Fun with Fungi

For Brian's birthday the girls and I bought him a mushroom growing box. He loves mushrooms and the girls and I firmly boycott them. So we thought this would be fun for him.

We started with a box and a small spray bottle.

And they just took off like wildfire. 

Before we knew it we had a mushroom garden in our playroom. 

So with that I figured I might as well cook something with it. 

Pesto, Tomato, Oyster Mushroom Pasta Dish

Ingredients

• About 8 ounces of oyster mushrooms trimmed
• 1 can petite diced tomato
• 4TB butter
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• One jar of pesto sauce (or 1/2 cup of homemade)
• 4 servings of your favorite pasta (I used spaghetti)

Steps:

1. Heat water to a boil in a large stock pot (for pasta). Cook until al dente. 
2. Trim the mushrooms to 2" pieces. Heat butter and garlic in large saucepan. Add mushrooms and saute 5 minutes. Turn up heat and cook mushrooms until they begin to brown. 
3. Add tomatoes and juice. Cook 2 minutes. Add pesto and turn off the heat. 
4. When pasta is al dente drain and add to the mushrooms. Turn to coat and serve with fresh parmesan and basil. 

 

Backyard Update

We're still plugging away in our back yard. We've made a fair amount of progress but this oddly rainy summer is NOT helping one bit.

Brian and Grace started work on the swing-set built into the trees.

The bar is in place and ready to rock. 

Grace made sure it was good and safe. 

And the garden is coming along slowly but surely. We're just praying the rain doesn't totally ruin what we have growing.