This month, we were thrilled to attend the International Foodservice Editorial Council annual meeting in bright and sunny San Diego. We chatted with foodservice magazine editors about mushrooms and of course, because we could expect nothing less from an event full of foodies, we enjoyed some amazing food.

San Diego proved its culinary acumen at an event “The Next Wave of San Diego Cuisine,” featuring the city’s top chefs, each preparing two small plates showcasing a given ingredient. The Mushroom Council hosted a table with Addison Restaurant’s Chef William Bradley and a pair of his brilliant sous chefs to prepare two delicious mushroom treats. Recipes are below so you can give the dishes a try yourself!

Shiitake Mushroom Veloute with Crème Fraiche and Teriyaki

Yield: 4

Ingredients:

• 3 cups                          shiitake mushrooms
• 1 cup                           dried shiitake mushrooms
• 4                                  whole shallots, diced
• ½ cup                           pine nuts
• 2                                  garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon                  chopped rosemary
• 4 tablespoons              salted French butter
• To taste                       Fleur de Sel
• 1 cup                           teriyaki sauce
• 6 cups                          chicken stock
• 3 cups                          heavy cream
• 1 cup                           crème fraîche

Method for Soup:

Combine mushrooms, shallots, pine nuts, garlic, rosemary and butter in a heavy-duty sauce pot. Sauté over low heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with fleur de sel to taste. Deglaze mushroom mix with teriyaki sauce. Add chicken stock and let simmer for 5 minutes. Add heavy cream. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook an additional 3 minutes. Remove from stove. Cover with foil and steep for an additional 5 minutes. Place mixture in a blender, add crème fraîche and purée until smooth soup consistency.

Assembly:

Ladle soup into four individual bowls and serve.

MARINATED CREMINIS WITH CAPER-CRAB SALAD

Yield: 4

Ingredients:

• 16                                cremini mushrooms
• To taste                       Fleur de Sel
• 3 cups                          extra virgin olive oil
• 2                                  garlic cloves
• 4                                  whole shallots, sliced
• 2 cups                          picked Dungeness crabmeat
• ½ cup                           mayonnaise
• ½ cup                           chopped chives
• ½ cup                           chopped capers
• 2 tablespoons              lemon juice

Method for Marinated Creminis:

Place cremini mushrooms on a roasting tray, sprinkle with sea salt. Place in a preheated 350-degree Fahrenheit oven for 15 minutes. Remove mushrooms and rest for an additional 15 minutes. In a mixing bowl, add olive oil, garlic, shallots and mushrooms. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 48 hours.

Method for Caper-Crab Salad:

In a mixing bowl, add crab, mayonnaise, chives, capers and lemon juice. Make sure all ingredients are mixed thoroughly.

Assembly:

Remove mushrooms from marinade. Divide mushrooms among 4 plates and place a generous amount of crab mixture on top of the mushrooms.

10 Flu Fighting Foods I bet you would never guess what mushrooms and dark chocolate have in common, other than being delicious. The Mother Nature Network knows they’re both going to help you fight the flu this season. Be sure to check out this list whether you need that extra boost or you want an alternative to vaccines.

Fall Produce Buying Guide As the weather changes so do your purchases-like buying boots instead of sandals, coats instead of bathing suits, etc. but what about your produce? Buying produce that’s in season isn’t just better for the environment- it can help you get the most for you buck. Check out this list from the York Daily Record to see what nice surprises fall has in store for you.

Treat the Family with Halloween Pizzas Halloween is one of our favorite holidays! The endless supply of candy is great until you realize you actually need to eat real food. So this Halloween, treat yourself to this special Halloween pizza from Janet Keeler in between your candy binges. This recipe is easy and works great if you’re throwing a Halloween party too!

Eating Mushrooms has Benefits for Your Health “Research suggests that eating plenty of mushrooms helps build up the immune system and fend off bugs. And at a time when we are all trying to avoid swine flu, any added benefit has to be worthwhile,” Diane Parks of the Birmingham Mail tells us. Along with health information find you’ll find a recipe for a Crunchy Mushroom Pilaf. Bon Appétit!

