Mushroom Galette

This received an enthusiastic two thumbs up from John. It's nice because you can prepare pastry and filling in the morning, if you want, then assemble it all an hour before supper time.

 

MUSHROOM GALETTE

Crust:

1 1/4 c. flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick cold butter, cut into cubes

1/4 c yoghurt of sour cream

1-2 TB water or liquid from yoghurt

Put flour, salt, and butter into food processor and process till mixture is like cornmeal and butter pea-sized. Add yoghurt and liquid. Process briefly till it forms a ball. Put dough on floured piece of parchment paper and press into a flat disk. Fold paper around it and refrigerate several hours.

Prepare filling. Note, it must be thoroughly cooled before put ito the uncooked pastry.

Mushrooms-1-1.5 pounds. Portabello, cremini, shitake or a combination thereof. Sliced

1 TB. Olive oil

1 TB. butter

1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped

3 -4 cloves garlic, chopped

Thyme--fresh or dry

Rosemary-- "

1/2 c. dry sherry (or Marsala)

Blue cheese crumbles (don't over do it--a few TB should be plenty)

Salt and Pepper

Egg Wash (I beaten egg)

Prepare the filling

Saute the sliced mushrooms in the olive oil till they shrink a bit and begin to brown. (about 5 min.)

Add the butter and the chopped onion, thyme, and rosemary.Cook about 4 minutes, then add the garlic and cook another minute.

Deglaze the pan with the sherry, scraping up any brown bits and cook till pan is almost dry.

Transfer mushroom mixture to a sheet pan to cool. When it has cooled (45 min?)to room temperature, prepare your pastry.

Preheat oven to 400.

Take dough from fridge and roll out on the parchment paper it was wrapped in.  Make a rough circle of about 12 inches. Put the paper and dough on a baking sheet and sprinkle the blue cheese in the center, leaving a 1 1/2 inch border. Now pile the mushroom mixture on top of the blue cheese. Fold the edges of the pastry over the mushroom, leaving the center open. Brush the pastry with the egg wash then bake till golden--about 45 min.

Let cool while you make a nice green salad with vinaigrette to accompany it.

                                       

              

A Most Welcome Cooling Rain

Saturday was stifling hot--and then it rained.

Oh, the joy!

Bailey is less enthusiastic-- she barks at the thunder. Meanwhile Jenny goes to ground in the pantry.

Fifteen or twenty minutes and it was over. But the suffocating heat had gone and we rejoiced, turning the fans that had been blowing hot air out to bring the beautiful rain-scented cool air in.

Simple pleasures!

 

What?

RIP Wendell Berry and Gloria Steinem

Two more lights gone out. Wendell Berry's books and poetry have been a constant for me, not surprising considering that we chose a rural life.

Gloria Steinem's legacy has been important for all women--especially so now that women's rights are under attack with some far right voices even suggesting that they shouldn't have the vote.

Fight on! But listen to WB's words, the ending of one of his poems. (Go HERE to read the whole poem.)

. . . The partition thins between this world and the world to come,
or the next or the other world.


On the other side of the partition
the dead are living.


As one grows older some of the dead grow
more alive, more essentially themselves.


One loves them more.


As the next world grows more distinct, 

this one becomes, not more
vague, but more strange.

 

Days Like This . . .

Hot as it's been, I find myself thinking of snow . . .

Lovely, cool snow.

I wonder if we'll have any this year? These photos are from 2012, I think. We had very little last year.

 

Dear Sirs'

Me again. Although I know not to expect more than a form letter (if that) from your intern, now, more than ever, it seems necessary to register my protest against this lawless regime that is pursuing a war of choice and building monuments to itself, while ordinary people suffer. 

My Representative (Chuck Edwards) and one of my Senators (Thom Tillis) say they will not run again. How nice if they sought to redeem themselves just a bit by taking a stand against DJT (and his minions) and supporting impeachment.

My other Senator, Ted Budd, appears to be firmly in the camp of the GOP who can't see corruption and senility, no matter how obvious.

Someday we'll have our own version of the Nuremburg Trials. Where will you stand when you and your legacy are in the court of public opinion?

 

Rabbit, Rabbit

 

End of August

 

My Favorite Capture (re-post from 2011)

                                      

I was in the garden when I saw a puzzling something zig-zag past. When the something landed, I saw that it was a dragonfly that had captured a butterfly . . . and was proceeding to eat it.

I have a fondness for dragonflies -- they eat mosquitoes, you know -- but I'd never, ever seen one nab a butterfly.

He (or she) stayed put as I got closer and closer . . .

It was fascinating; two beautiful insects-- the dragon fly, a sinister high-tech helicopter, the butterfly, a hapless damsel. .

  Exquisite colors and patterns caught up in a macabre dance of death.

From My World

A beautiful hornets' nest down at the pond.

An accidental kitchen composition caught my eye.

As did the blues in this shot--sky, bench, pond.

 

Harvest Time!

My three pots of basil were ready for a second snipping. It's possible they'll regrow enough before frost that I'll have a third picking.

                                                            

It's lovely to sit on the porch enjoying the view while I strip the fragrant leaves from the stems.

                                          

 It's not like the old days when I would be out here shucking bushels of corn or snapping baskets of beans from the garden. But even a tiny harvest makes me smile.

My tray full of basil resulted in four packed cups of basil--just right for one batch of pesto. A quarter cup of almonds, a quarter cup of Parmesan, 6 cloves of garlic, and a bit of olive oil went into the food processor with the leaves. And after a quick whirl, I had two half pints of pesto for the freezer.

Green gold that will bring a touch of summer to winter meals.

 

Remembering . . .

So many of us were stunned by the death of Dolly Parton, an amazing performer and an even more amazing philanthropist, when there was a loss closer to home.

Mary Pat Franklin, for many years a preserver of tradition and a force for good in Madison County, is gone and it seems almost too much to bear. 

And then I learn that a friend's husband has died and so has a prominent Holocaust survivor, and Tim Curry . . . and I realize how very many deaths go unnoticed by the mass of mankind. How could it be otherwise?

Still, the bright lights that were Dolly and Mary Pat will shine on. Josie wore her Dollywood sweatshirt to school yesterday and reminded me of all the books Dolly had sent her.

And I remembered Mary Pat, who told me stories about Madison County history. But my favorite memory was back when I was doing a presentation of Signs in the Blood at the Madison County library. I'd talked about the story and had asked if there were any questions. The discussion turned to Little Sylvie and her cruel husband and Mary Pat rared back in her chair and called out, "I want to know why you didn't kill that son of a bitch!"

She was one of a kind . . . as was Dolly. But maybe we all are.

Any man's death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee.

from John Donne's For Whom the Bell Tolls

 

Some Things . . .

                                                               

Some things don't change--like the after school ice cream. But others do.

Earrings!

Press-on nails!

We have entered a new phase.

But she's still my porch-sitting, apple-eating girl!