Weekend Mushroom Finds. From The Family Pleurotus.

 That is "Oyster Mushrooms" for the non-fluent Latin speakers. ( Which is everyone except Latin teachers and Scientists.)   This weekend,  between small tasks and events,  we managed to find a few Late Fall Oyster Mushrooms of several different varieties.   Dave offered his Mushroom Finding services to me on Satureday, and I happily took him up on it.  He is, after all, an "Eagle Eye"  when it comes to finding mushrooms.  

I was also happy that he pretty much found all of the mushrooms on Saturday.   It is fun finding mushrooms that you can eat and readily identify.   These are Fall Oyster... I don't know the scientific name.... but it is Fall... and we did find them. So I think the name shall remain. 

It was  a pretty nice cluster.  Enough for a decent meal at least.  Given the color and the yellow staining, I think it is an Angel  Wing Oyster Mushroom. Dave also found some Honey Mushrooms and an small hen of the woods that was past its prime.  ( we brought it home anyway...)  There was also plenty of Fresh Turkey Tail out there. 

Today was the special Reformation service at the Highschool.   Dave and I went to go help set things up, but managed to miss the big event.  On the bright side, I was there to help tear everything down after the service, so I think it all evens out.  There was also coffee and goodies after the service.   Good times! 

I managed to head out on a solo expedition this afternoon checking out new territory.  I did not find many, but the ones I did find were HUGE!   Pleurotus Levis... I think.  It could also be Pleurotus Dryinus.  Both are  edible, from what I gather.   Although the word "Choice" is often left out.  Mostly because it seems like a very tough mushroom.  I will see how adventurous Dave is in the future, for trying such an item.  

Pretty firm and tough.

I also saw some wildlife along the way.   The small steam that cuts through the property had Salmon spawning in it.  Try as I might, it was impossible to take its picture without the glare of the water getting in the way. 

Some were a little too far out of reach for me.

There was also a deer eating on the football field near the park entrance.   Full sunshine!  Not a care in the world.  I paused for a moment to try to head back for a photo... but  Everyone has seen a deer already and it would have been difficult to capture. 

Los of small fall oysters that are past their prime.

Work tomorrow.  I better get some rest and hopefully get over this little sinus issue before morning.  IT ha driving me crazy lately.  However,  I think I'm getting better now.  No sore throat or cough.  Just the constant sniffles.   Grrrr.  Change in the weather perhaps. 

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Weekends seem to fly by so quickly lately.   I forgot to mention that I showed Subie some love by changing the oil and Rainex-ing the window. He is good to go for the next 3000 miles!  I also got him back from the Mechanic on Thursday after having all 4 bearings replaced.   From the sound of it, he was definitely overdue.  

Thanks for stopping in.

A Little Slice Of Heaven...Steals The Show!

A few weeks ago,  one of the Families from Church invited Dave and me to a Walleye Fish Fry!  How could I possibly say no?   They informed us that they would get things ready and set the day for Thursday ( yesterday)   I was very excited, because Deep Fried Walleye brings back so many great memories from those days of fishing as a kid.  ( and teenager... and adult!) There were others who got to join us ( five guests in total!)  and it was sold to us by Dave that everything was bound to be home made and delicious.  Jerry was an avid Fisherman and was a master at cooking fish.  Helen had already entered the Crockpot Cook off last weekend and was known for her side dish cooking skills.   It was bound to be a great meal. 

Walleye frying up!

And almost as an after thought,  Dave added that Helen would probably  top things off with a slice of apple pie. 

The walleye did not disappoint.  The guys separated to the Man cave to cook fish, drink beer, and swap fish stories and cooking techniques.  The ladies hung out in the kitchen and did "Girl Stuff".   ( Men don't know what women do  or talk about in private... It is part of their mystery....) 

The table was set.

Ok, That is not entirely true.   Helen was busy cooking up some Potato Cakes as the side dish.  Along with coleslaw, Pickled beets, and sliced Rye bread.  I was put in charge of keeping the fish warm by racing to the kitchen and transferring the fillets to the oven. in hardly any time at all, the entire meal was ready and we dug in. 

It was great!  As expected.   The Walleye was wonderful and I made sure there were no left over scraps to be thrown away.   ( Who would throw away fried Walleye?)  Well,  just in case...  Dave and I made sure.  The entire meal was as delicious as  we had been prepared for.     I can't stress this enough...  Everything  about the meal was a Home Run.  

And then Helen served us Dessert.    

A single slice of apple pie with a single scoop of Ice cream. 

