I love the earthy umami flavor of mushrooms. This recipe really highlights it by roasting the shrooms in butter and adding complementary salty and tart flavors to help the earthiness shine. A delicious sauce forms as the mushrooms roast, which can be soaked up with bread or potatoes. We had a low carb dinner of roasted shrooms and egg salad, so I ended up drinking the sauce since I didn’t have anything to soak it up. It was scrumptious!

I unexpectedly learned many ways to prepare wood ears (also called black fungus and cloud fungus) when my husband decided to rehydrate a whole package of them, not realizing it would turn into about half a gallon of shiny ear-shaped fungus! My affection for wood ears began one day in the office breakroom, when my colleague, “Sunshine,” was eating one of her many delicious smelling homemade lunches. I asked her about it and she told me the ingredients in her stir fry. She offered a wood ear for me to try. It tasted of the soy sauce and vegetables in her dish and had the texture of thin rubber, but in a really fun way!

We have a great source of local, organic mushrooms. Every week I have the privilege of picking up a couple of these beautiful portabellas at our local farm club. Invariably, I stuff them full of cheese and other complimentary ingredients. Cheese please, I chant!
 
This is a quick, easy, and always delicious dinner. Last night, I used cheddar cheese, refried beans, hot sauce, onion, and dill. It took less than 30 minutes, start to finish. I baked them in our mini convection oven, to save energy and heat up the house less.