For artichokes, it depends on mood. Sometimes, I'll make a whole dish of different sauces. Sometimes, it's just salty drawn butter. If in no mood to prep anything (I tend to steam all the artichokes and put the extras in the fridge for grab and go, like this one--cold artichokes are as good as warm ones), I might use a commercial salad dressing (the ones I have are very specific and not for actual salad, for which I make my own). Today it was warmed ghee-from-a-jar with salt and herbs.

I make vinaigrette or a more vinegar than in vinaigrette, oil and vinegar dressing often, with flavors made up on the fly, but I don't really care for that with artichokes. Sometimes, I'll use a mayonnaise base thinned with wine, and maybe preparred mustard or similar, with spices and/or herbs, but one has to be careful to merely enhance, not upstage, the artichoke flavor. Sometimes, they're on the table at more (but not completely) formal meals, for people to pick at. Then, they pick off a petal or two, and eat with no sauce. Plain like that is good! But a little sauce is better if one is eating the whole thing.

The choke of a mature artichoke isn't really edible. That is what was surprising about this little one. It seemed so green / underripe, and the bottom split horizontally when I was trying to cut off the stem, and I didn't see any choke, but when I got under the petals (bracts, officially, so I've read, but people understand petals better), there was a bulging, strawlike reddish choke like the big ones have at full growth. There are other varieties of artichoke, like the little ones they can, which have soft white or green chokes, which aren't unpleasant to eat, especially when brined or marinated. And just right artichokes also have the pale and softer chokes, but the ends are still spiky and unpleasant. For those, if you cut flat across, like cutting tall grass with a scythe, the bottoms in the cup of the bottom of the artichoke are fine to eat. For the tall hard spiky wheatfield of a choke that will hurt! Best to cut or tug out the whole thing, but that's easier because the treasured bottom should be firm enough for you to handle.

Even eating serveral per week for months does not diminish the delight. 😊 I much prefer steamed (served warm or cold) to the fancified ones in restaurants, that are greasy and have the chokes removed. Better for eating in public, but no fun, and besides being greasy, the sauce inevitably overpowers the flavor of the actual artichokes.

I see. I think I misinterpreted your post above. I thought you were saying you ate the chokes.

Thursday: my birthday, so I have exactly what I like. No attempt at nutritional balance.

Scallops and crab and wine.😉 A delicious pear to finish. They're bang in season.

Happy Birthday, Floral!

I had salad for supper but I need to catch up, so I'll start loading the pictures off my camera but I didn't want to wait to wish Floral a happy birthday.

Annie

Happy Birthday to floral from the land of Aus.

Our dinner last night was honey soy marinated salmon with water added to dilute the soy, butter fried gnocchi, spinach and peas. I thickened and simmered the marinade to make a sauce.

Saturday: out to dinner. Venison for DH, mussels for me. Starters were salmon with vodka and beetroot and marinated mackerel. Desserts were cheese and affogato.

Sigh. I bruised my toe. No cooking. Dinner was boughten spinach tortellini and Rao's sauce, unimproved, with chicken sausage and a heap of fresh baby spinach. No cooking! Dark chocolate covered dried cherries for desert. Sigh. Nice enough, but I have a lovely cauliflower and artichokes and collards just shivering in the fridge...

Ouch! Ice your poor toe.

It has been raining hard here - about 1” in the past two days - so definitely soup weather.

DD made a hearty chicken minestrone and a creamy coconut summer squash.

Ham hock, baked potato, chard. Baked apples again. Theres a huge harvest this year many houses have boxes of apples on the front wall for you to help yourself. I can't resist free food.

The toe is better, but not enough to cook or anything. Dinner was salad kit with torn up hard boiled egg and TJ's gyros meat. It was actually very good, but I didn't actually make anything....

Hey, salad making counts!

We had bolongnaise pasta. More importantly, SWMBO made it. She has gotten good enough and her knee scooter and her ankle, now in a boot rather than a cast, no longer needs to be elevated. So she rolled to the kitchen and made dinner, which is a big accomplishment! It was yummy too.