Recipe To The Rescue: Raw Vegan Marinated Mushroom Salad If you’re eating raw you must know that it means always having something marinating, soaking or sprouting. Sally Andersen of Veg Daily brings us a little something she whipped up while waiting for mushrooms and onions to marinate for a salad. If that’s any indication of how easy this is to make, wait ’till you see how few steps it takes to make!

Recipe: Fresh green bean casserole with mushrooms and onions Forget those frozen green beans and onions from a can. One of our special MC fans, Erika Kerekes has a better way to enjoy a green bean casserole. Her version still has a few canned ingredients but overall, she says the flavor exceeds that of the original. Test it out and let us know what you think!

As National Breast Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close, we wanted to find one more way to put our support behind a cause that’s really close to us.  The Mushroom Council provided $50,000 to City of Hope’s cancer research program earlier in the year and turned boxes of mushrooms pink to raise further awareness.  Now with two days left, we have one more opportunity but will need your help.

Beginning at midnight tonight, we’re providing $5 for every new Twitter follower, up to $5,000 to further bolster the incredibly important research being done by City of Hope. Through 11:59pm on October 30, we hope you’ll help us to reach our goal to close an amazing month of awareness out on an exceptionally positive note.

To kick things off and to say thank you to the incredible community we’ve already found on Twitter, we’ll be providing $1 per current follower as of 11:59PM tonight, 10/28.

So if you’re not already following The Mushroom Channel on Twitter, please join in sometime between 12AM on 10/29 and 11:59PM on 10/30 to make your voice heard in the battle against breast cancer.

A head start? A sample tweet that would help us reach our goal:

Follow @mushroomchannel 2 support fight vs breast cancer. $5 to @cityofhope 4 every new follower 10/29-10/30! http://bit.ly/4u2wzz

Just last week, we were lucky to hang out with roughly 6,000 dietitians and their guests at the American Dietetic Association’s annual Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE) in beautiful Denver.

At our  booth, we told people about the health and nutritional qualities of mushrooms, in particular highlighting the research at City of Hope on mushrooms and breast cancer. In fact, for every person that stopped at the booth (to get their attendee ID card scanned), the Mushroom Council has provided additional funding to City of Hope.

Check out our previous post on the research here. Attendees also joined our “wall of pink,” by writing their names, or the name of someone they wanted to honor, on pink tills in support of breast cancer research. Check out this short video to see our wall grow throughout the event.

We were also honored to meet so many survivors themselves – it was inspiring to hear their stories of struggle and triumph.

In between discussions on vitamin D (did you know mushrooms are the only fruit or veggie with vitamin D?) and heartfelt stories about fighting breast cancer, we were able to grab a bite to eat at two excellent Denver restaurants.  We first checked out Coral Room and loved the Asian-American fusion-inspired dishes. And we were nothing less than impressed to find that four out of the six entrées on the menu featured mushrooms! Check out the Duck Breast with Shiitake Mushrooms and Pan Jus (left).

We also tried out savory Spanish-style tapas at the 9th Door and were (yet again) thrilled to see lots of fungi on the menu. We devoured plates and plates of tapas, including the Croquetas de Hongos, a mushroom and rice croquette with sherry and mushroom sauce; Callo de Hacha, seared sea scallops with truffled mushroom compote; and Pollo Oloroso, sautéed chicken breast with manchego mashed potatoes and oloroso sherry mushroom sauce. Check out this mouth-watering photo of the croquetas (below).

We were thrilled to see  so many familiar faces like Janet Helm, Cynthia Sass, Jill Nussinow, Rebecca Scritchfield, Constance Riggs,Hemi Weingarten, the Meal Makeover Moms, IFIC and RD411 onsite and were sorry we didn’t get to spend more time with them. Thank you to all the FNCE attendees and Denver natives for a great event!

I was so thrilled by the response to last week’s round-up that I’m inspired to do it that way again.  Now that was a special edition, I can’t pull out 40 fabulous recipes every week (okay, I totally could but it would take awhile).  But I have caught on to the concept of highlighting several recipes of the week at a time.

