusus floccopus..... strobilomyces.... rugosoannulata....
.
Their common names though are quite funny.... Shaggy mane.....Lawyer's wig... Old man of the woods....Aborted entoloma (whaaaat??)..... Alcohol inky cap (omg).... Crocodile agaricus....Death cap (or a trap??)..... Horn of plenty.... Bear's head.... Monkey head.... Pom-pom...
I could go on...
But I love looking at them and taking pictures on my walk...
they light up the woodlands when autumn comes.
The "Toadstools" as we all have read about in fairy tales are simply delightful.... they look like petit fours/fairy cakes! Almost as if Nature had put pearl sugar (or whipped cream through a pastry bag!) on strawberry icing on a fairy sponge cake!
These "Toadstools" or Amanita muscaria as they are named are of course poisonous but I have read that they ARE edible if parboiled....OMG...Should I believe that? I am certainly not trying it in my mushroom soup...I am sticking to the white button and chanterelle mushrooms!
In Sweden we can pick mushrooms anywhere in (all) our woods.... Most Swedes who go mushroom picking actually go on a 2 weeks' Mushroom Course - evening classes, organised in all our towns - to first learn about all the mushrooms...or our local hospitals will certainly be in dire straits!!
Ooooohh.......The chanterelles are in plentiful now and delicious, fried in butter and topped on a toast....!
I don't usually have recipes in my blog but here is my favourite White Button Mushroom Soup:
500 gms mushrooms..... 1 onion.... 1 pod of garlic.....some thyme..... 2 teaspoons of butter.... 500 ml of chicken bouillon..... 300 ml milk...300 ml cream.... salt and pepper
Fry the chopped mushrooms, onions, garlic and thyme in the butter on low heat for at least 15 minutes. Pour the bouillon, milk and let simmer. Then add the cream. Salt n pepper to taste. Simmer and reduce to desired consistency. Serve with hot buttered toast and cheese.
Try it!!
On cold dark Swedish autumn evenings, it is a simple treat - but delectable indeed!
Enjoy the photos of the mushrooms - the names of which I have no idea!
Signing off for now.
C.S!
(Cresat Scientia)
Baby and Sunny
Here are my bonny wild sunflowers - Baby & Sunny that I wrote about a few blogs back...
They just started growing - out of the blue - in our handkerchief sized lawn at the back of our flat.... (from the sunflower seeds that the birds get in the winter....)...
Oh....what a joyful discovery it was ....
Moreover, Chris, (i.e Helen Mirren in the movie Calendar Girls) puts it soooooo perfectly that I have really nothing else to add to it....
Here it is again, in case it is difficult to read it on the photo....
"I don't think there's anything
on this planet that more trumpets
life than the sunflower.
For me that's because of the reason
behind its name. Not because it
looks like the sun but because it
follows the sun. During the course
of the day, the head tracks the
journey of the sun across the sky.
A satellite dish for sunshine.
Wherever light is, no matter how
weak, these flowers will
find it. And that's such an
admirable thing.
And such a lesson in life."
- Chris//Helen Mirrren
in Calendar Girls
And Mr Wilde put the last few days of the sunflowers so beautifully...
(see pictures of "Sunny" on 30th & 31st Aug) :
"The gaudy leonine sunflower
Hangs black and barren on its stalk,
And down the windy garden walk
The dead leaves scatter - hour by hour."
- Oscar Wilde
What more can I add to all this except my photos....?
Signing off for now.
C.S!
(Cresat Scientia)
