Recipes | The Beauty of the Steamed Artichoke

When I was about 12-years-old, I read a beautifully constructed paragraph about asparagus. How young and green and tender they were, equally delicious whether they were lightly cooked and seasoned with salt, lemon and butter or grilled under a broiler with a spattering of melted parmesan on top.

I can remember (and taste) the disappointment when I realized I hate asparagus. I had so been looking forward to how amazing they were going to be and then it turns out that I hate them. I still feel guilty about it. I mean, what kind of foodie doesn’t like asparagus???

Anyway….transfer all of my gagging, nose-wrinkling, hatered of the asparagus to the globular beauty of the artichoke….ahhhh. It’s like coming home. THIS is the feeling I was so excited to have when I read that article long ago about asparagus. It was just the wrong vegetable.

Artichokes are beautiful, easy to prepare and have the added bonus of making any meal seem elegant and layered with devotion by your loving hands. Well and let’s just face facts…..artichokes are simply a vehicle for butter.

Take this afternoon, for example. I was ravenous (when am I not?), and in 20 minutes tops I had a lunch that was more grown up than a sandwich and chips but really took no effort on my part. 

I think most young women who are faced with their very own kitchen for the first time are intimidated by the whole “preparing their own artichoke” scenario. Don’t be. It’s so easy my Roo dog could do it and she doesn’t even have opposing thumbs.

Start by cutting off the stem and pulling the first few layers of leaves off the artichoke. Don’t be worried, just rip the suckers off. They don’t taste as good.

You can snip the tops of the leaves off the next few layers if you feel like it and if you can find a pair of scissors. If you don’t feel like it, then don’t! I just like the way it looks, so I snip ‘em.

Add a few inches of water into a saucepan, place your artichokes into a vegetable basket and turn the heat on high. Add a tight fitting lid and steam your artichokes for 20-40 minutes, it will depend on how big they are. You can tell they are ready when you stab the bottom of the artichoke and the stem feels soft!

About 5 minutes prior to your artichokes being done, melt a cube of butter over low heat. Serve artichokes with chilled white wine beer and a big, empty bowl for the discarded leaves.

Enjoy!

xo xo Liz 

It Was Just One of Those Days, Dolls

Today was one of those days where I would have infinitely preferred grabbing a Starbucks, my dog and climbing back into bed rather than living life. Days like this, I find it helps to get dressed, swipe on an extra layer of lipstick and turn the music up loud, no matter how much I want to slob around in my sweats and moan about my life.

Why are some days harder than others? How can our emotions do such a quick turn about that we find ourselves unseated and uprooted? Yesterday, I felt on top of the world. I wouldn’t have thought there was a mountain too tall for me to scale, no obstacle too great for me to overcome. This morning I felt like a depleted version of myself, frail and wracked with insecurities. And they’re almost all problems I’ve created in my head!

I’ve seen people on Twitter and Facebook who talk to their peers as if they’re diagnosing a patient, commanding them to overcome insecurities with will power, as if they are somehow weak for having an off day. I’m going to counter that and raise them on the premise that if you don’t have a bad day occasionally, how can you truly grow and appreciate the good days? John Adams, Diana Vreeland and Julia Child all had bad days and we think of them as some of the most successful, together people out there!

Ride the bad day out. Don’t fight it, accept it and realize that this too shall pass.

I’m snuggling by the fire now with my Roo baby in my lap and a glass of wine close at hand. The day has drawn to a close, and with it the frustrations and problems I faced earlier. I struggled today. And that’s OK, because struggle is necessary for growth. Tomorrow, when I awake in my bed of white down blankets and piles of pillows, I will be grateful for days like these because they are helping mold me into the woman I want to be. I want to be strong and tirelessly ambitious, and proof that dreams CAN indeed come true, they just require a little elbow grease.

So for all you Dolls that struggled today, that struggled yesterday and for those who will struggle tomorrow, just know that it’s all a part of the plan. It doesn’t make you any less of a woman to come up against some resistence. And in facing and overcoming a difficult day, you are showing by example to other women what real life looks like. Don’t give up, Dolls!! Tomorrow is a new day!

xo xo Liz