Archive for the ‘Mushroom News’ Category

Write for the Mushroom Channel!

For the last year, the Mushroom Channel has hosted posts from some truly incredible contributors. Kath from Kath Eats Real Food, Jenna from Eat Live Run, Susie from We Are Not Martha, Rachel from A Southern Fairytale, and Luisa from The Wednesday Chef just to put names to a few of the words that have graced these pages with delicious recipes and photos. We’re now looking to expand that program significantly.

Several of you have asked how you could become featured contributors to the Channel and we’re excited to announce that we’re opening up 10 contributing spots in April.

These are paid positions.  Consider the Mushroom Channel as the perfect outlet for all of your marvelous mushroom discoveries. We’re also interested in sending traffic your way from our various sites. All of your posts will feature a short bio that links back to your personal blog and your post will be linked to via both the Mushroom Channel’s Twitter and Facebook pages.

We’re looking for food bloggers with an eye for photos and a healthy level of curiosity.  Posts could range from a great new mushroom recipe of your own to an old family favorite or even a profile of a restaurant dish.  Creativity is encouraged and the editorial staff at The Mushroom Channel is more than happy to work with you if you’ve got grander ideas.  Compensation details are readily available, just send your question to mushroomchannel@gmail.com and we will respond promptly.

How It Works:

1) Submit a sample post with a photo and mushroom recipe to mushroomchannel@gmail.com.  Tell us a little bit about yourself in your email and please include a link to your blog. Posts tend to be 250-300 words if you need a frame of reference and it’s okay if the recipe is something you’ve posted in the past. Deadline for submission is April 6, 2010.

2) When we go through the entries, we’ll be looking for the following in all contributors:

  • Someone who knows how to engage an audience
  • Posts at least weekly on their personal blogs
  • Past mushroom content (Every other post doesn’t need to be about mushrooms, we just want to know that our contributors are fans.)
  • Clear, illustrative photos
  • A unique voice

We’ll be looking for a few of these among individual contributors:

  • Health backgrounds (RD in particular)
  • Parents with advice on healthy meals kids love
  • Frugal-minded fresh mushroom lovers

3) Selections will be made by Friday, April 16th and announced on the Channel. From there a member of the Mushroom Editorial staff will be in touch to sort through compensation and assign deadlines for your four posts in the next eight months.

Weekly Links: Mushroom News from Around the Web

Get healthy Tri-State: Keep the comfort, lose the calories The Herald-Dispatch knows that cold winter has many of us reaching for warm comfort foods like chili, pasta and beef dishes. While that sounds like the right food to trigger a warm feeling, consuming so much saturated fat isn’t your healthiest option. If you swap out mushrooms instead of meat in your comfort dishes you’ll find yourself with a source of ergothioneine—a compound that helps prevent plaque from forming in arteries. Now that’s comforting way to warm up this season!

Where to trim fat and calories at the Thanksgiving feast During and after your Thanksgiving feast, cutting the fat and extra calories from your holiday meals doesn’t mean cutting the taste. Many of us try to feel less guilty by eating vegetable or fruit side dishes, but forget that adding a stick of butter for flavor doesn’t help our waists much. The Dallas Morning News shares ways to enjoy your holiday and weekend indulgence, like delicious stuffing, while still being conscious of where its going.

Morels are very special mushrooms With such a wide variety of mushrooms to choose from—porcinis, trompettes, chanterelles, maitake and morels—it can be hard to pick a favorite. It can be even more daunting to find some of the more rare varieties that come with a higher price tag. If you do happen to use these special varieties while cooking or enjoy them while dining out, Olive Nation’s blog can help you choose the right pairing for each type. They offer suggestions for using the right sauce, vegetable or wine. The blog also includes tips for handling and preparation.

Tuna and Mushroom Potato Pot Pie Does your family have a favorite pie recipe that’s become a tradition around the dinner table? Bits of Taste was introduced to traditional pies by her mother-in-law and took a chance on making a modern version that not only added fiber to her family’s diet, but was also suitable for a picky eater. For fans of the traditional shepherd’s pie, this recipe is similar except that she has swapped minced mutton or beef for a healthier tuna.

Preventing The Swine Flu: A Comprehensive Approach There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to keeping everyone healthy and immune to influenza according to Mark Hyman, MD, at the The Huffington Post. Not everyone will find the same results from vaccines and treatments, thus the best approach is one that involves keeping healthy through a variety of means.  Hyman provides an overview of things to consider when getting a vaccine and offers alternative ways that support your immune system naturally, such as immune-enhancing mushrooms.

Second time around: What to do with those Thanksgiving leftovers If you find yourself in abundance of turkey leftovers don’t think that the most exciting use for a turkey is over. Silive.com has plenty of ideas for re-using leftovers that will still be as good as the original holiday meal. Whether you want to bake, throw together a quick pasta or warm up with soup, Silive.com has you covered through the weekend of leftovers.

Weekly Links: Mushroom News from Around the Web

Barbeque mushrooms: An incredible edible egg-cup We typically don’t think of including mushrooms in our everyday breakfast meals. When we see mushrooms at breakfast, its usually the “meat” of a breakfast burrito or a savory addition to an omelet. Well, its time to spruce up your mushroom breakfasts with this barbecue idea from The Home of Eggs. This barbecue mushroom egg recipe even includes a YouTube clip to show you how easy it is to grill a mushroom on your own.

Nature’s Hidden Source of Vitamin D Why is Vitamin D so important to our health? Is the sun the only source of Vitamin D? The Seattle PI answers these questions in their latest post and shares an alternative way to find Vitamin D when we’re limited on sun exposure. The post even includes a recipe for ginger shiitake rice adapted from Gourmet Magazine. Yum.

