What Was New at Dinner 06/10/2012

For my first challenge I picked a good one.Not to difficult and very satisfying results.
  Let me first say until last year I thought Artichokes only came in a jar. So when Bill brought a real live Artichoke home last summer I had no idea what to do with it. I called my friend Barb and she told me how to steam and how to eat it.The only food I know that you need directions to eat.
 This year Bill tried roasting an Artichoke on the grill.It wasn't so good. When he brought 3 home this past week I steamed 2 for 2 different meals we enjoyed them greatly even still I was running out of steam and had no idea what to do with the 3rd one except maybe ignore it until it went away.Then Thursday at work I was talking about food and Artichokes came up and one of the ladies said they loved stuffed Artichokes.I didn't get a chance to ask how to stuff an Artichoke and with what but the idea stuck in the back of my mind like fuzz in a belly button.
 Yesterday I went roaming around the computer googling for Artichoke recipes for stuffing. There is no shortage of recipes on the internet,it seemed each cooking web site had  entire collections of the darn things. I looked at a whole lot of recipes nothing inspiring me to tackle what sounded like a difficult task. Then I saw it on the search page the words Artichoke,Bacon and Cheese! well you know I clicked on that one and I was home and happy.
 It wasn't a recipe it was a blog and the women that wrote it was talking to me. She said every thing I was thinking and then some and she also included a recipe for Stuffed Artichokes that had full complete easy to  understand step by step directions that made it clear while this was time consuming and required some effort it was not difficult or hard to do,but was in fact a little bit fun and totally worth the effort. She like my friend also provides directions on how to eat a stuffed Artichoke. I enjoyed reading the blog almost as much as I enjoyed eating the stuffed Artichoke. You can bet I will be reading more of her blogs and making stuffed Artichokes again.
http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2008/03/stuffed-artichokes.html   
While Artichokes are not new to my table stuffed Artichokes are.I had a lot of fun prepping and preparing the Artichoke I kind of felt like a professional cook putting together a master piece. I had even more fun eating that master piece no butter was needed just peel and eat.I was so enjoying the Artichoke that I barely noticed what else was on my plate.
 The most difficult part of the entire process was taking a good picture of my finished product.

                       











                                                                                 
  
I kept picking at it instead of focusing.
 All in all I have to say Artichokes are a 5 star vegetable.How can it be anything but 5 stars when Artichokes make it ok to eat bacon, cheese and butter!
A lot of work for a little bite but oh what a bite.