Hi guys! How’s March treating you so far? We at Garlic, My Soul are having an excellent month. There are some very exciting things on the horizon for us, including but not limited to…
Planning our Road Trip Extravaganza 2011
Cucina Fresca March Recipes (They are headed your way folks)
A new Garlic, My Soul logo is in the works. Get excited!
We’re planning a cooking themed photo shoot with the infinitely talented Mary Costa in the next couple of months. You’ll be treated to a few choice shots when it’s all over, but that’s all I’m going to tell you for now!
And on top of it all, we’re continuing to enjoy our membership in the CSA. Every couple of weeks we get a new shipment of fresh, local produce, and we gladly accept whatever the CSA folks want to give us. We’ve eaten a lot of kale, some collard greens, a lot of red chard, grapefruit, butter lettuce, and more carrots and broccoli than we know what to do with. This last week was no disappointment…
It was Saturday afternoon before I managed to make my way over to Jennie’s house to split up the CSA bounty, a new bi-weekly ritual for us. I was in the neighborhood to see the eye doctor, so I stopped by and found her knee deep in spring cleaning. As is our custom, I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat to chat with her while she continued to scrub down her bathroom. Watching one another clean is just one of those things we got used to doing when we lived as neighbors, and believe me, it’s more fun than it sounds.
So after chatting and cleaning for a bit, I wandered into the kitchen for some more coffee and I found something unexpected in the fridge. Three artichokes!
“Where did these artichokes come from?!” I shouted to Jennie, who was now dusting the living room.
“Oh!” She exclaimed, “They came in the CSA!”
“That’s magical!” I said, “I think I have to make them right now!”
And so that’s what we did. I pulled out her Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and looked up the basics. I knew it had something to do with boiling and butter sauce, but I wanted to do it right.
30 minutes later, I coaxed Jennie away from cleaning and we split the three artichokes between the two of us.
I followed directions, and clipped the tips of the outer leaves, chopped off the top inch or so, and brushed them with lemon juice.
Then I plopped them in the dutch oven with some boiling water. Brought it back to a boil, reduced the heat, covered it and simmered for about 20 minutes.
At this point in the story an odd thing happened. I was on Jennie’s computer for a moment and saw that Jeff had written her (on gchat) to say he was headed home from the office and would be home in a few minutes. I walked into the kitchen where she was vacuuming around my artichoke mess just to let her know he was on his way.
But I couldn’t get her attention, so I decided it wasn’t important and went back to the computer. It was then I noticed the living room closet door was closed (it was open only moments before), and then I saw Jeff’s sunglasses and jacket strewn across the ottoman, and then I heard his voice. Coming from the closet.
“Hey, uhm, Jeff’s in the closet.” I said, “I think he’s on the phone…”
Jennie was unconcerned. She kept vacuuming. I shrugged and checked in on my simmering artichokes.
Coming along nicely! I whipped up a butter sauce. I neglected to photograph it because it was literally just butter, lemon juice, and some herbs. I’d be too embarrassed to show you the vat of melted butter we dipped these in.
I drained them on a paper towel.
And then Jennie took a lot of pictures…
We devoured them, with the butter sauce, and some cheese and crackers. Then I headed home and went on with the rest of my day. Just another normal Saturday afternoon, really.
Oh, and yes, Jeff was on the phone in the closet. In order to escape the vacuuming noise and mid-90’s pop music we usually play while cooking…
[addtoany] Yum