There’s been such an explosion of them lately that I think I’d be missing too much if I didn’t. So, first up, a salute to the photo at top- Kate from Cooking During Stolen Moments is responsible. As one of the Internet’s resident “foodie mamas,” (my term, not theirs) Kate brings about the kinds of straightforwardly beautiful food that can be put together during naptime or, better yet, with small hands holding their own wooden spoons. This pasta with portabellas and red sauce just looked warm and hearty to me. And quite healthy to boot.  That’s a lot to offer from just cooking in the stolen moments.

Our next honoree this week was a tip-off from Twitter. As an aside, can I say that makes my day? This site is provided by the actual farmers who grow your mushrooms. Having you tell us how you’re doting on their pride and joy? It’s fantastic. It’s why we decided to do this to begin with. Sanaa Cooks did just that. @MushroomChannel (in my head, “you rang?”) I’m making lentils with mushrooms and cilantro tonight.

It’s cool and wet in a lot of the US right now. Part of fall, at least the yellow leaves are pretty when they’re slick on the sidewalks. Feel-good food like lentils and mushrooms sounds like the antidote to any lasting chill. Add in a sprig of a warm herb like cilantro and I think you have a winner. Hey @SanaaCooks, How did it go?

This week’s final honoree almost wasn’t. She emailed me and the silly filters did not know what they were dealing with. I wanted to shout at my email going “Do you KNOW who this is?? This is Kalyn Denny. Kalyn giving love to mushrooms.” Please check out her fall masthead in case you doubt the devotion.  For those of you unfamiliar with Kalyn’s Kitchen, she’s a healthy eating blogger, focused primarily on low-glycemic index cooking and the South Beach Diet.  She’s also been a panelist at two of the major conferences we attended this year. She sent along a few of her own favorite mushroom recipes and picking just one was hard. Then I realized it meant I could hoard the rest and sprinkle them out like a grade A namedropper.  My final choice was a recent one, Wild Rice with Sausage and Mushrooms, pictured below. My guess is that some of you have begun pulling recipes for Thanksgiving (I say that because I am) and this one has been bookmarked, starred and Stumbled.

Groceries Go Pink! Everyday Mama has THE list of groceries that celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She encourages everyone to feel good about their purchases this week by branching out and picking up some pink products. Find some ideas for food and household items including mushrooms!

Easy Chicken Mushroom Quesadillas For someone who doesn’t care for mushrooms very much, Mary Ann from Meet Me in the Kitchen sure has a delicious way to eat them. This is a great recipe for those like Mary Ann who prefer mushrooms thrown together with a little something. But if that’s not enough to convince you, the word “easy” in the title should!

Mushrooms for Autumn: Cremini, porcini and portobello add pizzazz to menu Rita Simonetta knows mushrooms are just one of those staple items that shows up in dishes everywhere. In honor of autumn, she’s brought us a news way to add a little pizzazz to dishes with three very yummy types of mushrooms. You’ll also find tips on washing and using them in a variety of combinations.

Poison Mushroom Alert issued after Newton Incident At the Mushroom Channel we stand behind commercially grown mushrooms. We hope our readers enjoy them as much as we do, especially the pink tilled mushrooms in stores this month. However, sometimes it takes the Boston Herald to say “Mushrooms should be harvested in the supermarket” for everyone to stay safe while eating mushrooms.

Mushrooms, Water-Repellants More Similar Than You Think Sometimes we read some unfriendly comments about our favorite fungi and how it’s grown. While the ways in which a mushroom is grown may not interest you, this new discovery about mushrooms may. Mushrooms now have a new claim to fame aside from being a super-food packing Vitamin D-water droplets “jump” from the surface of mushrooms. Don’t believe us? Watch the video from Duke University.

Mushroom Festival Brings Crowds to the City A few weeks back we tweeted (@mushroomchannel) about a mushroom festival happening in Madisonville, the “mushroom capital” of Texas. For those of you who were able to make it out, we’re jealous. The Madisonville Meteor reports on the success of the festival at which crowds grow every year with a video recap.

Chef Bruno, son of a mushroom farmer, has carried his familial fungi love alongside his passion for pizza for all his years in the food business.  He walks us through his favorite uses in the segment below, courtesy of Pizza Today Magazine!

