Hot Springs and Fried Morels

After a day spent in Eugene yesterday eating delicious food, playing games, and hiking up Mount Pisgah with a friend from college, Ben and I drove out to Delta Campground in Blue River. The goal: waking up extra early to hit Cougar Hot Springs. We woke up at 5 a.m., drove to the trailhead, and hiked in an easy half mile to the springs, which were a series of pools varying from toasty to cool. No one was there, so we claimed the pool at the very top where the steaming, sulfurous water flowed out of a gap in the rock. After soaking for awhile, a couple other people showed up so we took off, sedate. It was a slow, lazy hike back to the trailhead.

Back in Corvallis, we took a nap and then later I fried up some morels for an after-dinner snack:

First I cut the morels in half, soaked them in salt water, and rinsed them, although getting all the springtails out of morels is an exercise in futility (that's why I use pepper, to camouflage the bugs I'm sure to miss). I coated them in beaten egg and milk, then breaded them in crushed up saltine crackers seasoned with salt and pepper. And then the obligatory step of any morel cooking: fry them in butter. They were excellent.