A Hausfrau's Kitchen - Easy Squeezy Artichokes

I love artichokes. Doesn't everyone?

Last night was a kind of a semi-leftover night, but I added an artichoke and a baked potato to the leftover mini-meatloaf I was feeding Sweet Hubs. The trouble is, I also wanted to go have a soak in the hot tub before dinner, so what to do? Easy! Cook the artichokes in the oven along with the potatoes and then I could totally ignore them for an hour or so!

I started out with two lovely arties. You'll notice the leaves are closed and the colors are bright. The picture doesn't show it, of course, but they are nice and heavy for their size. You'll have to just trust me on that.

 Using a very sharp knife, I cut off the top and the bottom.Then with my kitchen shears, I trimmed the tip of every leaf, both for pretty and to get rid of the little thorn on there.

I plopped it down on a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil, tucked a few slices of peeled elephant garlic into the leaves, drizzled a little lemon juice over the top and sprinkled it liberally with kosher salt.

Then I trimmed and peeled the stem, which is perfectly edible, and set that on top.

Next, I wrapped the foil around them and put them in my baking pan. I SHOULD have put them in a little foil nest, too, because the bottoms did get kind of over browned and some juices escaped and burned in my pan. Live and learn, I guess.

Anyway, I baked them right next to the potatoes for just about an hour at 370 degrees.

For the butter sauce, I just melted some butter in a small saucepan. About 1/4 cup per artichoke works nice. Then I had about 2 teaspoons of dried parsley, a nice splash of lemon juice (about 1/2 teaspoon per 1/4 cup of butter) a dash of cayenne pepper and more kosher salt.

How do you know when your artichoke is done? The easiest way is to pull a leaf from near the center and see if it comes out easily. Or you can poke the bottom with a fork. Or you can give the artichoke a squeeze along the bottom and see if it feels soft.



I wasn't especially hungry, so I skipped the elk meatloaf and just had the potato and artichoke. I couldn't even finish that, but I sure enjoyed it!

Bon appetit!