Sweet potato mushroom sliders—a huge thumb’s up

For my birthday Jack got me a dehydrator. How romantic, you scoff? Actually, it was.

I have been wanting a dehydrator for YEARS—like, ten years. And Jack being Jack, did all kinds of research before settling on the Excalibur. I love it and use it frequently experimenting with crackers and kale chips and cookies. Some were flops, and some really hit it home. This mushroom slider recipe was one of the successes. As Jack put it, “It’s like Thanksgiving stuffing in a bun.” He couldn’t get enough of them.

If you don’t have a dehydrator you can make these sliders in your oven on a low setting. For the recipe I’m going to point you to Rawmazing—which is where I got the recipe—and the easy-to-follow photo steps. But here’s what I did a little differently …

1. I halved the recipe, which made a dozen sliders, more than enough for the two of us to eat over the course of a weekend.
2. I made my patties a little larger, about 3-1/2 inches wide. I used a round mold to keep each patty consistent.
3. I knew up front that I wanted to put these sliders on English muffins for breakfast sandwiches and they were fantastic! A little vegenaise, a slice of Jalapeno vegan cheddar, pressed salad slaw (I have a recipe for that coming soon) for tang and crunchiness and man, these babies were addictive.

Best of all, the recipe is as easy as it is tasty.

Growing Shiitake mushrooms

Jack brought home a Shiitake mushroom log last week. Apparently I get one from him every season. I had no idea!

Last season I got an oyster mushroom log (shown on the left) that I wrote about here >>>. Check out the difference with the Shiitake on the right. Interesting, eh?

I’m hoping they’ll do a Candy Cap mushroom log someday. I would love to grow them and make ice cream. Oh, heavenly. Sigh. Reminds me of Mendocino.

Anyway, here’s a little recap on how these suckers work …

Growing oyster mushrooms

Jack commutes via ferry from San Francisco, which means he gets to regularly wander the terrific shops littered throughout the Ferry Building Marketplace. At the end of the week he’ll usually bring home some kind of goody to celebrate the start of the weekend.

Typically he stops at Acme Bread for a loaf of Pain de Mie (holy crap, so delicious!) that he’ll nosh on the way home; it’s his absolute favorite. Often he’ll bring home flowers (he’s a fantastic husband) or maybe some gelato from Ciao Bella (yum!) or maybe a sweet treat from Miette Cakes.

But last week he said, “Look babe, instead of flowers I brought you this!”

He presented me with a big plastic bag with a white log in it.

Huh? Um, how romantic.