Today, I start to use my blog as a canvas for my garden.  The goal was to try new things and learn to cook.  Well, as my progress of changing the thoughts between my ears moved forward, I saw that , telling myself, I didn’t know how to cook, was an excuse.   An excuse because I didn’t know.  So I just gave up.

As many of you have seen, my garden is a place of learning and MANY lessons for me.  I have been focused a lot on my artichoke plant.  So, excited about the number of buds on the plant and then the resolve to just enjoy the flowers…. Well, guess what I can have my cake and eat it too.

This is the recipe I will be trying tonight.  I am going out to cut the rest of the small artichokes before they flower and cook me up something that sounds SO delicious! I will let you know how it goes.

Copied from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

2 pounds baby artichokes
Bowl of water with 3 cups of water and juice from 2 fresh lemons (about 3 Tbsp) or equivalent amount of vinegar

1 cup of water
1/2 cup olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 green onions (scallions), chopped, including the green ends
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp lemon juice or balsamic vinegar
1 pinch of Herbes de Provence
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (1/4 to 1/2 cup to taste)

Method

1 Rinse the baby artichokes. Set out a bowl with 3 cups of ice-cold water; add the fresh squeezed juice from 2 lemons (about 3 Tbsp of lemon juice) or vinegar. Working on the artichokes one by one, cut off the stem to 1/4-inch from the base; peel back and remove the petals until only the top third of the cone tip is pale green green. Cut off the pale green tips. Trim off any remaining green from base of artichoke. Halve or quarter the artichokes, depending on their size and drop in the bowl of acidified water (to prevent discoloration).

2 Drain artichokes. In a large skillet, heat the artichokes and 1 cup of water to boiling. Cover and simmer 3-5 minutes, depending on the size of the artichokes. Drain well.

3 Using the same skillet, heat to medium high and add the olive oil. Add the artichokes, onions, garlic, and herbes de Provence. Cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle on 1 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar, salt and pepper. Put in serving bowl, sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.

Serves 4.