What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking?

Porcini!!! The coastal fog and sunny weather has made for perfect foraging conditions. A few days ago we came home with 8 King Boletes including two as big as my head, in total around 6 lbs of mushrooms. The first night we made a risotto and I was surprised to find it had a slightly bland flavor. Often foraged mushrooms have an incredibly earthy flavor but this one didn't seem to. The following evening we made a porcini quiche that really carried some of that nice woody flavor along with a Rock Cod our friends brought over. We pan fried the Rock Cod with a miso glaze that turned out beautifully. Today we are making a mushroom/Wakame soup for lunch and I've already prepped, sliced, and laid out the remaining porcini in the dehydrator.

This time of year is really great for foraging near us. The mussels are safe to harvest again, some of the heartier seaweeds are ready to harvest, the winter storms are starting to deposit bull kelp, the miners lettuce is taking off, and the mushrooms are thriving with the intermittent rain. There is also a really strong spear fishing community here so it's easy to trade porcini for Rock Cod or Cabezon this time of year. Good eats all around!

I went to a ramen shop for the first time in years, and was absolutely blown away. I haven't had ramen since going vegetarian and didn't think the veggie version would hold up but it did! And now I'm on a quest to recreate what I had in the shop.

I tried a roasted butternut squash soup that turned out quite nice, but wasn't really what I was going for. It just tasted like blended squash instead of that deep umami flavor. I'm going to do some more research and take another crack at it this week.

Syrupy Candied Lemon Peels! I'll add it to my teas and toasted bread w/ schmear!