It was cellared at 50 degrees, then two months at 60-65 degrees, blew out of its wax jacket and had to be re-waxed twice, so the Propionic seemed to be going well, then spent the last month in the refrigerator. Still.
Still no round holes.
It should have round holes.
Still, it tastes really good. Maybe a bit too lactic, but with excellent texture, and I couldn’t help but eat all of the smaller part.
T’rest will be waxed and returned to its refiregitatored coldness.
Yummy snack!
-R
This is just a brief summary of my oyster mushroom adventures.
Pink oyster mushrooms are so pretty.
Tha pinkies are very enthusiastic growers:
Every time I see pins, I think of the that sequence in The Wizard of Oz with the Munchkins awakening (“wake up, you sleepy heads.”) Is that too gay? Don’t judge me!
Go nutz!
The proof is in the eating.
Mushroom casserole (it’s a Midwestern thing):
Pink oyster omelet with house bacon and sourdough toast.
Yum!
-R
Mushroom bags produce multiple “flushes,” (batches), the first one the most productive, then two or three more, each time with fewer mushrooms. This is the third flush from a pinky bag:
Pink oysters are just too pretty:
It takes maybe three hours a month for “maintenance mode,” by which I mean doing the grain jars and four (more or less) bags. I spend more time trying out new strains.
I’ve been lazy, and had some overdue jars:
So far of the three strains I’ve grown, two came from commercial sources (pinkies from a mycelium syringe, blues from a spore print), but I’m kind of prideful of the black oysters I took as a tissue sample from a grocery mushroom. I’m a little excited to be adding King Oyster, also from a tissue sample from a grocery mushroom. I had to take it through a couple of generations, but it’s an enthusiastic grower:
As for costings, it’s about 30 cents per grain jar for the rye, a few cents per bag for the straw, and the plastic bags themselves are 50 cents each, but they can be re-used. Counting all the flushes, I’m getting just under a pound per bag for the pinkies, and about 20 oz. per bag for the blues and blacks.
Can you crack the code?
-R
Allow me to suggest that “A Surfeit of Ricotta” really really wants to be a band name, preferably a death metal band.
I love Aldi because they have crazy low prices on the basic basics (salt, sugar, flour, oil), about half what you pay at Safeway or Giant. A pound of good-quality butter for $1.89, that’s a CRAZY LOW PRICE.
I hate them for their always-tempting ‘notions’ aisle, which starts off with kitchen gadgets that are surprisingly NOT crap, then moves onto things like Thermal Relief Blankets and Vaginal Steamers (okay, not that one yet, but it’s only a GOOPY matter of time).
Honestly, I could probably have happily lived out the remainder of my life without a potato ricer, but who can resist it with three separate discs for $4.99?
And, ridiculously large, 16″ is far more than one person can take, even on a good day, but $3.99?
Bought at around 8 p.m., but it called to me . . . and shouted, make easy pizza sauce!, and Betty Crocker has the easiest yeasty pizza crust recipe ever, so it became a 2 a.m. pizza, the latest since I was a drunk college student:
Making cheese, there’s always a surfeit of ricotta. Too much to eat fresh, so it goes into the freezer, then it’s only good for pizza:
I figured this was the most useless kitchen gadget ever, but in less than a month, I’ve made three ginormous 16 inchers. Salmon, shrimp, spinach:
Chicken, shrimp, peppers/onions, pink and black oyster mushrooms (before cooking):
Shrimp, hamburger and feta, roasted vegetables, broccoli:
Can I say . . .
Yum!
-R