15 best (and worst) foods for immunity It’s officially cold and flu season—so how are you keeping yourself healthy? Have you thought about how  your diet may make you a germ magnet? MSNBC listed the 15 best and worst foods for your immune system based on their germ-killing abilities. Check them out and stay healthy everyone.

Seriously Meatless: Wild Mushroom Stuffing Thanksgiving is a week away! If you’re having food safety concerns or stressing over making a meal that’ll please a crowd of both vegetarians and omnivores, check out Serious Eats’ stuffing. It’s made outside of the turkey and serves up to 8 people.

Recipe ideas that use your Thanksgiving leftovers Some say that the best part of Thanksgiving is the leftovers. If you find yourself with plates of extra food after the holiday, check out My San Antonio’s ideas for what to do with those leftovers. It’s recipes for using up turkey, potatoes, cranberries and stuffing which sound just as delicious as the original meal itself!

Weekly Links: Mushroom News from Around the Web

Seasonal Influenza and H1N1 Today As H1N1 becomes more prevalent all around us, many people look for ways to boost their immunity to protect themselves. While basic measures can be taken to prevent the seasonal flu as well, Healthy News Digest reports on the extra steps that can be taken to strengthen the immune system. Dr. Cheri Quincy also shares a little background on how far we’ve come in fighting the flu since a pandemic in 1918 that killed 50 million people in twelve months.

‘Eat on $30 Challenge’ proves it’s possible to keep grocery costs low Kristina McLean took an interesting challenge to live on a $30 per week grocery budget while still eating well balanced meals. Using up food she already had, growing items in her garden and incorporating local ingredients was eye-opening, but more importantly, she learned to change recipes to fit her budget. Calculating everything down to cost-per-ingredient, McLean put together a low-cost Mushroom Barley Soup recipe you can totally afford to try.

Family Meals Matter: Meatless meals are healthy meals The Wichita Eagle reports on economical ways to eat and provide food for the whole family. Now it’s suggesting an economical and healthy way to stay full without the meaty ingredients we know and love.  It reports “even planning one or two meatless meals per week can help families save money without sacrificing taste or nutrition.” Best of all you can swap out meat for their recipe of cheese and spinach stuffed Portabella mushrooms.

Marvelous mushrooms Have you ever tried a “steak-like” mushroom the size of a saucer? The Portabella mushroom, a meaty variety perfect for adapting to many ways of cooking, is just that. Although its exotic looking, the Courier Journal explains that its simply a white button mushroom with “big size and flavor.” It’s large size is nothing to be afraid of however, it allows for more varied uses like stuffing. The Courier Journal includes their pick for Portabella use: KT’s Portabella Pasta. Enjoy!

Just Asking… Alicia Silverstone How many of our followers were once avid watchers of “Clueless”? Alicia Silverstone has come a long way since that time making a big change in her life in order to go vegan. The Wall Street Journal interviewed Silverstone about her new vegan cookbook which definitely includes mushrooms. She says, “one of my favorite dishes to serve at a party is the leek, pesto, mushroom crostini.” If any of you pick up her book, let us know if you test out her crostinis!

In Season: Stock up on fresh mushrooms Did you know that mushrooms have a season? Well, that season is now. Whether you’re into picking up produce at the local farmers market or the supermarket it’s always best to pick up what’s in season. The Dallas Morning News is telling us to stock up now on fresh mushrooms for upcoming occasions like Thanksgiving where they become a nice addition to side dishes and dressing.

Weekly Links: Mushroom News from Around the Web

Did you get your Vitamin D today? Exercise Physiologist Karen Nelson helps keep Tucson healthy with all kinds of news. This week she asks how much Vitamin D you’re getting. Because of the growing press around this special vitamin, its important to get the facts. Very few foods in nature contain Vitamin D and mushrooms are among them. Take a look to find out how much D is safe and what you can do to get more.

Cold and Flu? Not You! RedBook knows how to dish out some interesting ways to boost your immunity against the flu. Germ-fighting foods, laughing and dancing are among some suggestions that we can all incorporate into our lives. Specifically, we were interested in how Shiitake mushrooms, which contain Lentinan, a carbohydrate found in these tasty shrooms, may boost cells’ response to infection.

Culinary Confidence -  Mushroom Dip perfect for holiday tables Preconceptions about food kept Beth Flaherty of the StarNews from eating mushrooms for years. Then she got with it. We find her basking in her love of mushrooms suggesting a dip for the approaching holidays. Check out the various mushrooms used for this dip which calls an “economical, delicious and a real crowd-pleaser at parties.”

Celebrating Mushrooms It’s Fall! How are you celebrating the season’s produce and flavors? Mushrooms — plentiful this time of year — bring out the earthy and hearty flavors of any dish. Marilyn Campbell reassures us that most types of mushrooms are wine-friendly (yay), easy to use for meatless meals like the “steak” sandwich recipe she provides and she shares basic tips on how to clean and keep mushrooms fresh.

Eat these foods and feel better Perhaps you’re already up to your neck in tissues kind of sick. Though foods alone can’t make you feel better, they sure do help when they’re as tasty as the list created by Detroit Free Press. Strawberries, salmon and mushrooms’ “superhero”-like qualities may be just what you need to “save your life” according to author Dave Grotto. Check out the full list and a meal idea that may be the trick for feeling better.

Meat off the menu as Windsor Castle goes vegan Countless royal banquet have been held in Windsor Castle with plates of chicken, apple-stuffed pigs and more throughout its history. On November 3, that all changed when a banquet for 200 guests including leaders of nine different faiths with all types of dietary requirements met for a celebratory lunch. The feat of putting a menu together was quite tricky for Xanthe Clay who decided to use the scrumptious Portabella to “save the planet.”