And everything changed.    

Helen's Apple pie.

My mind was completely blown away when a single slice of apple pie could trump an entire meal of Fried Walleye and Home Made Potato Pancakes!   Especially when Apple Pie is not my favorite.  Oh, I'll eat it and enjoy it... But if given a case of pies,  Apple will be near the bottom of my choices.   Usually because there is such a huge list of factors conspiring to keep it there.   The filling is too chewy, or sweet. The crust  is too tough,  or soft, or damp... The apples are too mushy or  tart.   There is always something about apple pies that fail to excite me. 

Yes...  My reaction was captured.

But Helen's apple pie changed all of that.   My dear readers,  I'm not lying when I say that this was possibly the best pie I have ever had.  EVER! There was only one other instance:  a french silk pie in Alaska, that comes close to  challenging  this experience.   Words fail me in describing the taste.   The texture.   The hot and cold mingled with the creamy of the ice cream.   And the  soft crunch of the nut laden topping.  

Nuts?   Yes!  Walnuts.   Lightly toasted and placed on top. How is that possible?  Who would have ever thought of such a thing?  All I could say was:  "This Pie is AMAZING!"   over and over again.   To the point where even I became uncomfortable. It was simply Amazing!  

I offered to buy one to bring home to Cheryl next week.   Helen said she would give me the recipe.   But.... I know that making a pie is MORE than a simple recipe.  It is love and art and skill and craftsmanship.... combined and baked at the perfect temperature for the perfect amount of time.   It takes years or LOTS to trial and error to get such a creation right.  She even hinted that she got the recipe from a newspaper but added and removed things to make it her own.  ( Something an artist would do...)   For example... No raisins!  And cinnamon instead of ginger. Butter instead of Crisco. Etc. etc...

Now I know that the atmosphere can play a heavy role in making or breaking a meal.   And the atmosphere was great!  True.  But as I stopped to savor each bite... and searched for how the apples could be so soft and melty while  still tasting like apples.   The crust  was so soft and flaky...  you ate the wrap around the edge!  The Walnuts....  Who would ever think to put Walnuts on an apple pie?  Lightly Toasted!  

I have spent time in the kitchen watching Cheryl unravel the mystery of the perfect fruit pie.  It is no joke and takes a lot of failures to get something to turn out "right". Mom never did it.  My Grandmothers were supposed to be awesome pie makers... but I do not remember any of their pies being particularly special.  ( Mostly because Mom set the bar pretty low.) I lived among the Amish for 12 years!  And their pies are pretty good!   Helen's pie blows them out of the water and into outer space!  Unless I attend some national Champion Pie Bake off... I believe this pie will archived as the best Pie I have ever had in my life.   It has set the bar so high, I don't know if Helen will ever be able to reach it again.  In fact!   Helen should enter that pie into a contest!  She would win!

So that was it..   The best pie ever.  EVER!   I was stunned when no one else was having the same reaction as I was.  Dave admitted later in the car that if he had not been trying so hard to be polite, he would have asked for a second slice!  ( That's what I'm talking about!)  I was afraid I was going to cross that thin line from "Extremely Enthusiastic" to "Annoying and Bothersome" with my compliments.   Or rather... My "This pie is AMAZING!" line... Over and over again.  How can you top a Walleye Dinner with a single slice of pie?   Such a feat should be impossible!

So...If you have read this far and have not yet got the impression that I really REALLY liked this pie.   I will leave you with this:  I would want to be able to give a slice of  Helen's Pie to each and every person I have ever loved in my life.   Everyone.   So they can share that pure emotion of joy that I felt for that brief moment in time.  

That's it.  The end.  A pie like no other I have ever experienced.   A slice of heaven.  

Thanks for stopping in.

Mid Week Turkey Tail.

A quick post about the latest Mushroom finds:  Turkey Tail!   We had a bit of rain over the last two days and the cooler weather has blown in.   Unfortunately,  the cold weather has also dampened the mushroom hunting along with the warm weather.   However,  I did manage to find some new growth Turkey Tail on one of the logs that popped up earlier this summer. 

Being fresh is the best time to harvest and grind it up... so I discovered.   The hard way!   My poor coffee grinder did not like dry, hardened Turkey Tail at ALL!   And would often overheat trying to chop up those bits of ferrous metal. 

Pretty colors!

But today, I managed to harvest a basket full and process it all.   It is now ready for future tea moments....  

