Fun Guy to Bring to a Party

Tomorrow, I will be heading up to Hudson, NY, about a two hour trip north, with Dr Jen.  The occasion is a meetup with several Wonkette commenters.  My plan for the potluck is to make chicken marsala made with an old friend, the hen of the woods mushroom which fruits every two years at the base of an oak tree at one of my worksites.

Tonight, I harvested one of the fruiting bodies, a sizeable one:

 

Now, THAT is the sort of fungi to bring to a party, a choice specimen of a beloved mushroom.  They tend to be a bit astringent, so I will parboil the mushroom before sautéing it in some butter and adding marsala wine and some chicken stock.  

There's plenty of the mushroom left, to be gradually harvested as the month goes along.  I imagine that I will be sick of it by Halloween.