Slippery jacks

Isle of Skye... A Scottish island of fog and mist... I've been there more than once in the days when one didn't take multitude of pictures... On one occasion the fog was so thick that you couldn't see a thing. I found a solution to satisfy my tourists, thirsty of the beautiful Scottish sights. Instead of travelling around and seeing nothing, we went to the museum of the island and watched beautiful slides of the places obscured by the fog. Today I've just read that somebody found... slippery jacks in the grass alongside the road on The Isle of Skye. Slippery jacks? Cool down, dear sibling! It's not about you! Slippery jack is a very appropriate name for this specific edible mushroom. Indeed, its head is very slimy and shiny. I was taught to always remove the slimy skin and the white 'collar' beneath. This job makes hands very dirty and I don't like wearing rubber gloves when preparing food. There is a way to clean the hands! You need a piece of freshly boiled and still very warm... potato. Squash it in your hands and rub, and squash and rub again until the hands are smooth and clean. I learnt this trick from the Polish female staff at the kitchen of The Busy Bee Restaurant in Chicago. These women were all from the South of Poland, near Zakopane, the so called 'Winter Capital of Poland'! Another potato trick I learnt from my wonderful Krakow friend when she came to visit me here in London. I was speechless. I mean, I caught some infection that took away my voice and also my throat was sore. I coughed badly. Not a nice condition to be in when a friend comes. She cooked some potatoes, crushed them and then, still very warm put them on my throat. I was horizontal on the sofa for that treatment, of course. She put a towel around my throat and I stayed flat as long as the potato pulp kept the heat. It was a very helpful treatment, believe it or not.

Oh, how I miss mushroom picking!

Last weekend, walking along Cromwell Road, I showed my friends this statue:


It's Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting. I wonder if he would go mushroom picking with his scouts...