Salad kit. Open bags, dump into bowl. Okay, I peeled the egg (from fridge, made a few days ago in automatic egg steamer). Tearing it and tge gyros wasn't "prep".

Yeah, Ms. MBO!!

Roast chicken for Sunday dinner. The slices of roast pumpkin were so sweet and delicious. Stuffing/dressing? was with tarragon. DH made the gravy. He cooks the butter and flour roux till it’s quite brown and uses the chicken juices with the fat skimmed off. It’s thicker than I like it but it doesn’t bother me enough to complain.

Saturday lunch I made stove

top Mac and Cheese from scratch. Two cheeses…chedder and parmesan.

Nice looking roast dinner. I'm interested in why he skims off the chicken fat and then uses butter. I make the gravy in the roasting tin using the fat off the meat. It gives a good intense flavour. Is there a reason for the butter substitution?

Just out of curiosity, it's squash season here, ie autumn, but it's spring for you. What's the trick?

The only reason I can offer about DH using butter based roux gravy is that he likes to get most of it done early using chicken stock and tips extra juices from the roasting meat into the gravy later. Neither of us like the last minute scramble to get the gravy made from the roasting tin.

Being such a big north south country we basically have pumpkin/ squash being grown year round. The pumpkins that are locally grown and harvested in our autumn are still available now due to good storage and then the ones grown in the warmer winter climate become available. Different types and slightly different tastes but all very popular.

Dinner was meat patty, fried gnocchi. and vegetable stew with eggplant, red onion, tomatoes and yellow peppers.

Still not cooking. Vegetables raw (I, myself, love raw vegetables, though not fruits such as eggplant and pumpkin). Evil genius via TJ's. Mushroom truffle ravioli, (not TJ's) horseradish sauce, truffle jack cheese (great way to use scraps and juice of truffle, with carob added to boost it) and gyros meat. Sounds a bit strange but turned out delicious. And different,

Pumpkin soup and cheese on toast. (grilled cheese.)

Cooking is happening chez nous, but not dinner! I and the chief minion have put the roasted make ahead turkey gravy wings in the bean pot with the concomitant vegetables and thyme, drippings and chicken broth (I don't have that much stock in the freezer so got the organic free range). It's reducing, I'm now wiped out, but minion has gone to an assignation. Dinner alone. I'm guessing something straight from the fridge. Not Halloween candy!

ETA: I just tasted it. There were lots of lovely drippings and some char on the onions, and it actually tastes quite beefy at the moment. I expect it'll be turkeyer as the wings cook more.

Later: Done (for now), and the solids taken down to the compostables bin. The broth didn't look right after the given time, but it's a triple batch, so I gave it another half hour on the simmer. That did it. It's delicious, and all the good was out of the wings. Tongs worked better than the slotted spoon, and I strained it the way I do stock, with a strainer in a sieve in the (cleaned) roasting pan. Very clear. It came out to about 15 cups, by eye by the nominal capacity of the Pyrex containers. To be chilled, skimmed, and finished with the flour, etc. It's a very pretty dark brown, but it doesn't taste particulary turkeyish, still. Which is fine with me! Though maybe it'll come out more when it's finished.

Definitely no dinner cooking.

Update: I made myself something kind of like a cheeseburger if you squint. I really wanted cold spaghetti (being so tired and achy), but I haven't even made sauce. So I fetched an Indian style stuffed flatbred (spicy potato) out of the fridge and stacked it with the last of the gyros meat (it's ground and formed, if not a patty) and the good kind of American cheese. The potato filling was in lieu of fries. 😄 It was filling and carby--I couldn't face chewing salad.

Dinner was a minimal hamburger and a salad with my pickled red onions.

Pretty!

Salad, tossed, not espeially pretty except in the way that all salads are. Halloween cookie, a black owl, to share. What had looked like royal icing, and which had many ingredients in common, was well stuck on, but really very fine black crystallized sugar.

OK, I'm so far behind that I'll never catch up.