By the way... It taste awful!   Maybe not "awful"  but pretty bad.   Like dirt mostly.... with a little mushroom flavor.   The best tip I can give is to brew it with other tea flavors.  Preferably ones that have a strong flavor.  And lots of sweetener, milk and/or honey!  

Why drink it?   The benefits to health!   Turkey tail boosts immunity and cancer resistance.  And who would not want that?  

And it is a mushroom... And I like mushrooms. 

Oh!   And in case it needs to be mentioned:  Dave and I both ate the Shaggy Parasol mushroom and survived without any ill effects. No tummy ache,  no bathroom emergencies,  and no dying!   Plus!  It was a pretty good tasting mushroom!   So I consider that a success.  The Shaggy Parasol is not a beginner mushroom...  So that means we have leveled up!   In out "Mushroom Aptitude and Competency."   And we can add another Mushroom to our bag for future harvests.

Mid week already!   The week flies by.   I had the opportunity to help Cheryl change out one of the headlights in the Bean Subaru tonight.   One of them had burned out and she had to replace it.  Not an easy task for one who has never worked on a car before.   But she pulled it off like a champ with a little coaching from me.  Over the phone.... texting.   Good thing I'm not a 2 writer.  ( inside scoring joke.) 

Better make this post short.  I have to get up for work tomorrow and it is already getting late.   Thanks for stopping in. 

Trunk Or Treat And The Shaggy Parasol.

Yesterday was a busy day.   There was a Crock Pot cook off, A Trick or Trunk... Or something like that.   And I won at Cribbage!  Did I mention we went out to Red Robins?  Ah...   Well,  I shall start from the beginning. 

After a morning run,  Dave's Son came over and we had a good chat while playing Cribbage.   Cribbage is kind of a thing here in the Pagel family,   and I have been invited to join in from time to time.   Dave is usually the master, but occasionally his kids get the better of him.   And once in a while a Dark hose like me is able to pull off a miracle.   I squeaked out a one point win after coming from behind!  I'm still in disbelief!  

With hardly any time to spare, we piled in to the car and raced off to the Crock Pot Cook off!   Dave was a judge, and I tagged along for some home cooked comfort food.   For $5!  I got to sample all of the dishes...  Total Bargain.   

I don't have any pics of the event, but the turn out was rather disappointing.   I'm sure the ladies put their heart and soul into their creations and Dave and I were among the handful of folks who showed up.   The good news of this was that Dave and I also entered the silent auction on many of the baskets that were provided.   We won almost Everything we bid on!  ( Dave lost the Bears Tickets for some Family Member who is a Bears fan.)  I won coffee and a Klean Kanteen!  Yeah!  

Then... Off to the next event.   Trunk or Treat!   The Church was throwing a community event and over 300 folks showed up!   The parking lot was completely full and Dave had to direct traffic  and guide people to park in ways that was not normal.  To say it was a success would probably be an understatement.  

Lots of kids showed up and showed off their costumes.   Christina got in the mood by scaring the crap out of small children in her spooky Witch outfit.   And there was lots of candy and activities for everyone.  Caramel apples, cookies, sugar sugar and more sugar to help the parents sleep at night.  It was a successful outreach for the church. 

And afterwards... Red Robin for burgers.  Several of the other "Trunk Buddies" joined us at the gathering. 

Today,  I was able to do a little forest Therapy after church and hunt for any new mushrooms.   The pickings were slim, even though the weather has been fantastic this weekend.   I did manage to bring the camera though, and capture a few Autumn moments. 

The color has been spectacular this year.  Then again, I'm n Wisconsin. It helps where there are lots of trees.   I didn't find many mushrooms, but I did find the Shaggy Parasol.   An Edible mushroom,  although there is strong caution behind it.   It still might make you sick, even if fully cooked!  But the taste is supposed to be pretty good and there are recipes.   It is not the Parasol mushroom.. which is also edible and has less of a warning attached to it.   We shall see how frisky I feel tomorrow.   And if I actually roll the dice and try a small bit of it to see if the taste is worth the risk.  Hey!  At least it wont kill me.  

One of the cool features is that it stains orange when you cut the stem.   First yellow.... then orange.   Pretty cool. 

Back to work tomorrow.  I thought I would have been able to blog during the week last week, but nothing really happened that would have been blog worth.  AND the entire week ran by so quickly, I hardly had time to do much of anything.   I should mention I got my eyes checked ( Apparently, I'm blind and need new glasses.)  and Subie is in the shop to get his rear end checked out.   ( A rear bearing, methinks.)  The verdict is still up in the air as for how much my glasses will cost or the car repair will set me back.   But I have my fingers crossed that I will be able to afford it all.   Hopefully.  

