Autumn, again

Due to some unfortunate / unforeseeable circumstances, our summer was cut short. But all hope isn't lost for this year, since autumn has thankfully had a wonderful start.

On the table above: fresh porcini (not the cat, the mushroom!), drying borage flowers, sweet teeth and various chanterelles, white cream sauce and chopped spring onion.

A handful of black trumpets drying. These were just a little bonus and not our main haul. When we picked the main spot, we covered half of our (very large) table in newspaper to dry them!

Some mushrooms cannot be dried just by leaving them out, but fortunately we invested in this dehydrator last year. It took quite a few hours for these porcini (maybe ten, spaced out?) but the smell this little contraption emitted was heavenly. Heavenly.

For all you newbies, do not be frightened of tiny worms in your mushrooms if drying them. Most of them will fall out as they dry; in our dehydrator they collect at the bottom for easy disposal. However, if there are one or two left.. no worries, they're only extra protein.

Remember that white gravy and spring onions on our table? The gravy was leftover from making flesk og duppe, a traditional no-frills Norwegian dish of thick slices of pork (similar to thick bacon but not smoked), white gravy made with the pork fat, and boiled potatoes.

That gravy (subbed for heavy cream) plus that bowl of mushrooms, onion, three eggs, and a package of frozen puff pastry sheets became the pie in the photo above. Let's just say both Rolf and I had some pretty good lunch days this week!