Mushroom Hiking in El Tiemblo.

When I told people I was going on a mushroom hike, for some reason, everyone assumed it was for the magical type of mushrooms. It was actually an easy, pleasant hike for edible mushrooms accompanied by a mushroom expert to make sure we didn't pick any that would ultimately kill us.

We had an early morning start with a beautiful drive a little over an hour outside of Madrid to the El Tiemblo area. After a brief introduction to the world of mushrooms by our expert, Sebastian, we were sent on our way to start the hunt.

Being a professional mushroom hunter is not in my future because I was terrible at it. After Sebastian cleared out any questionable ones I had in my basket, I was left with five little mushrooms.

Sebastian's haul...this is why he is the expert...although, I'm convinced he went to the market for these while we weren't looking ;-)

Eventually, I gave up the hunt and decided to enjoy the scenery, the fresh air and being outside of the busy-ness of Madrid for a bit.

Fortunately for me, my friends that were on the hike too were able to find a bunch of mushrooms for us to take home. We sauteed them up and they turned out to be delicious...and didn't kill any of us! It was fun to eat something we had spent the day looking for although admittedly my contribution was pretty minimal.

From start to the finished dish...thanks Michele and Kathryn!

That's a wrap on my 2016 adventures during my first six months in Madrid. Looking forward to many more in the upcoming year.

Wishing everyone a healhy and happy New Year!!