1 Kings 17:16

On Thursday, after Eric's funeral,Bob said he needed to go into the city. The funeral had been a wonderful occasion - with singing from the Leicester Male Voice Choir, and a specially written solo sung by our friend Gillian. It was a fitting, and moving tribute to a marvellous Christian man who gave love and laughter to so many people.

Anyway, Bob wanted to get to the bank and Post Office. I needed to collect something from the Christian Bookshop - so off we went. As we got into the centre, there was a phenomenal rainstorm - and we sheltered in the Market.

The Market is very good and has a great range of stalls - and it is under cover.

Being there around 4pm in a rainstorm, we found all the stallholders desperate to clear their stocks and pack up - so they were offering amazing bargains.

One fun guy had fungi. Large bowls of mushrooms for £1. So I purchased a bowlful - he tipped the mushrooms into a plastic carrier for me and I handed over my £1 coin.

When I got home, I decanted them into a large plastic bowl to store them in the fridge. I feel it is always important to repack market goods - the top surface of mushrooms in his stainless steel bowl looked lovely - but you can never tell What Lies Beneath!

Thursday night I served mushrooms as a side vegetable with our meal. Friday lunchtime, Bob made himself a cheese and mushroom panini. Friday night, I served mushrooms as a side vegetable with our meal. This morning, I made scrambled eggs with chopped mushrooms for breakfast.

But the bowl did NOT seem to be getting any emptier! Bob and I were simultaneously reminded of the Widow of Zarephath and commented on that story to each other.

So I went to the website of the British Mushroom Bureau to look for inspiration.

There I found a recipe for French Mushroom Ragout, which I have decided to modify using the stuff in the fridge. This will make enough for at least 3 days - some to eat today and some to freeze!

I started off using TWO of my Le Creuset casseroles - but as they cooked, the mushrooms started to shrink in volume, and I transferred everything into one. This is still about 7.5 litres!

It smells wonderful though - the flavour should have concentrated beautifully. Apparently, the name 'ragout' is derived from the French verb ragoûter, which means "to stimulate the appetite."