Shroomies and other (questionably) edible things

In case you haven't heard, there's been a little rain here in New England this summer.  Record amounts. More rain than in recorded history. In fact, it's pouring right now. There's a pretty little waterfall cascading down the front of the house (which probably means the gutters need some cleaning.) It doesn't bother us too much - we're on top of a hill and so far, nothing has leaked in the house or pooled in the basement.  So I can't really complain about it... the grass has never looked this good in the late summer months!

The rain has also given us quite a few new lawn ornaments.  This popped up yesterday (the mushroom, not the dollar bill. Though it would be nice if my yard suddenly started sprouting bills of any denomination.)

mega lawn shroomie

I spent a good chunk of time this afternoon trying to figure out what type of mushroom it is (and if you ever need a mushroom identifier, this site is pretty cool:  MycoKey Mushroom Identifier)

So what I think we have here is a very tightly clustered group of Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca (a.k.a. a "False Chanterelle".)  Some sites say that it is edible and tastes very mushroomy.  Other sites say it's poisonous and will kill you. First off, don't you think there would be some general consensus on this kind of thing? Second, erring on the side of caution, we're going to pass on eating it, and hope that the cats, rabbits and groundhogs in the neighborhood do the same. Also, if it starts taking over the entire yard (entirely possible with the amount of rain happening right now) I'll post photos of that, too.

On the flip side of the edible issue, today I got this in the mail:

Happy!!!  In case you aren't aware, I am a huge fan of the entire America's Test Kitchen line of products - magazines, websites, blogs, cookbooks... you name it, I'm addicted to it. My two go-to books thus far are the ATK Healthy Family Cookbook and ATK Slow Cooker Revolution (this is the boy's favorite, too.) But this monster book arrived today and I can't wait to get started!  Not only has every recipe I've ever tried from these guys worked gorgeously, but they have lots of tips that are pretty cool, too.  Again this is one of those things you'll be hearing a lot about as I experiment with cooking and foodstuffs.

But today was also a baking day. Neither the boy nor I are very keen on cakes, so for his birthday-baked-goody, I made chocolate chip cookies.  (Lucky for me, he doesn't care for batter, so the bowl and spatula was all mine!)  Happy early birthday to you!

Birthday baked goodies