Ugandan Mushrooms

So I found these random mushrooms growing in our yard and decided to eat them.  Well, not really, though that's what I told Anthony after he had eaten a few bites of dinner :)  In reality, one evening when our night guard arrived, he was all excited about the great mushrooms we had and showed me all around the yard where they were.  Apparently they come from termites growing fungus under the ground (mushrooms are the fruiting bodies - the reproductive part of the fungus).  Another Ugandan also confirmed that these are the mushrooms that people love to eat (we shared them and since he was also eating them, I decided it probably was safe for us to eat them too).

The pictures above show the mushrooms before they are ready to eat.  Once they open up more, like below, they are ready.

Since I still had some canned Parmesan cheese (from my parents), I decided to make the fettuccine alfredo that my mom used to make when I was growing up, with mushrooms and other random vegetables instead of peas, and shell pasta instead of fettuccine.  It was really good and a special treat!

First, cook your pasta and veggies.
2 c. uncooked pasta

Veggies:
2 c. mushroom slices
1 c. greens (spinach, chard, collard greens, kale - whatever you have - I also included some winged beans and liana beans since I had just a few of each from the garden)
2 Tbs. butter

Once the pasta and veggies are cooked, drain the pasta and add:
3 Tbs. butter
1/2 c. milk
the cooked veggies
1 egg, beaten

Stir quickly until the egg is cooked, then add 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese.

When more mushrooms appeared a week later, we had mushroom pizza!