Afternoon ARTICHOKES

I'm calling them afternoon artichokes, because in our house that's when they'll be eaten, as an afternoon snack by my 1 and 2 year old.  

Last week when we got artichokes I was excited because I thought I liked artichokes.  I found out, I really only like the hearts and pretty much only when they're from a jar in which they've been marinating in all things tasty.  BUT, we did discover that kids love them.  Here's proof.  The 3 from last week were devoured solely by our little kidlets.

We planned on eating them...

The kids did. 

The adults didn't.  I think I over cooked them and we didn't have anything to dip them in, so it's probably my fault.  

We planned on using the hearts for a bread recipe, but when we cut the fuzz off the choke, our hearts were tiny.  Non existent really, so we did the second best thing; we bought a jar of the marinated hearts and made the bread anyway and we were glad we did.  So, if any of you had success with your artichokes and could find the hearts, give this recipe for Cheesy Artichoke-Garlic Bread a whirl.  I recommend it even if it means purchasing your hearts at the market.  We followed the recipe, except that we used our fresh red bell pepper in place of the pimentoes, we didn't use the dijon mustard, and as mentioned previously, we used jarred artichoke hearts instead of fresh ones.

Gary sent us these artichoke ideas.

Killer Artichokes

Ingredients

• 2 artichokes, halved and choke scraped out
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1/2 cup butter

Directions

1. Preheat an outdoor grill for low heat.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place the artichokes into the boiling water, and season with salt and pepper. Throw in half of the garlic, and half of the shallot. Boil for about 30 minutes, or until a fork is easily inserted into the stem of the artichokes. Drain and set aside.
3. Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat, and stir in the remaining garlic and shallot. Cook just until fragrant, then remove from the heat.
4. Place the artichoke halves onto the preheated grill. Brush some of the melted butter onto them. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, brushing with butter occasionally, until lightly toasted. Serve with remaining butter as a dipping sauce.

The only changes that we made to the recipe were the addition of crushed red peppers to taste (we live in the southwest and use them in everything) and we also replaced the butter with Olive Oil. It was a very simple and was worth the few minutes that it took to make.

**He even ate the stem, which I didn't know was edible.  

And I read today that you should store artichokes in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for 3-4 days so plan to use them up early in the week.