I've been off having a stent inserted into a coronary artery that was 99% blocked. The hospital food was terrible, and the "heart healthy" menu even worse. Thankfully I'm home but Elery is doing the cooking.

His daughter did have grilled lemon chicken breast and spinach salad delivered from Bob Evans, I didn't even know that Uber Eats would deliver out here, although the driver did have some trouble finding us.

So, last night it was burgers and a kale salad from a bag, no pictures. Tonight it's the rest of the lemon chicken on some lettuce from my greenhouse. I am vicariously enjoying all the other meals, though.

Super cute kitten, John and I'm glad SWMBO is healing up.

I'm finding it very tiresome to "avoid any strenuous activity" and have only "5 minutes of sustained movement twice a day". No lifting over 10 pounds. I'll have cardiac rehab in about a month, and I'm actually looking forward to it, I'm going crazy here. I have lots of time, though, and am working on a jigsaw puzzle...

Annie

Ouch! Heal well.

All the best wishes for your quick recovery Annie.

Annie, hoping your recovery goes smoothly and you find a good book or a movie to pass the time and to keep you out of trouble!

Annie, I’m so glad you are having the stent before, not after, something bad. I hope.

A friend’s wife had a terrifying experience. She called her husband, said she wasn’t feeling well, described her symptoms, asked him to come home. He immediately called 911. She “died“ (heart stopped) twice in the ambulance and once in the ER. Long surgery, she’s recovered and is doing all the exercise rehab. But she’s scared all the time now.

Don’t want to lose you.

Here are scary foods and playful kittens to cheer you up.

John, I'm very, very fortunate. I had breathing issues all summer and tired easily, which was attributed to asthma. The inhaler didn't help much, but I kept using it, just as advised. Two weeks ago I donated blood and passed out. Very unusual because I've donated gallons with no issues. I went downhill from there, I couldn't walk to the bathroom without some chest pain and trouble breathing but the pain never went above their scale of 5 or 6. I finally went to the ER because here you can't get into a doctor, they send you to urgent care who sends you to the ER and you get two bills. Panic ensued amongst the staff as I had "elevated heart enzymes". Heparin drip, CT scan and into an ambulance and to the Heart Center which is, fortunately, very good. The stent was "technically challenging" and took three tries but now they place stents though the wrist instead of the groin so no lying flat for 6 hours. No heart attack, no dying, no heart damage and my other arteries are mostly clear. Yes, I know how lucky I am. I never felt terrible, though. Even in the hospital I didn't hesitate to unplug the IVs, walk to the bathroom, come back and plug them back in. They gave me a mobile heart monitor so I suppose if anything happened they would have known. I will have to be very careful with knives because of the blood thinners, but hopefully I'll be done with those in a year.

So I'm bored and fidgety and planning Thanksgiving dinner. I'm just grateful I'm still here to do that!

Thanks for the kitty pictures, they are adorable. Are they yours? Wht about the old cat, is she still going strong?

What's for dinner? We planned a salad with "leaves" from the greenhouse, but a neighbor brought some mashed potatoes, green beans and baked chicken breast, along with a dutch apple pie which Elery is greatly enjoying. Today is Amanda's birthday so The Princess says she's bringing cake, which I definitely do NOT need, LOL.

Annie

Wishing you patience and good health Annie

Annie, that sounds scary. I’m glad you went to the ER!

Our 20 y/o cat passed away :-( We went a little crazy, got two adult cats and then the two kittens. They are Himalayan-Ragdoll mixes.

Oh John, I'm sorry about the old kitty. We get so attached to them and it's hard. So your old cat has such big footprints to fill that it took FOUR cats to fill them, LOL.

Supper was lentil soup. Elery made it and it was very good, it's cold here and supposed to snow on Saturday. I'm still recovering and today I was just tired and didn't feel like doing anything and we were both tired of leftovers so Elery made soup. Bless that man.

Annie

Bread is rising. Chard and red bell pepper, with a hint of curry powder.

Dinner was a step up, but still not cooked. Pasta bowl ravioli arrabiata with chicken sausage, truffle cheese and a heap of arugula.

