Golly, that's the biggest I've ever seen!

This past weekend we travelled to our cabin on the South Fork of the Payette River for a bon voyage weekend for Heather and Nick who moved to an island paradise in the South Pacific this morning.  For real.  They live on an island. Where it is 80 degrees all year round.  A lemon tree lives outside their patio.  They have a view of the ocean . . . from their bed.  

If you sense some envy, you're spot on.  Not only am I entirely jealous of their new home, but I am going to miss my sister and her husband, two of my closest friends, dearly.  I will be living vicariously through their island-hopping adventures the next couple of years, and if I'm lucky, will go visit at least thirty seven times.  I am going to start cooking spam in honor of them.  Better start taking your cholesterol medicine.

Back to the weekend.  While we travelled in style to our mountain/river destination (a 1977 RV that was recently purchased to facilitate epic adventures such as this), we travelled at a turtle's pace.  On the way there we had a head wind that caused us to cruise at a max speed of about 50 miles per hour.  What is normally a five hour drive took about seven and half.  We entertained ourselves and tortured Berkley to pass the time:

This is the view of one lineup behind us. No one seemed that mad we were going 45 in a 65 construction zone:

Once we finally reached the cabin, we soaked in the hot spring pool and ate till our buttons popped and celebrated a graduation, three birthdays, Forth of July and Thanksgiving.  We had a lot to cram in.  Oh, and I can now scratch something off of my bucket list.  MORELS!

Those who hike to the top of a hill and are willing to get rained on and eaten by misquotes will be rewarded!  I geek out over food frequently here at Hail's Kitchen, but to discover a food item that goes for $500/lb and to share the bounty with my family, can only be described as epic.  Morel hunting was like finding nearly buried treasure that you can eat.  I am fairly certain my mushroom hunting partner in crime and I jumped up and down when we found the first clump.  Jumped and squealed.  Jumped and squealed.

 Here we are after returning to the cabin. Wet, exhilarated and ready for a soak in the hot pool.

 My Grandma has seen her fair share of morels and when she saw the largest in our loot she declared, "My golly, that's the biggest one I've ever seen!"  

Sauteed morels

1 lb fresh morels (if you are lucky!)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tbs fresh thyme, chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tbs olive oil

1 tbs butter

salt and pepper

Rinse and dry morels well.  I cut the mushrooms into bite-sized pieces, as we served this over steaks, but you could easily leave the smaller ones whole.  Heat a sauce pan over medium-high heat.  Add the oil and butter.  Once melted, add the garlic -- be careful not to burn.  Cook until fragrant, about a minute. Add the mushrooms and stir to coat with the oil/butter.  They will release a ton of moisture.  After about five minutes of cooking (once the moisture has evaporated) add the cream.  Cook until reduced by half.  Add the chopped thyme and season with salt and pepper.  Serve alone, with pasta, over a protein like grilled steak or chicken.  Whatever you do, enjoy!