This is a giant puffball, in situ in a graveyard:

This is not actually one you'd want to eat. See the impressions where somebody touched it? That means it's soft, and they're only good when they're solid, and white all the way through. This one is about the size of a baby's head (not sure why that's my point of reference...), but they can get as big as a basketball. And they make for very good eats.

If you are wondering how I came to possess this mycological knowledge, it is courtesy of a guided walk I took with the Mycological Society of New York. I'm not really a mushroom fanatic (in fact, I only knew about this walk through an organization called Our Goods, which sponsors Trade School--I'll have to evangelize about that at a later date) but given the opportunity to forage for my own dinner, and at the same time go for a leisurely walk through a beautiful cemetery on a pristine autumn day... Well, all I can say is that it was well worth almost an hour on the 4 train for the opportunity.

Not all of the mushrooms we gathered were edible. This kind is sometimes used in jewelry making:

This kind you can eat, but then you ABSOLUTELY cannot ingest any alcohol for the next two days:

And this kind is good for stocks (they pretty much dissolve in water) but also can be used to make ink:

But back to the puffball. It reminds me of nothing so much as the old Nintendo character Kirby, except that through a little googling I've learned that he was pink. We only had a Gameboy, old enough to be black & white, so it never occurred to me that he might not be white. Kirby would also probably not be very good dipped in egg and breadcrumbs, and pan fried in olive oil, which is how M. and I prepared these thick slices of puffball. Like vegetarian schnitzel.

Dinner also consisted of roasted beets with shaved ricotta salata, a little Caprese salad, and grilled Treviso radicchio.

And then for dessert, poached pears with star anise, vanilla, and lemon zest.