Mushrooms

Any vegetarian will tell you that mushrooms cooked right give them the same mouth and tooth feel as tender meat. Why vegetarians want things to feel like meat in their mouths, I'll never understand.

But I LOVE mushrooms. One of my favorite side dishes is simply sauteed shiitake mushrooms, with some butter, olive oil and a small palm-full of crushed herbs de Provence. Cook them over medium-high heat until they get deliciously tender all the way through. In this case, all I did was remove the stems. Sometimes I leave them on (but cut off the very end - tends to get tough), and sometimes I slice them. So warm and comforting...just like meat!