That's no moon! It's a mushroom!

Last week was apparently giant puffball, Calvatia gigantea, season in SW PA. I had no luck myself but I have great friends that were very generous with their own harvests and grow sites.

These monstrous things are easy to mistake for a lost soccer ball or white balloon in the woods. I saw several that were softball sized and a couple reaching beyond basketball size. They look like a small moon plummeted to earth, some are smooth and round but most are oblong with little craters on the surface.

When harvesting look for pure white inside, toss (or better yet, kick!) any yellowing, green or brown ones. Don't worry about washing the dirty outside, the skin peels off nicely like it's a fancy cheese wheel. Freeze or dehydrate what you don't eat immediately, it won't keep more than a day or so on the counter or in the fridge.

These are great edibles, I've read that you can substitute them for tofu or even eggplant in some dishes. I'll be trying this today in my mushroom miso.
I went with the pizza crust recipe but I screwed it up and my kids were less than pleased. (FYI: frying them is no substitute for grilling them...yeah, I do alright but I'm no chef) They need to have a very well-done toasting (almost burnt) with very little oil for it to work. Otherwise, you are piling cheese on mush. The recipe says to grill them but I didn't want to mess with charcoal. So for the second attempt I simply lightly brushed the cast iron with oil, got it screaming hot and flipped the slice over and over (and over) until it was sufficiently crusty. It was actually pretty great!