I grew up on the south shore of Long Island, most of my
“formative years” taking place during the 1980’s. Ah, the 80’s…big hair, shoulder
pads, The
Cosby Show, Duran
Duran, MTV (when they only showed videos) – these are just a few of the
things that I remember making a huge impression on me as I entered my teen
years. At this time in my life it was
just my mom, two sisters and I; my dad had died from a heart attack at age
43. This meant many things for the family. One thing in particular was that my mother
needed to enter the work world (for the first time in her life) to support
us. She did many things, some she did
better than others, but eventually found her niche in sales. For years in the early days she traveled a
lot and that meant I cared for myself (my two older sisters were away at
college), which at the time, I loved. I
had a lot of independence and felt grown up.
As we know, feeling grown up is entirely different from
being grown up. Thankfully, I lived a
pretty sedate life and my choices were “good enough”, and with luck on my side
I navigated these years without incident.
But if I could pick one area that I would have benefitted from more
guidance, I’d say it would have been with the foods that I ate as a teen. Convenience for me was paramount. Throughout my years in high school I could
have single-handedly kept Lean Cuisine profitable. Back then the “new technology” allowed you to
cook your plastic-encased dinner sack in a pot of boiling water. Sounds delicious, right? It was not till many years later, after
college that I (thankfully) came to the realization that what I was eating
wasn’t really food. I mean it was food,
but not the kind of food that I was beginning to understand was going to keep
me healthy and feeling good. It might
make my insides glow with all that ingested plastic, but that is a different
story.
So in my mid-20’s I began to embrace “all things food”. I stopped using the microwave and began
actually cooking. I began to see how as
simple as it may sound, I was what I ate, and I began to try to consistently
make good food choices, do it on a budget, and have a sense of adventure with
what I ate. This is where artichokes
come into the story.
My Aunt Millie is a fabulous cook. Pages and pages could be written of her
expertise in the kitchen, but again, that is another story. One holiday shortly after my food epiphany,
she made stuffed artichokes. They were
like eating a little bit of heaven. I
had known what artichokes were, but had not eaten them before and certainly had
never entertained the idea of cooking them!
I had eaten canned artichoke hearts and let me say that these are
nothing like a fresh artichoke! So with
my new kernel of food confidence, I asked my aunt for the recipe. Always happy to share her love of food, she
jotted estimations and ballparks down on piece of paper and sent me on my
way. I did not know at the time that by
“cheese” she meant parmesan, and that a “handful” of breadcrumbs and “just
eyeball the amount” of oil, that these were not the easiest steps to gauge for
the new cook.
I wish I could say that when I set out to make the stuffed
artichokes that first time (or second or third) that they were great – but they
weren’t. They were sort of raw if I
remember correctly. I also did not want
to use the same amount of oil and butter that the recipe called for so my riff
on her recipe resulted in a sorry excuse for the original delicacy that I
enjoyed that holiday. But I did keep the
recipe and from time to time tried it again, and again, and got it to a point
that I became happy with it. Turns out
my sister has a true love for Aunt Millie’s stuffed artichokes and because
distance has kept us from having the real thing for years (Aunt Millie still
cooks up a storm, but just on LI), I will make them for my sister from time to
time and we’ll enjoy them together.
Inevitably we think of something from growing up on Long Island – and
laugh.
Recently, my soon to be teenaged
daughter tried them and liked them too.
She was a bit annoyed at all the work that is involved with eating them,
but I figure she’ll grow to appreciate that part of the process
eventually. I’ve included a link to a
recipe for stuffed artichokes that is basically identical to my version of
Aunt Millie’s. Perhaps you’ll give the
recipe a try this month in honor of Nutrition Month! Artichokes are high in fiber, are a good
source of folic acid and vitamin C.
Amazingly, I find they taste best with some Madonna, circa 1989, playing
in the background…
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