Mmmmmmm, Mushrooms!

Last month for a couple weekends in a row, I went mushrooming with a friend of mine.  His mom had taken him mushroom picking when he was younger, and I had gone with my dad. It had been a long time, but mostly we remembered what we were looking for.  So between a call to my Dad, and a guidebook, The Audobon Society's Guide to North American Mushrooms, we were ready to find the elusive chantrelle.
Actually we ended up getting soaking wet in the rainy cold woods (but who's complaining when the woods are that beautiful?) and seeing some nice scenery.  One of the wierd things was this row of trees right in the middle of this forested area that had all decided against continuing forest life together and uprooted themselves.  Haha.  I'm not sure what did this, although my best guess is shallow entwined roots combined with wind. 

We found MANY mushrooms, of various sizes, colors and shapes, but there are too many that look alike and are dangerous for me to be comfortable with trying to positively ID most of them. 
There were red:

Pink:

Purple:

Weird:

I also found a new family of mushroom that I enjoy.  The coral mushroom family is pretty forgiving, although they look odd, there are only a couple kinds that are poisonous and neither deadly, so I felt pretty safe in trying them.  My rule though, is when in doubt, throw it out.   The last time we went we only got corals, and I made a delicious havarti and coral mushroom omelet for supper that night.  It was quite rich and I very much look forward to next year's fungi even if it's "just corals" again.

The second time out we hit the golden jackpot.  My Dad, incidentally, also reminded me that chantrelles are like gold... if you find some you never tell anyone where, so I will just let you know we were in the state of Washington.  ; )  How's that for narrowing it down?  My friend cooked up some excellent steaks and sauteed these to put over them.  Magnificent!

Our harvest: