Morel mushrooms: a delicacy for today and the future
There’s more than one way to cook a mushroom, but there’s only one great way.
There are many recipes for morels, and I have never found a bad one, but breading and frying is still my favorite way to go.
Morels have no fat and one medium mushroom has about five calories but frying and breading add both, of course.
The best way I have found for turning morels into a not-to-be-forgotten gastronomical delight is simply to fry them (halved, or quartered lengthwise) with a good breading. While they are frying, they should be flattened softly into the bottom of the skillet with a spatula. Each side, of course, should be treated equally. The pieces should be well-browned in plenty of cooking agent, but not burned, Caps and stems of morels are hollow. Stems are eaten.
My breading consists of equal parts of good crackers rolled very fine and mixed with an equal part of flour and a trace of cornmeal. Dip half a mushroom or pieces in a mixture of egg and milk (equal parts), then roll in the cracker-meal mix and fry in real butter.
Big morels may be stuffed and many recipes are available the call for spinach and onion mixtures. They can also be baked with pasta or vegetable, then served with cream sauces.
They can also liven up stuffings, gravies, soups, or veggies. I’ve never found a veggie dish that did not improve (especially a creamed dish) when cooked with morels.
Mushrooms are usually not quite as tasty after being frozen, but if breaded, half-fried before freezing, they can easily be thawed and re-fried. I bread and half-fry them before freezing on a cookie sheet, then store them frozen in bags or airtight jars. They will keep nicely for years.
You can also dry morels and keep them at room temperature in their dried form. When you are ready to eat, soak them to revive and cook. They can be dried with a food dryer, or threaded on a string and suspended in a low-heat oven before being stored in freezer bags or jars. If they are dried well, there is no need for freezing.
Written by Bill Scifres, an outdoor writer who has been named legendary communicator by the Fresh Water Fish Hall of Fame.
Six Ways to Safely Move a Heavy Object
Moving a heavy piece of furniture to another room or a heavy piece of equipment to storage? Here’s how to do it without hurting your back:
1. Clear the path from all possible obstructions. Give yourself plenty of room. Measure doors to see if they have to be removed to give you a few extra inches to get through.
2. Particularly if you are lifting with another person’s help, know exactly where you plan to place the object so you don’t have to move it several times.
3. Decide where you will grip the object and where you will put it down if you have to. If there are no acceptable grip points, strap it to a dolly.
4. If you are lifting an object by yourself, don’t overload. It’s safer to make two trips with a 30-pound load than to carry 60 pounds at once.
5. Never lift from a position that causes you to twist your back to one side or the other. If necessary, slide the heavy object into an open space so you can lift it straight up.
6. Bend your knees to lift instead of bending your back.
10 Rules for Building Wealth
1. Start early. By saving $1,000 a year at age 25, you could end up with five times what you’d have if you started at age 45.
2. Use your 401(k). You put in pretax dollars so it’s a great savings plan. Passing up employer contributions is giving up free money.
3. Keep it simple. Choosing three or four index funds and a small-cap stock fund will give you broad exposure.
4. Don’t try to beat the market. Even the best fund managers have trouble beating the S&P 500.
5. Don’t chase trends. If you hear about a “hot” stock, investigate it. Go to investopedia.com.
6. Make saving automatic. If you are maxing out your 401(k), get payroll deductions transferred to a Roth IRA or a high-interest savings account.
7. Go heavy on stocks. The simplest formula: subtract your age from 120. That’s the percentage you should have in stocks, the rest should be in bonds.
8. Hold down fees. Be wary of any mutual fund charging a management fee higher than 1 percent. Or stick with an index fund.
9. Get rid of credit card debt. Rank them by their interest rate and pay off those with the highest rates first. For low-interest student loans, consider making minimum payments and investing in your 401(k) instead.
10. Defer taxes. In a taxable account, you’ll pay 15 percent in capital gains taxes every time you sell a winner you’ve owned for more than a year. At tax time, sell losers to take advantage of the annual $3,000 capital loss deduction.
