Christmas Cookie Contest!

Can you believe it's only 54 days to Christmas?







To celebrate the December release of THE DIVA COOKS A GOOSE, I'm having a Christmas Cookie contest! Here's how it works.




*You* send me your favorite Christmas Cookie recipe.




Each Monday, beginning November 8th and running through December 13th, I will bake and post the recipe for the winner of the week. (Except November 15th, when it will be Thanksgiving recipe week here at Mystery Lover's Kitchen.)



Each of the five winners will win a half dozen cookie cutters -- a shooting star, a snowflake, and a turkey, along with three surprise cookie cutters selected by me.




They might include a gingerbread boy or girl, snowman, a football helmet(!), football, birdhouse, bee, ice cream cone, dog, cat, or teapot.





So start sending your favorite recipes to me at Krista at KristaDavis dot com today! I have some baking to do!





You may have noticed a few changes this morning! We're switching things up a little bit. Look for more changes to come over the next two months.



In the meantime, let's talk shitaki! They're supposed to be very good for us. They strengthen our immune systems and help our hearts be healthy. But the flavor of shitaki mushrooms is different than the crimini and mild button mushrooms we tend to use. People describe the flavor as smoky, but I find it more woodsy, not surprising since shitaki mushrooms grow on wood.

There are loads of recipes for shitaki mushrooms. I've used them in stir fries, but they tend to sort of disappear among the other veggies. A great way to sneak them in for those who don't care for the taste. They're also great in soups.

When we first started buying them, my mom and I weren't quite sure what to do with them, so we did what we often do -- threw garlic at them. Turns out they pair quite nicely with garlic. It's taken us a while to come up with a recipe we really like, but we think we finally nailed it.

In the recipe below, note that it's somewhat difficult to measure shitaki mushrooms. I sliced them and used a half cup to measure, but note that it is not a level half cup -- they were sticking up out of the measuring cup. I only used the caps. Save the stems for soup.

Simple Shitaki Mushrooms

1 teaspoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 and 1/2 cups shitaki mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Over medium low to low heat, pour the olive oil into a frying pan and add the garlic. Let sit to flavor the oil while you slice the mushrooms. Add the mushrooms and butter, and turn over the mushrooms in the melting butter while they cook. Finally, add the soy sauce and cook a few minutes longer. At this point, you can set them aside for a few minutes and reheat before serving.

Enjoy!