Art for your kitchen + how to cook an artichoke

My desire to cook full meals for myself comes and goes in waves usually, but lately I'm in the mood to cook much more than usual. The other night I made golden beet and sweet potato mash (basically cook equal parts of both, mash, and add a little-less-than-copious amount of butter) and a steamed artichoke the way my grandmother and her sisters used to make them.

You're probably asking yourself, How the hell do I cook an artichoke?

• Buy one that's closed tight - they're fresher than the ones that are starting to open up. 
• Cut off the big stem on the bottom. Rinse well.
• Lay your palm on the top of the artichoke where all of the leaves meet and push down hard a few times to open it up. 
• Slice three cloves of garlic and stick the them in the grooves of the leaves.
• Take out a pot and fill it with about 1.5 inches of water. 
• Place the artichoke in the middle of the pot. 
• Add salt and a very generous amount of cracked black pepper (and some red pepper flakes if you like them). 
• Try to get the seasoning in the grooves too, not just on the outside. 
• Drizzle with amble olive oil, I'd say at least a 1/4 cup. 
• Steam the thing for about 1.5-2 hours. 
• Occasionally add more olive oil or scoop some of the juices on the bottom onto the artichoke so it doesn't dry out. 
• You know it's done when you can smoothly pull a leaf out of the middle and scrape the meat off with the your bottom row of teeth.

How does this relate to art for your kitchen? Weeeelllll, this morning Design*Sponge wrote about these great art prints by John Holcomb which feature foods that come from certain states in the U.S. I saw the one for California and consequently sang Joni Mitchell for the rest of the day...



Oh, and the website that sells these prints is called Fine Artichoke. So clever!