Skip to main content

Enjoy Free Bounty

Do you enjoy free food when you find it?  When friends offer free food do you take it?  How about going out an looking, hunting or fishing for free food in the "wild"?  Well, we've always taken whatever has been given for us for food, but I have to say that this week's gift of found food has to top the list for us!  We were given fresh morel mushrooms!    What a gift and blessing, for sure!
Setting aside Mr. Right's want to just fry them in butter and eating them, I decided to look for a new recipe to spread out the enjoyment a little more.  My son let me know that he had some onion scapes read to harvest, too, so I was excited to find a recipe that called for chives, so I substituted the onion scapes instead, making another free bounty for our meal.
Here's what the scapes look like, garlic scapes taste even better than these, but they don't even have as strong of a taste as chives do.  Cutting the flower off the onion before it blooms encourages the plant to focus on the onion, so this actually helps the plant!
 The recipe that I adapted for this recipe can be found here at Cooks.com.  Instead of the asparagus in this recipe, I used large, fresh button mushrooms that were on sale (cheaper than the asparagus this week!).  To clean morels, soak them in lightly salted water for 2 hours.  Rinse and use as directed.

Morels & Buttons with Fettuccine

  • 1/2 lb. Button Mushrooms, washed and chopped
  • 2 tbsp. butter
  • 3/4 lb. morel mushrooms, stems trimmed, cleaned and cut in half lengthwise
  •  2 C. heavy cream (I used half and half, with heavy cream)
  • 2 tbsp. flour
  • 3 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp. lemon zest
  • 1/2 lb. fettuccine pasta
  • 1/2 c. fresh chopped onion scapes or chives
  • 3 tbsp. fresh grated parmigiana or Romano cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste
In a large skillet over high heat, add butter and scapes or chives, heating until it just begins to brown. 

Meanwhile, start water boiling to cook the pasta.  Add pasta and cook to al dente.  Transfer to  a strainer and rinse with warm water.  Set aside until mushroom sauce is ready.

 Mix in flour and add morels and buttons.  Cook until tender, about 5 minutes. 

 Add cream, cooking until thickened, about 10 minutes.  Add lemon juice and zest.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Transfer pasta to the sauce in pan and let it warm up briefly if needed.

 Sprinkle with fresh parmigiana cheese to serve.
Mr. Right is not crazy about eating meatless meals, but he even commented that this tasted so good, he'd go without the mushrooms!  I know it's a basic sauce, but his opinion was that it tasted  like a stroganoff and was so good, he didn't miss the meat in it!  Trust me, that's a huge compliment!

Hope you enjoy!  I just wanted to share how we try to Enjoy the Free Bounty during morel season - thanks so much to our good friends!  Check out those blogs I love to link up to.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

DIY Pig Feeder

  This is our second year of raising pigs for the fair.  We've had some bumps along the way, one of them was our homemade feeder of last year.  I tend to have ideas, and then Mr. Right gets the pleasure of trying to execute my ideas.  Most of the time it works out, but last year, our feeder was a fail.   This year, we need a feeder that can go a long period of time, since our pigs are not on our property where we live.  Our neighbor made a complaint about the smell of the pigs last year to our landlord, so the landlord told us no more pigs. (Keep in mind, there are only 2 pigs on 6 acres and they are only here for 5 months and then go to the 4-H fair and livestock auction) Thankfully, another neighbor graciously allowed us to pen up a corner of her horse pen, to put our pigs in.    This year, I wanted to be sure that Mr. Right did a quality version of the pig feeder that would make it through the entire five months, and hopefully...

Drop Cloth Couch Re-do

It's my 100th Post!  What a great big reveal I have in store for you today! Three years ago, I found  Miss Mustard Seeds' 6 part How to Make Slipcovers Series  and started with watching the first video.  I ran out to Home Depot and purchased two drop clothes, washed and bleached them to get ready for making the slipcovers for my two couches, and there they sat folded nicely in my craft room!  A year ago, we moved across the country, so I packed those drop clothes up in a box, clearly marked them and put them on the truck.  When we arrived, I put them in front of all my other boxes to do first.  We even moved again over Christmas, and I moved that box again!  Then, I did a pillow re-do,  HERE  that pushed me over the edge.  I just had to tackle those slip covers! Before of the couch and the pillows that began the entire thing!  I  had a Saturday, where the guys were doing guy things and it was me and the girls hom...

Top 5 Gifts for the Piano Student

As a piano teacher, I thought I'd put out there some of my top recommendations for great, yet practical and fun gifts for the piano student this holiday season!   1.  Piano Maybe you weren't totally sold on your child playing piano, or maybe you got an instrument to get you thru the interim, until you find or can afford that better instrument, but what student wouldn't be ecstatic about receiving a better one for Christmas (or consider buying it for your family)?   Here's a great article that will get you started in  making the right decision: The Ins and Outs of Buying a Piano.     If you're wanting to order a digital piano, here are two recommendations: Be sure that you have a stand, pedal, and bench for use with the digital piano. 2.  Metronome I love this one But this one is great too!   3.  New Music Ok, so this one takes a little research.  Ask your piano ...