Beet Hummus

We've been growing beets at our house since about May. They've been growing slowly, very slowly. Most of the year they've just been greens, but recently they've started to fatten up, at least some of them.
Ciara turned me onto Taste Spotting last year. It's basically a website that links to a bunch of food blogs. What I like most about the site is that you can search for dishes that have a certain ingredient in them, like beets, and it will give you a page or more of links to different blogs/recipes. It came in handy when we were getting a lot of produce from Organic to You and we didn't know what to do with it.

Taste Spotting is also a way to keep up on food trends. Yesterday I wanted to make some kale chips from some kale growing in our garden. I looked it up on Taste Spotting and found an obnoxious amount of blogs about kale chips. I guess kale chips are pretty trendy these days.

There is also a lot of blogs about beet hummus. I'm about to add to the list in a pretty lazy/easy way.

I made my beet hummus by wrapping two small beets in aluminum foil and baking them in the oven at 350 for an hour. I then peeled the beets and ran them through the food processor. Once the beets were cut up into mush, I added some store bought hummus to the food processor and blended it all together. The result is a sweet/savory hummus with a pretty rad color.I put my hummus on some Dave's Killer Bread and sprinkled some feta cheese on top. It was pretty good.

More Mushrooms

Ciara, Taleia and I went musrhooming last Wednesday. We tried a new spot closer to the ocean and it was beautiful. We saw a herd of elk, a Douglas Squirrel (about 2 feet from us) and a ton of mushrooms. The weather was also great and made pushing through the thick brush to find chanterelles easier to take. We ended up with about three pounds of chanterelles and lobster mushrooms, enough to cook up some now and put some up for storage.

Here are some pictures of us cooking up the lobsters.

Lobster Mushrooms

Yesterday, we dropped the dogs off at Club K-9, and drove out to the Salmon Huckleberry Wilderness, on the southern side of Mt. Hood.  On the hunt for more mushrooms.  We discovered and identified some chanterelles, bloody milkcaps, and lobster mushrooms.

Lobster mushrooms aren't exactly a mushroom.  It's a parasite, that attacks other mushrooms and completely takes over.  They smell and taste like lobster (or what i imagine lobster to  smell and taste like, i've never actually had lobster).  You can buy them in the supermarket for around $15/lb.  Or you can gather them for free in the woods.  They are really easy to identify and due to their bright colors, pretty easy to spot. 

Willis made a delicious tofu and lobster mushroom dinner.  He found the recipe here.  Below is his version (very similar with a few modifications).

Tofu and Lobster Mushrooms in Ginger Broth


1 ounce lobster mushrooms
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon ginger root, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
8 ounces firm tofu, cut into cubes
1 tablespoon mellow red miso
1 cup wild rice, cooked

In a medium-sized saucepan, simmer the mushrooms in the water for 30 minutes. Remove the mushrooms to a cutting board and pour the mushroom broth through a fine-mesh strainer into a 2-cup measuring cup. Add enough water to reach the 2-cup mark, and return the broth to the pan. Chop the mushrooms and add them to the pan, along with all ingredients except the miso.
Simmer on very low for 15 minutes. Stir miso into 1/4 cup water until it forms a smooth paste and add it to the tofu. Stir gently and return to heat for about 1 minute, and then serve over rice.

Guest Room: Phase One

When we first moved in to our new home, the spare room was our "office," merely because we were too lazy/cheap to buy a wireless router and it's the only room in the house with an internet jack.  We've been having a lot of visitors/temporary roommates lately, so we splurged and bought ourselves a fancy wireless router so we could move the "office" to the basement.  We also decided to spruce up our guest room a little bit.

Phase I: New Paint Color.  You can read all about my paint dilemma here.  I finally chose a color: Weathered Fossil.

BEFORE:

bandit getting into the trash.

AFTER:

 Stay tuned for Phase II.