Chef Tom Douglas is Seattle’s culinary star. He runs several restaurants, including Etta’s, the Palace Kitchen, the Dahlia Lounge, and Lola. He’s been nominated for the James Beard Award, competed on Iron Chef America and has a line of spice mixes called Rub with Love. Chef Douglas has also written several cook books including Tom Douglas’ Seattle Kitchen, Tom’s Big Dinners and I Love Crab Cakes. Mushrooms have a special place in Chef Douglas’ heart. Here’s what he had to say about the fungus:

1. What do you think makes the cuisine of the Pacific Northwest unique? What are some quintessential ingredients from the region that you like to cook with?

The Northwest has a plethora of regional ingredients. Chefs here tend to have great respect for the region’s bounty so it’s reflected on their menus.  Whether it’s foraged or farmed there’s a tight connection between the chef and the farmer. The Pacific Northwest is known for its mushrooms such as chanterelles and hedgehogs, plus Dungeness crab, Olympia oysters, Yakima peaches and cherries, Washington wine and the great cheeses that are being made all over the state.

2. What role do mushrooms play in your cooking?

Mushrooms play the bread to my butter…we use them in every aspect of our menu.

3. Do you remember when you first started to like mushrooms?

I grew up in the Kennett Square, Pennsylvania Area which is the domesticated mushroom capital of America. This means we always had mushrooms.  My dad would always pick up a box of “number twos,” which are the mushrooms with imperfections– perfectly delicious, just not pretty enough for the market– so mushrooms were always in my house.  My wife Jackie brought wild mushroom foraging to the relationship, having gone with her father around the woods of Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.

4. Is your Salmon with Shiitake Relish a popular item at Etta’s?

The Salmon with Shiitake Relish is Etta’s number one seller!

5. What made you decide to use shiitake mushrooms in the relish over other mushroom varieties?

I like shiitakes because they have a real woodsy flavor, and I especially like them when they are tossed in oil and roasted in a 400 degree oven.  They also make a great salad garnish.

We’ve posted the full recipe for Salmon with Shiitake Relish here for easy printing.

As I believe has already been made abundantly clear, we felt great coming out of our weekend in San Francisco for BlogHer Food. The BlogHer organizers did a great job getting food writers in the door who clearly have a passion for cooking with fresh ingredients and we were thrilled that mushrooms are so high on their list of favorites!

With that in mind, we wanted to send some link love to some new friends (some BlogHer-related, others not) with some of THEIR mushroom recipes. I started this list for National Mushroom Day yesterday but was overwhelmed by the possibilities.  So please consider this post as though you would a belated birthday present- a simple extension of the holiday.

The photo at the top is from a perennial favorite, Blue Kitchen, who kept me absolutely captivated by is Roasted Mushroom “Casserole.”

Let the games begin in no particular order (all links are to specific posts):

CityMama- Stefania posted a warm bowl of comfort right after BlogHer Food along with a pretty kicking post. Reminds me yet again how nice it is to meet online folks offline.

Queen of Quirky- Sam took a cue from former recipe of the week winner Foodie Reflections when she took her chances with homemade risotto.  Sounds like it paid off!

One Scoop at a Time-  Kale, Tofu, Mushroom and Ginger Soup. Linda is a woman close to our heart because there are days when I suspect she loves mushrooms as much as we do. Which is to say, a lot. It was great to finally meet her in person!

In Erika’s Kitchen- Mushroom Bread Pudding.  Erika was using a mix of cultivated and wild mushrooms and my guess is that with this seasoning blend and good bread, you could easily mix in white buttons for half to cut costs while retaining that gorgeous flavoring.

The W.H.O.L.E. Gang- Diane turned Julia’s classic Beef Bourguignon into a burger. Is anyone else trying to imagine how good her kitchen must have smelled for this?

More Than Burnt Toast- We hear (and write) a lot about stuffed mushrooms. And frankly it doesn’t get old because they are just the most poppable little treats. That said, these bell peppers stuffed with mushrooms look like a lovely change pace.

