Faith, Folklore, and Friends

Making pizza..... Roll out the pizza crust to desired shape and thickness.  We like thin crust.  I have nothing against round pizza, but I like to do things 'out of the box' some days.  In other words, I couldn't find my round pizza pan. Spread with pizza sauce.  Mine is tomato paste with some Italian seasoning mixed in. Eight ounces of fresh mozzarella cheese , cut in thin slices. Cover the cheese with sauteed onion slices. Add some cooked country sausage and mushrooms. Add lots of black olives. . . and some smoked sausage. Of course, the joy of pizza is that you can put anything you want on it.  Except for the crust, I have never made the same recipe twice. Bake at 400 degrees until done...about 12-15 minutes. Yummy.  It is even better warmed up the next day.

Last Wednesday, the first day the Smoky Mountain National Park reopened, Hub and I happened upon this strange looking fungus in Cades Cove.  There were several people looking at it, but no one knew what type of mushroom it was.  After making these photos, we drove on until we found a park ranger. We showed him the photos, and asked if he knew what the fungus was.  He told us he was no expert, but it looked like an edible mushroom that the locals called "Chicken in the Woods". The Chicken Mushroom, Polyporus sulphureus , cannot be missed, once it is encountered.  Large, bright lemon-yellow to orange clusters, one cap growing above the other, tile-fashion, grow out from the trunks of oaks and other trees, the lemon-yellow color being confined to the lower surface.  Nothing in the fungus line looks like it.  Only the young, knob-like beginnings of caps should be eaten, as the rest of the plant is tough. ~Louis C. C. Krieger, The Mushroom Handbook ...