Is your toe still hurt?

DD is sick and wanted Restorative Chicken Soup. I worked in the triplex and came home dirty and tired, SWMBO is milking her final week of no weight on ankle, so poor DD dragged herself out of bed and made a big pot of Restorative Chicken Soup. I felt guilty but not enough to stop me from having the RCS.

It's an accumulation. The toe is improving but hurts more with the swelling going down, The opposite knee is unhappy about the toe getting priority, etc. But the bought bread wasn't worth eating at this stage of getting better, even though cooking dinner has no appeal. The gravy is in the freezer, however, and came out very nice. Next project is pie crusts, but they can't be accomplished seated. So at least tonight's was a hot dinner....

Poor DD having to make her own sickbed soup! Have you no freezer? I'm glad it could restore you as well. When you're restored, you need to find a future name (e.g., café) since it's a triplex no more.

Bread's still rising.

Ok. What is this triplex that was so dirty?

Floral, the continuing story is in Musings on Calorie Restriction Cooking.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6422977/musings-on-calorie-restriction-cooking#n=484

I'll just have to live in ignorance then. I'm afraid I gave up on that thread long ago when it went way off topic and veered into realms beyond my interests.

Split pea soup tonight. I've had a stinking, fluey cold and haven't felt like eating for three days. Subsisted on red wine, tea and digestive biscuits. (Akin to Graham crackers.)

Very pleased I made and froze the soup two weeks ago when I had ham cooking water left over.

I didn’t realise you didn’t like curry Annie until I saw your list in the other thread.

Dinner was a small chicken curry over rice

Another rainy day saw us having for lunch dumpling soup with pumpkin, kale, lots of coriander and vietnamese mint.

Now that my toe is getting better, the opposite knee is getting worse. No real cooking for me. I was craving meatballs, but couldn't make them :( I got a bunch of salads from the good deli, as well as meatballs and grilled shrimp. Dinner type meals have been more asseblages from the fridge. Salads. Last night stuffed pasta bowls with meatballs, Rao'a sauce, the end of the truffle cheese, and a heap of spinach. Tonight some clearance, finishing several deli salads, this week's chard/red pepper/curry bread with boo cheese or butter, the last of the shrimp cold with a little spicy sauce, and an orange with a thin, barely there flavor which was somehow more delicious than it had any right to be.

Annie!, That sounds like an unfortunate and uncomfortable experience! I appreciate the re-cap of your symptoms. Hard to know when tolerable discomforts need serious attention. I'm guessing re-hab is some gradual strength training.

It has been chilly with lots of rain. No frost yet. Garden put to bed for the year. One 3x12 low double walled tunnel. Should have lots of greens through the new year...

2020 i purchased a 1/4 pound of nasturtiums. I've been starting/planting a few dozen every year hoping for flower buds for capers. Getting mostly leaves.

Roasting coffee a few days ago i picked some for my test tube hanging over the sink...crazy this late i'm still getting flowers. Nov 8th?!...a neighbor thinks the 1/2 dozen clinging to my mailbox are plastic.

....ordering fresh seed for next season. Leaves and flowers are edible but zero flavor. The flower buds are tasty picked young, pickled, then shallow fried.

DD made this pizza. She said the recipe came “from your Cooking Forum“. Recognize it?

I don’t recognise the pizza but all the pieces look delicious JL.

Plllog your breads both amaze and confuse me. Then again I will happily buy a loaf with plenty of green olives in it so why not chard and red bell pepper with a hint of curry powder…. I think.… perhaps not the curry powder.

Another Sunday roast, this time lamb. It was nicely pink but I sometimes don’t mind it roasted a little longer as well. The ubiquitous roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, beans, mint jelly and gravy.

Sleevendog, do you leave the frosted Nasturtium plants where they are? Do you fertilize? Mine self sow every year and flower profusely. They are never fed and I leave the seeds where they drop.

Nice lamb. A bit pink but we would enjoy!

Yum. Pizza al Taglio. Lived on it when living in Rome. 'by-the-slice'. Just hold up two fingers how wide to be cut...multiple varieties and paid for by the weight. All to-go. no tables or chairs. Sometimes a bench outside.