Elana’s Pantry- Raw Kale Shiitake Salad. I watched Elana eat the raw caps right off a few member of our mushroom display with undiluted glee. Beautiful inside and out and that goes for her book as well.

Blog Appetit- Tomato Mushroom Baked Polenta. The fact that she pulled this together completely on the fly impresses us. My guess is that this was one of the stars of the potluck.  What?  You know there’s always one dish that everyone flocks to first.

What’s For Dinner Mom?- Curried Hot Salad.  Laura’s become a Twitter buddy of ours since our weekend in San Francisco. This salad sounds like a great way to enjoy a warm, easy weekday lunch.

Kitchen Parade- Easy Grilled Mushroom Appetizer. Two ingredients, low calorie and utterly fuss-free? A recipe for a perfect party bite. Alana is someone I’ve been reading on my own for a couple years now and so I was enthused (to say the least) when she came to dinner at RN74.

Beach Eats- Chicken Cacciatore. An easy take on an Italian classic from a self-described diva who we find to be a little closer to divine, particularly when it comes to the kitchen.

Kitchenbelle- Chicken Lo Mein. Mary Kate was such a sweetheart.  We saw her at RN74 and she brought her friends by for soup on Saturday. Someone we’d love to hear more from.

Cashews and Hummus- Chickpea Shiitake Soup. With all the raving about Clean Food, I may need to make a bookstore trip this weekend.  This recipe sounded rich but healthy- right up our alley.

Cafe Veg News- Shiitake Sake Scallopini.  No recipe here but we didn’t want to leave out some serious mushroom lovers and supporters.  Thanks to Veg News for providing mealtime inspiration in pixels and on paper.

If missed anyone or if you have a mushroom recipe you like even better, I’m more than happy to do a mega-post again next week. Just send the link to mushroomchannel AT gmail DOT com or pass it our way on Twitter. If you’d like the Recipe of the Week Award badge, I can give you that code via email as well.

Sweeten Your Smile Do you ever get that feeling that you have food in your teeth? Well now its okay-if you have mushrooms on your teeth.  Health News lists some natural teeth whitening tips that just happen to include Shiitakes. Now this isn’t an excuse to skip brushing and flossing, but its one really good excuse to keep chewing on mushrooms!

Simple Swaps for a Healthier Life No one says losing weight is easy, but Nutritionist Cheryl Forberg RD from The Biggest Loser says “integrating a few small changes, s-l-o-w-l-y, can be simple.”  Because changing your eating habits overnight won’t happen, one of your best bets is to make simple veggie swaps for a healthier lifestyle. Swapping pizza crust with for mushroom caps is just one example since the average portabella only has 27 calories!

Time to Start Consuming Flu-Buster Foods Open your ears. Do you hear a lot of people coughing around you? It’s time to start preparing yourself for flu season. One line of defense are the food choices you’re making. The Del Mar Times says foods packed with vitamins C, D and E will give you the boost you need. Luckily, mushrooms aka “the new super-fungus” can help especially Shiitakes.

Cheese-Stuffed Mushrooms Two Ways – Beginner and Expert Sometimes recipes can be a little tricky for beginners and a little dull for the experts who’ve been around the cheese block. These cheese-stuffed mushroom recipes not only solve that problem, but they’re an ideal start to any meal and many versions are vegetarian. If that’s not enough to convince you, YumSugar found these from Giada de Laurentiis and Gourmet. Can’t beat their expertise.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving Are you hosting Thanksgiving at your place this year? Thanksgiving meals can be tricky when you’re cooking dishes that need to please people with a variety of tastes. If you’re stumped on making a vegetarian dish or vegetarian meal altogether, Cooking Light has a hearty spread of  Mushroom and Caramelized-Shallot Strudel, mashed potatoes, cranberries and a whole lot more. Who knows, you may make a turkey really happy somewhere.

Portobello Mushroom “Fries” The Vegan Mouse has brought us fried goodness. Following a recipe from Rachel Ray that she “veganized” by making a few substitutions, KMouse shares how a little green leaf lettuce helped her turn Portabella caps in delicious fries. The picture says it all, so check these out!