Cooked or raw, enoki mushrooms can add flair to any meal, from breakfast (omelets) to lunch (salads) to dinner (with beef or other protein). Photo by Kelly Cline | IST.
It’s National Mushroom Month, a great time to come up with some new mushroom recipes and enjoy. In fact, try some new varieties of mushrooms.
While mushrooms are often packed in plastic wrap on the shelf, that wrap is usually a special, air-permeable variety.
Never store loose mushrooms in plastic wrap or plastic bags. Mushrooms contain a lot of moisture, and a plastic enclosure increases the humidity, which in turn causes more rapid deterioration.
Even the heartiest mushroom won’t last more than a few days, so buy only what you need fresh and roll them in paper towels.
If you have more mushrooms than you can use, here are four tips on what to do with them.
Who wouldn’t want an invitation to the homes of Mary Ann McCormick and Nicole Nordensved? These mother-daughter bakers make such delicious cookies that friends and neighbors urged them to go into business.
The result, Lark Fine Foods of Essex, Massachusetts, is dedicated to making “deliciously different artisan cookies for grown-ups.”
Highly flavorful and not overly sweet, the all-natural cookies are made by hand in small batches using fresh ingredients.
We tried two of the eight varieties, Polenta Pennies and Salted Rosemary Shortbread. Both were excellent and make a beautiful presentation to enjoy with coffee or tea, or for a light dessert with fresh fruit, ice cream or sorbet. The Polenta Pennies, laced with lemon zest and golden raisins, also complement a cheese plate.
Polenta Pennies: a delight for home enjoyment or for gifts. Photo courtesy Lark Fine Foods.
Other flavors include Cha-Chas, the spiced chocolate shortbread that started the entrepreneurs in business; Coco Locos, buttery coconut cookies with a touch of rum; Lady Birds, whole grain cookies with chocolate chips and dried cranberries; Mighty Gingers, chewy cookies with lots of ginger; Russian Teacakes, butter balls with nuts, covered in confectioners’ sugar; and Scourtins, French-style sweet and savory olive wafers.
The sturdy, handsome packages are giftable, and we’ve put them on our holiday list. At $6.00 a package, they’re a delectable gourmet treat for recessionary times.
You can buy the cookies online at LarkFineFoods.com. There’s a retail store locator on the website.
How many types of cookies can you name? Check out our beautiful Cookie Glossary.
Measuring cup for both fluid ounces and dry ounces, from Taylor. This one has an easy digital readout.
Do you know the difference between ounces (that is, between dry ounces and fluid ounces)?
If you don’t, it’s easy to screw up recipes by substituting one for the other. Make sure to use either a fluid ounces measuring cup or a dry measuring cup, as appropriate to the recipe. The measuring cup shown in the photo has fluid ounce markings on one side and dry ounces on the other. But it’s easier to measure dry ingredients from a set of graduated cups (1 cup, 3/4 cup, 2/3 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/4 cup and 1/8 cup).
The ounce (dry ounce or avoirdupois ounces, abbreviated as .oz) measures mass or weight.
The fluid ounce (fl. oz.) measures volume.
Weight and volume are not analogous to solid and liquid. Weight and volume have nothing to do with the property of the materials. How much a fluid ounce will weigh, for example, depends on the density of the fluid.
What Makes Things Confusing
There are 16 ounces in a pound, and 16 fluid ounces in a pint. But that doesn’t mean you can substitute a dry measurement for liquid measurement.
A fluid ounce of water weights a bit more than a dry ounce (1.043 ounces per fluid ounce), so here the substitution is almost equal. But for any other liquid (olive oil or juice, for example) substitution will result in very different quantities.
What To Do About It
Make sure you’re using the right measure—especially if you have a dual-measuring cup that has fl.oz. markings on one side and dry ounce markings on the other.
If you love those soft-and-crunchy half-popped kernels in the popcorn bowl, you’ll love Halfpops.
We are very fond of those special kernels, so it’s no surprise that Halfpops, new in the marketplace, has become one of our favorite snacks.
Not only are these crunchy kernels great with a beverage—beer and wine are our beverages of choice here—but they are terrific garnishes for salads, soups and other foods.
And Halfpops are a guilt-free snack: Popcorn is a whole grain.
Crunchy nuggets with a cinnamon blush. Photo courtesy Kashi Company.
Our grandfather loved Post Shredded Wheat, and we came to love it too—despite the fact that his daughter (Mom) didn’t like it and wouldn’t keep it in the house. So when we went to Grandpa’s, our treat was getting to eat as many bowls of it as we could.
When we left for college, Shredded Wheat became a go-to comfort food, standing in for many a dinner as well as breakfast.
Today we know that Shredded Wheat and similar boxed cereals are whole grain powerhouses. When we saw that Kashi Company’s Autumn Wheat contained 50g of whole grains—even more than the recommended daily value—we switched brands and started each day with a bowl of Kashi. (The flavor is better, too.)
Now the Kashi Company, known for its tasty organic cereals, has launched Cinnamon Harvest: crunchy, bite-size whole wheat biscuits splashed with ground cinnamon and organic evaporated cane juice crystals.
Just one serving contains 47g of the 48g recommended daily value (DV) of whole grains, and 20% of one’s daily fiber.
It’s a great snacking cereal, too, and is also available in Island Vanilla, made with finely-ground vanilla beans.
