Artichoke Anxiety

So it's spring now and I know artichokes are in season; I find my face almost constantly having them shoved in front of......at least, I keep seeing the nice displays of them at Whole Foods, and they do look nice.

While I love a good marinated artichoke or a cheesy dip, I have not much experience with them in the kitchen. I think, maybe once, I dissected a few, pulled out their still-beating hearts, and blanched the crap out of them before pureeing & making some sort of spread from them (I can't quite remember what the hell I was making, but I remember all those hearts sitting in a bowl of cold water & lemons).

But I keep hearing about how good those LEAVES are. "Man, you got to steam them, and then strip the flesh off of them with your teeth." -for some reason I find that terrifying. Maybe it's a tooth sensitivity thing, I don't know. It just doesn't sound like it feels/tastes too good. But I'm sure I'm wrong here.

The thing is, I'll probably never know, unless I get someone over to my house to show me the ways of the choke. I need an artichoke Yoda to guide me through this difficult endeavour! I need the spirit of Alec Guinnes to appear to me and tell me on what swampy planet I may find this mythical little guy!

Anyway - it took me like 10 minutes to paint that artichoke. Which is 10 minutes of my life that I will never have back....

In other news: I'm hitting the brewstore tonight to pick up grain for my next batch. I haven't brewed since March so I am getting back on the horse with an IPA - more or less based on the same grist as my previous effort back in November (which came out super smoothalicious). This one will feature nearly 6 ounces of Summit flowers which have been sitting, vacuum-sealed, in my feezer since Harvest, patiently await their date with Mr boiling wort. I'll let you know how it goes.

-'Wrence