Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Artichoke Sandwiches & Thirds


There's a carton of eggs in the fridge that is nearing it's Best By Date but I use eggs only for baking.  I don't want to waste so I squeezed $10 out of the budget to buy flour and milk to make bread (yes, my bread recipe includes eggs) although I don't need to make bread yet as there's some in the freezer.  Still, it's good to work ahead of need.  And I also wanted to buy some clearance sale veggies if I could.  There wasn't much to choose from:  over-ripe tomatoes and superannuated artichokes.  I bought both.  $1.98 well-spent, if you ask me.

Artichokes.....how do you deal with 4 artichokes for just one person?  Well, first of all, you've gotta love artichokes.  And I do.  I cooked all four at once--because they really were a bit old and also because all that steam and heat from cooking makes the AC run overtime; best to get it over with.  I had two artichokes for supper last night--I made a dip with melted margarine.  (I do Not like margarine and I really missed butter but there's no point moaning; the 'chokes were good anyway.)  And there were two left for lunch today.

Now here's the very best way I know of to serve leftover artichokes:  slice them in half top to bottom with a very sharp knife.  Scoop out the choke.  Stuff a chunk of fresh lemon into the choke cavity with the cut side facing out.  Heat a little olive oil in a skillet.  Place the artichoke/lemon halves face down in the warmed oil.  Saute for just a minute or two--no need to turn them over; you only want them heated up a bit.  And you're ready to eat!  Just squeeze that warm lemon juice over the artichoke.  Heavenly.  Trust me.

Alas, I did not have a lemon nor any olive oil.  Instead, I ate the leaves cold.  Still surprisingly tasty, even cold and unseasoned.  Then I sliced the hearts which were nicely soft, and used them to "butter" two slices of homemade bread.  I added some slices of that over-ripe tomato I bought yesterday (actually, that's when tomatoes taste the best).  Dashed a little sea salt on top, and assembled my sandwich.  So good!

Now, here's the thing about sandwiches.....remember how moms used to make sandwiches for school lunches?  Well, back in the day when I was a kid, moms did that.  My mother sure made mine--always on her stellar homemade bread (that's the recipe I always use, the one with the eggs) which had the awful habit of making huge (but tasty) crumbs.  All of the other kid's moms used store-boughten bread (no  crumbs at all), and they sliced sandwiches in fours or in half, either cut straight across or diagonally; a few moms left the sandwiches whole.  My mother did none of those things.  She always cut my sandwiches in thirds.  Always.  That was so I'd remember that somebody loved me.

I make my own sandwiches these days.  But I still always cut them in thirds so I'll remember that somebody loved me.



Artichoke hearts on a sandwich:  really tasty.  Try it.
Remind somebody that you love them.
Life is good.

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