Mushrooms, take stock.

At first I thought ... I don't have time for Battle Wild Mushroom ... I have a turkey to roast.  You see, I am not the culinary giant when it comes to this holiday.  I usually just let Megan do all the work.  But this year we had guests to our house and the turkey was my doing.

So I needed to get this mushroom thing off my plate so to speak.  I made a soup ... I know .. I know.  I think I have a soup addiction really.  This had loads of mushrooms, shitakes, porcinis and creminis with cabbage, ginger and chicken broth.  It was good in that rustic kind-of soup way that I like.  The kind-of way that makes me feel like some little old women in Italy just made the same thing.  It was really just a means to an end of checking Battle Wild Mushroom off my list.  And using that cabbage that wasn't going to make it much longer.

But lo and behold, these things kept showing up.  I put a boat load of creminis in my stuffing.  Not very creative, but classic.  It was great.  Meaty even.  Enough to keep the theme alive .... in my head at least ... on thanksgiving day.  But the best discovery happened the day after. 

The turkey stock.  I started it like I do all stocks really.  Telling my kids to get out of the kitchen.  Just kidding.  Seriously though, the left over turkey carcass.  Pretty sure it was Judy's best friend (See February's post).  The turkey wings that no one ate.  Onion, carrots, celery, couple cloves of garlic, parsley.  Water of course.  The usual suspects.  And then I remembered, I bought a pack of mixed dried mushrooms at the start of the month.  I had been scared to use them because they did have oyster mushrooms in them and I just wasn't convinced I wasn't going to have a drink (See Megan's PSA at the beginning of the month).  But knowing Oyster mushrooms are more expensive than the others in this medley, I figured it probably meant there was one in the whole mix.  So I took a risk, threw in the pack, poured a drink.

Let me tell you ... that was the richest broth I have ever made.  You hear people say things have depth of flavor.  This was deep and rich and earthy.  Sometimes, I admit it, I need to add lots of salt to get my broth to taste like something.  Not this time.  A little seasoning was all it needed.

I went back to the store - Trader Joe's - and bought five more packs to have for the winter.  When you are addicted to soup ... you really have to think ahead.