Puff the Magic Puff Ball

Handyman really likes mushrooms, and a few days ago, a friend of his gave him a Puffball Mushroom.

I have never seen a mushroom this big before.

(It was actually even bigger, but we had already hacked off a section before we took this picture).

I personally cannot stand the squishy and slimy texture of mushrooms, but the rest of the kids rather like them, so Handyman cut the puffball into cubes (Gabe was very disappointed to find out, much to his chagrin, that they weren't marshmallows) and lightly battered them in a bread crumb and parmesan mixture and then fried the pieces in butter.

I did try one, and found it not unpleasant.  It tasted a lot like a fried cheese curd.

While I don't care for the taste of mushrooms fresh, I do love to add dehydrated mushrooms to dishes.  See that big pot of soup on the stove?  It was homemade chicken noodle soup - flavored with puffball mushroom.