Puffball Fun!

Thanks for stopping in.

The Rain, The Race, The Dragon, The Hawk.... And the Home Of Tomorrow.

That is a lot of stuff to cover in One blog post!   I better get busy!

This past weekend was so eventful,  I have already forgotten most of what happened!   Good things I have pictures... I think...  Of the things I saw and did over the brief 48 hour period.  It all seems like a blur because it was over so quickly.  Then again,  Time always seems to fly when you are having fun...  

At least I think it was fun.   Let''s get started!

So...Cheryl Signed up for a Half Marathon in Naperville, IL.  And she was kind enough to invite me to join her.   Thankfully, it was only an hour and a half away from where I am currently residing, so I did not have to begin traveling until Saturday morning.  This allowed me to experience a Football game at the local Lutheran Highschool.  Shoreland Lutheran got beat by Lake County Lutheran by nearly 30 points! ( 48-19 final)  It was cold, windy and rainy!  And I wore shorts to the game... because....  Arctic Infantry?   Call it:  "Practice being Miserable."  Because that was what it was.   I got wet,  and cold.  But at least I didn't have to stay for the entire game to realize the home team was going to lose this one.  Shoreland is a Very small high school and apparently, they have very few players.  Many are freshmen and sophomores and they end up playing both ways for offense and defense.   So... Not a lot of horses to draw from when injuries thin the herd.   But this was their last game for the season... and I got to watch it!   Half of it at least..

Off to Chicago!  Or Naperville, if you want to be specific.  Cheryl linked up with me at the expo and we picked up the packet for the race.   The race was in the early morning and the temps had not warmed up at all since the previous night.  Good thing I had all of that misery training from the football game!  

The race started at 7 AM... So there was very little else to do except run for a cheer spot and cheer her on.   I was able to get her at several spots because the race was a giant loop twice around the area/town.

While cheering,  I was able to get a selfie with one of the local Mascots.  Let no mascot escape from my blog trophy case!

Cheryl started too far in the back, and lost precious seconds trying to get ahead of many slower people.   Around the second loop, she finally started to catch her stride and move up from 19th female to 12th at the finish.  It was a close race for her with the #13 lady.   Who had the strangest stride of all of the females out there.   She ran as if she had a birth defect!  Yet she was FAST!   under 7.5 minute a mile fast!   for 13 miles!  She was ahead of Cheryl most of the first half and was right on Cheryl's heels at the finish line.  Handy cap?   I think not!

Cheryl won first in her age group and was pretty excited about the run.  She is now looking forward to a possible Marathon in the future.   We shall see before I make any projections on the blog.  But... there it is. 

After the race,   we went to IKEA for some meatballs and window shopping.   Cheryl found all of the windows IKEA had and checked them out.

She also wanted to show off her new corner office from her job.  

I never knew Kalona had high rise buildings!   Living in the city must be brutal.  So Cheryl wanted to check out the bedrooms for a quick nap.  

Visiting IKEA seems to have become a bit of a tradition as of late.  I think this is the most we have visited IKEA and not bought anything except the food.  Ok... A few minor purchases.  But no major furniture or housewares!  It's kind of fun going there even when you are not in the market for any specific thing to add to your small apartment.  It's also nice not having to worry about how you will be getting it home...

See the runners approaching?

One final note from the race:   While waiting near the finish line,  a Hawk dropped down on the bridge wall and sat there... watching the runners run by mere inches away.  I wondered, at first, if it was a duck from the river... looking for a handout or something.   But upon closer inspection, it was... in fact...  a Hawk! 

Domesticated?   I don't know.   Friendly?   I'm thinking yes!    He flew down by this kid who was sitting only a few feet away on the same wall.  Kind of a cool experience.

  I even went back after Cheryl had finished her race to show her.   By then, the hawk had flown up onto the lightpost near by,  but was still in the area!  A small crowd had gathered to check out the bird and not just the runners.  I suppose that might have been a little too uncomfortable for the bird.   But not enough to fly away completely.   Perhaps he was just curious.   Or maybe he was scared a runner might get hungry or something...

What kind of bird is that???

A long post.  And it is getting late.   Better wrap this up and try to get it posted before it gets too late.   I hope everyone had a great weekend.   Weekends seem to fly by now that both Cheryl and I have both have jobs.   And now that we have been living in separate states.  But for now....  Enjoy the moment.   Or at least the memory of the moment.   After all... Isn't that part of what blogging is all about?   Thanks for stopping in.