Mushrooms

I love mushrooms. I have since I was little and I think a large part of my love is from my mom. We would go mushroom hunting every fall/spring. We lived out in the country and she had some hippy friends who taught us to look for horse mushrooms. These are huge! They look like portabellas, but have a milder taste and can be up to three times the size. They also grow in fields rich in horse manure – hence the horse mushroom name. I was really good at mushroom hunting, and every year I can still smell them (or the fungus they grow out of).

After a few years my mom got scared that we might eat a bad mushroom and accidently kill ourselves so we stopped the hunting. But I still crave those mushrooms! Nothing else I have tried quite tastes like it. My mom would slice them, batter them in egg and crushed saltines and then sauté them in butter…mmmmm.

This year I went a little crazy. I ordered asparagus crowns and since I spent more than $25, I had a certificate for $25 free. I ordered the mushroom growing kit, well actually 2 of the mushroom growing kits.

It was really cool. The soil is inoculated; you open the box, wet the medium and let it sit in a cool dark place for a few weeks. (my closet)

I now have mushrooms…and they grow overnight.

This morning I went in my closet to get dressed, looked down and saw my large crop. I knew from the last time I harvested, that if I waited until I got home they would be too old to eat. So this morning my mom made me sautéed mushrooms in bread crumbs for breakfast…mmmm. And I even had a Dr. Pepper to go with it!

Dr. Pepper

My name is Jenn, and I am addicted to Dr. Pepper...

This may sound a little extreme, but if you knew me - you would understand. I don't drink coffee, I really don't like water, and I don't care for many other sodas. So, I start my day with a Dr. Pepper and have many throughout the day (sometimes up to 7 or 8 if it's a really bad day). So, why is this a problem?

Well, besides the fact that I drink around 1,000 empty calories a day, it's full of corn syrup and other chemicals and I spend at least $50 a month on soda. This is ridiculous! It's also unhealthy. I have been drinking Dr. Pepper since I was 13, when vending machines were everywhere on my high school campus. I have attempted to quit several times - once in college which lasted about a month, once in my mid twenties for the candida diet which lasted about 2 months, and once when I went to Europe for a month where it just wasn't available but there was plenty of wine. When I came home from India last year, my mother met me at the airport and had a Dr. Pepper and a glass of ice waiting for me in the car. I was so thankful!!

This is something that I really enjoy. When I have a had a hard day all I want to do is go home and pour myself a cold Dr. Pepper over ice. I know that the chemicals are unhealthy and it doesn't really fit my greener lifestyle but I want it! My sister was just diagnosed with breast cancer and I am looking more critically at the few chemicals that I do put in my body.

So here's my question - Is Dr. Pepper really that bad?