Dress Rehearsal

On December 23rd, Topher & I are having an early Christmas dinner with some of my family before they leave town for the holidays, and Topher has signed up to make roast duck. So last night he staged a "dress rehearsal" with our friends Adam & Meredith.

What We Ate:

• mushroom soup topped with green onions
• roast duck with anise-orange peel glaze
• Brussels sprouts confit (cooked in duck fat)
• homemade crepes
• Buena Vista 2005 Ramal Vineyard Chardonnay, Clone 17 RY

I went grocery shopping last Saturday in preparation for this meal, and Topher asked me to buy a variety of mushrooms totaling 2 lbs (for the soup). I proudly brought home three types of mushrooms: whole white, whole baby bella, and sliced cremini. I was crestfallen on Sunday evening when I learned that, in fact, baby bella and cremini are the same thing.

According to The Kitchn and Wikipedia, the three most common varieties of mushrooms that we eat - white button, cremini, and portobello - are all types of the mushroom Agaricus bisporus, just at different ages. White mushrooms are the youngest; portobellos are the oldest; and creminis, or "baby bellas," are somewhere in between.

I guess it's true that you learn something new everyday.