Artichokes

No question about it, artichokes are a pain to cook. Throw them in a pot of boiling water and let them go? No way. Not even close. However, you have to consider that they are really good. So here's how to do it!

Ingredients:

2 Artichokes
½ Lemon
¾ Cup Water
¼ Cup Olive Oil
Garlic Salt
Pepper

The "leaves" on these things are called chokes. A lot of these chokes can make you choke. So... Remove the lower two layers of chokes, two chokes deep. Next cut the pointy ends of the top ½ of the chokes off. Easy enough. Now cut off the stem even with the lower most chokes. Looking at the freshly cut end, cut a hole about an inch in diameter so you can remove the nasty inner part. The "fuzzy" inner part is something you don't want. A clam knife works great for this, but I suppose a paring knife will do. Squeeze the lemon over the artichokes. Put an inch of water in a pot, add about ¼ cup of olive oil. Put in the artichokes (2 of them for this attempt), and then add spices and throw in the squeezed lemon peels. This would probably be problematical for some purists, but I like it this way. Bring water to a boil then reduce to simmer. Let it go for about 30-40 minutes until the leaves (chokes) are easily removed. That's it. Eat.