The butter makes the portobello, they absorb any flavors. Rich, creamy butters like vegan cashew or clarified grass fed dairy are my favorites. I use them as a substitute for potatoes, rice or noodles when making a rich, filling dinner, like steaks.

Our first rains arrived this week, and in six months, we will have wild chanterelles growing in the woods. We don’t wait for rain, we grow yellow or white chanterelles indoors in a planterbox, year-round, on sawdust and potting soil, feed it acid coffee grinds to grow in.We always keep some dried mushrooms on hand for vegan dinner guests. Dried mushrooms reconstitute well in warm water and cook up beautifully in cashew butter with this vegan egg white recipe. You can order chanterelle spores on line for $6. The spores easily produce over $100 in mushrooms every six months. In your window.#GlobalApron

A pheasant is a beautiful small bird, barely enough meat for dinner for two, but definitely one of the most special candle dinners you can make. Hunting season is now till Christmas in Califonia. Or, you can buy two dozen pheasant chicks in early spring for $5 a piece, fully grown 8 months later, by winter.Escape artists, they love an 8’ tall aviary that has rosemary shrubs, climbing roses and corn planted inside to hide in, and you need to make a double door entry to keep them locked in.Jumbo ringnecks are the best for cooking. Delicious with wild rice, apple chutney and oyster mushrooms.Pheasant meat is gamey and dry, but stays moist and tender if slathered in and out with garlic truffle butter and then skillet fried with the lid on to keep them from drying out.You can also order a whole freshly butchered pheasant on line for $15 to $20, shipped UPS ground, arrives frozen four days later. Amazing service.Or…. You can buy a cornish rock hen for $4 and follow my encrusted rock hen recipe, they look like pheasants when baked this way, see below.#GoldenApron23

I have a friend who is a mushroom scientist, she knows all the flavors of all the mushrooms. I like the flavor of veal, she recommended woodear mushrooms. For extra creaminess, I added shiitake mushrooms, I order them dried from Amazon, so I have them year round. Here is the vegetarian recipe to make a creamy mushroom sauce that tastes like veal.

Our favorite mushroom pickling is spring mushrooms in taragon with fennel herb vinegar and then preserving in lemon grass oil. They taste delicious all year with cheese and crackers, and avocado sandwiches. This recipe explains how we make this herbal vinegar and lemon grass oil at home. Takes one hour. The vinegar and oil stay beautiful all year if you keep them in green glass bottles in the dark.Mushrooms are sprouting six weeks after the first winter rains. You pick them in the woods, grow them in the window or buy them in the store. To grow them at home, see my mushroom growing kit recipes in here.

A whole chicken, briefly poached, then simmered, then crisped and braised in a delicious sauce of mushrooms, shallots, garlic, tomato puree, wine, placed over garlic mashed cheese potatoes. A winter week day family dinner to remember, and consommee broth to save.

This is a pickling delicacy to serve guests as appetizers for dinner. Chanterelles are quick boiled in herb vinegar, marinaded overnight, and served to guests. They can also be dried or marinaded and preserved in olive oil with laurel leaves. You can use this recipe for any other fresh mushrooms as well.Mushrooms concentrate their taste when dried. Here is the easy way to dry them and reconstitute.#GlobalApron

You need 18 threads of saffron to make this unbelievable dinner for two, probably the most elegant white fish dinner I ever make. We grow saffron indoors. One flower produces three saffron threads. 150 flowers produce one gram, 450 threads. It is also available dried in 3 gram cans for $18.People also use dried mexican shrimpshells and dried turmeric powder as saffron enhancers.#newyear2025 “ Replace store bought foods with home made organics”

Fresh rainbow trout filet, skin on, panfried in unsalted butter, ten minute fry for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Another easy five minutes if you have to filet the trout first, see below.

From our local mushroom farmer or home grown in coffee grounds on the kitchen counter in a plastic container, these mushrooms are sliced and sauteed in butter and served as a warm appetizer. They deserve to be a separate dish, no other spices, herbs, condiments needed. They look like miniature cauliflowers, the same consistency. They taste like duck breast. Delicious taste. Even better with Mozarella cheese on top, just like cauliflower dinners.The National Institutes of Health published articles saying this mushroom reduces stress and increases speed of performance, whatever that means.#GlobalApron

For Earth Day, any body can grow this at home. Beer battered whole portobello or oyster mushrooms are fluffy, crisp and delicious, economical and tasty.#april2026

Oyster mushrooms have a mild meaty flavor, fresh, smoked or dried, and it only takes half an hour to make this Mushroom Stroganoff dinner. Both vegan and dairy recipes.Fresh oyster mushrooms are sold for $3 per portion at the farmers market when in season. But, even better, you can order oyster mushroom growing kits for home growing year round! These kits sell for $10, they grow 8 portions in ten days, $1.25 per portion.