Artichoke Adventure

We decided to give this "pretty flower" a try for our Easter dinner. Nothing like trying to do something special on a holiday! The hubs and I enjoyed them, yummy, but we found it basically to be a glorified butter spoon. Nothing wrong with that! I wouldn't say this was a side dish that "filled you up", but with all that butter, who really needs anything else. We also had a spiral ham.

Here are some pictures of our artichoke adventure.

The little little on the ride to church Easter morning.

The big little, all dressed up.

The cuddles on the couch.

The fresh artichokes and lemons.

Simply prepped them, put them in a bit of water, with sliced lemons and minced garlic.

Let them steam as instructed in the tutorial.  (I didn't have a steaming basket or anything fancy, just plunked them in a pot).  Worked great.

The finished result.  Pretty spectacular for a veggie!

The spiral ham.  Yum.

Sending Love,

Twin A

The following tutorial is from the website www.simplyrecipes.com posted by Elise.  Thank you for demystifying this delicious veggie.

How to Cook and Eat an Artichoke

• Prep time: 5 minutes
• Cook time: 35 minutes

METHOD

How to Cook an Artichoke

1. If the artichokes have little thorns on the end of the leaves, take a kitchen scissors and cut of the thorned tips of all of the leaves. This step is mostly for aesthetics as the thorns soften with cooking and pose no threat to the person eating the artichoke.

 

2. Slice about 3/4 inch to an inch off the tip of the artichoke.

3. Pull off any smaller leaves towards the base and on the stem.

4. Cut excess stem, leaving up to an inch on the artichoke. The stems tend to be more bitter than the rest of the artichoke, but some people like to eat them. Alternatively you can cut off the stems and peel the outside layers which is more fibrous and bitter and cook the stems along with the artichokes.

5. Rinse the artichokes in running cold water.

6. In a large pot, put a couple inches of water, a clove of garlic, a slice of lemon, and a bay leaf (this adds wonderful flavor to the artichokes). Insert a steaming basket. Add the artichokes. Cover. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 25 to 45 minutes or until the outer leaves can easily be pulled off. Note: artichokes can also be cooked in a pressure cooker (about 15-20 minutes cooking time). Cooking time depends on how large the artichoke is, the larger, the longer it takes to cook.

How to Eat an Artichoke

Artichokes may be eaten cold or hot, but I think they are much better hot. They are served with a dip, either melted butter or mayonaise. My favorite dip is mayo with a little bit of balsamic vinegar mixed in.

1. Pull off outer petals, one at a time.

 

2. Dip white fleshy end in melted butter or sauce. Tightly grip the other end of the petal. Place in mouth, dip side down, and pull through teeth to remove soft, pulpy, delicious portion of the petal. Discard remaining petal.

 

Continue until all of the petals are removed.

 

3. With a knife or spoon, scrape out and discard the inedible fuzzy part (called the "choke") covering the artichoke heart. The remaining bottom of the artichoke is the heart. Cut into pieces and dip into sauce to eat.

 

Shades of Beige

We had some good buddies over a couple of days before Thanksgiving and we had a Pot Roast.  Pretty yummy.  It took a weird turn, when I discovered the food that I had planned on, was all the same color.  Thus the "Shades of Beige" dinner was born.  Sounds bland and yucky I know, but it turned out not bad, it you could get past the color issue.
In the morning, I seared a pot roast in a pan with some olive oil.  Then I put the roast in the crock pot along with some beef stock, minced garlic, carrots, onions, and salt & pepper.  It cooked all day, until it was falling apart good.  We had a turnip & apple bake, roasted parsnips & carrots, popovers (that didn't quite "pop" because the oven was so full!) and some mushroom stovetop gravy.
For dessert another beige item, a Social Apple Betty with whipping cream.  Some of the recipes follow.  We didn't seem to miss the green veggies too much!

Turnips & Apples (The Rest of the Best, The Best of Bridge Series or the "Brown" book)

1 large turnip, peeled & diced
1 TBSP butter
2 apples
1/4 cup brown sugar
pinch of cinnamon

Topping:
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP butter

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook turnip until tender.  Drain and mash turnip with butter.  Peel and slice apples.  Toss with brown sugar and cinnamon.  In a greased casserole, arrange turnips and apples in alternate layers, beginning and ending with turnips.  Mix topping ingredients until crumbly.  Pat on top of turnips and bake at 350 for one hour.

Mushroom Gravy (Canadian Living Magazine)

2 cups beef stock (approx)
1 TBSP vegetable oil
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
2 cups thinly sliced mushrooms
1/4 tsp each salt, pepper and thyme
3 TBSP flour

Scrape roast beet juices into glass measure, add enough stock to make 2 cups.  If cooking roast beef in crock pot like I did this time, use 2 cups of stock.  Set aside.  In saucepan, heat oil, fry onion, mushrooms, salt & pepper and thyme.  Stir until softened and no liquid remains.  Stir in broth/ pan juices, bring to a boil.  In small bowl, whisk flour with 1/4 cup water.  Stir into gravy and simmer until thickened.

Social Apple Betty (The Best of the Best, The Best of Bridge Series or the "Yellow" book)

6 apples, peeled, sliced

cinnamon, to taste

Crust:

1/2 cup butter, room temp.

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup flour

Fill a small casserole 2/3 full with sliced apples, adding the cinnamon to taste.  If the apples are tart, you may want to add some sugar.

To make crust:  cream butter and brown sugar.  Add flour and mix to a crumble mixture.  Sprinkle over apples and pat firmly into a crust.  Bake at 350 for 40 min.  Serve warm with whipping cream or ice cream.

Sending Love,
Twin A