Have not had for a few months. DH request. Made a double batch of dough yesterday. Pizza party today. Making focaccia, thick for future sandwiches and thin...and thin crust pizza.

I have all necessary ingredients. Even a #10 can artichokes.

(froze the rest in 4-choke packages). They are huge! ...I cut into quarters.

Nifty Japanese can opener. 14,000+ positive reviews and can see why. Cut like butter. ''dumb-dumb' negative reviews said "no instructions included" but it is right on the box.

For weeknight 'quick' i use flatbreads like roti or flour tortillas. My market sells locally made half-baked rectangle pizza crusts for the freezer.

Neely, the main issue with veggies in bread is getting the moisture right, since they contribute their own in baking, and the heightened mold potential if they don't totally melt. The hint of curry powder gives a little, pleasant turmeric color, a faint whiff, a smell of fenugreek (my fave) and a little taste of black pepper, which I discovered this year is most excellent in bread. I've made actual curry bread before, which is also good, but the hint here is just a little complexity, not a Here' Curry! statement, The vegetables themselves lend general flavor, as well, rather than something you'd identify, and make the bread more interesting. I can't have whole grain anymore, which cuts down on the variety.

When I was a kid, by the age of 5, we were expected to get our own breakfasts. Father, if he were home, could be talked into making hot cereal or an egg, but he was usually long gone. By age 8, we could make our own hot cereal and eggs,, and scrouge leftovers or whatever else in the fridge. Toast was prominent in breakfasts. Lunches were plated fixings, and make your own sandwich or salad at the table. The kitchen was too small to set up a fixings bar. It's part of me now. This comes to mind this week, with the second injury, preventing a lot of kitchen work. Too many sandwiches and salads! (I hadn't known it was possible!) So, I'm getting creative with the scrounging:

I didn't get a picture, but it looked just like you'd imagine it, and not pretty like Neely's and Sleevendog's plates, but it sure tasted good!. Lobster ravioli steamed with an odd wine infused snacking cheese (sold cut in bars) plus some American for salt and spread, the little red sweet pickled tear drop peppers that never have a correct name, and a small number of sriracha dots to lend complexity but not enough for actual heat. Not-a-sandwich was really good!

Yum, plllog, I love the little pickled biquinho peppers, I even grow them to pickle because they are very hard to find here. I see them in specialty grocery stores called "Sweetie Drops".

Sleevendog, that opener looks kind of like the old ones we used to take camping!

Here supper is in the crockpot. Potatoes and cabbage with some chicken sausages that were unearthed from the bottom of the freezer. I'm sure it isn't going to be pretty!

Annie

Last piece of chard pepper curry bread, crust removed because of incipient mold. See—it's just bread, but tasty.

Nice weather party is over. First frost this morning.

plllog, I've made rye bread with onions and wheat bread with seeds and cheese bread with black pepper, so why not vegetables?

Sleevendog, that pizza looks delicious, and the nice weather is gone here too. This was my front yard yesterday:

Low of 16F Sunday night, but I still have lettuce in my unheated greenhouse. It looks a bit limp, but perked right back up as soon as the sun shone and the greenhouse heated up:

I've got carrots there too, growing in an old horse tank that has some rusty holes in the bottom, so it has been "recycled" into raised bed gardening!

My experiment is to see how long I can get fresh salads from the greenhouse here in Michigan, I'm shooting for Christmas!

Anyway, I took these leaves:

and made salad. Elery likes the "fake crab" and it was on sale, so I put it in:

I have a friend coming tonight and she will spend the night, so I baked a loaf of bread for breakfast.

made some chicken tortellini soup:

and some of AnnT's country biscuits. I never bother to cut them round, I pat them into a square and cut them into squares with my bench knife, fast and easy and no re-rolling.

I also baked some orange/cranberry bread for dessert or snacks. Elery has already sampled it, LOL, he's been doing much of the cooking but no baking.

Trying to get back into the swing of things...

Annie