Hen of the Wood aka Maitakes

   I didn't marry a hunter or a guy that talks guns or has hunting stickers on the back of his truck, but recently my husband has become interested in two of the fore mentioned.  He has been sporting camo and heading into the woods behind our house in the early morning and late afternoon.  I'm not against hunting for food, but I haven't been horribly disappointed when he has come home empty handed.  On his most recent hunting trip he did bring us home something to cook up for dinner.  A huge cluster of Maitake mushrooms.  I had never seen them before, so first we looked them up and made sure that is what he had found.  Don't worry mom!

 Then he spent a long time washing them and laying them out to dry.  One cluster ended up being a huge amount of mushrooms.  After they were somewhat dry I bagged most of them to put in the freezer.

We tried our first batch sauteed with garlic, onions and peppers.  I thought they tasted a lot like Shaitake mushrooms.  We googled them and found lots of different recipes, one site said we could use them in anything that called for a white button mushroom.  I'm excited to try some pasta sauces and mushroom quesadillas.

Good thing he had his camo on...