The Curse of the Artichoke

Artichokes are one of Daniel's favorite foods, so when I am feeling extra in love or just want to spoil him, I make artichokes...or attempt to. Well, it was a beautiful day today and we spent most of it outside. We decided to pull out the barbecue and just pretend it was a summer day. I decided what a perfect way to top off a good meal than with artichokes...I put extra water in the pot, stuck in these green flowers of deliciousness, and headed outside to help Daniel. Well, the grill we have is pretty darn crappy and wouldn't stay lit, so we ended up barbecuing on the George Foreman inside. Well, when the meat was done the artichokes were still a bit hard, so we decided we would eat them for dessert. We headed back outside with our camping chairs for our little picnic. The weather was perfect, our meat and sides were divine. We just sat there talking when I heard a beep, similar to a beep letting you know you have a text message, but it continued like it was an alarm clock. I thought it was a strange noise but dismissed it. We just sat there watching the dogs run around and admiring Daniel's project when I jumped out of my chair screaming, "The artichokes....Daniel, that is the smoke alarm!" Daniel comes dashing after me and we charge into our house that is billowing with smoke. Instead of heading straight to the pot, I head to the smoke alarm and pull out the battery screaming for Daniel to "Get that thing outside." He can't find hot pads, so he takes two dishtowels and grabs it...running for the door. The pot, which was a very nice one we received for our wedding, had spewed metal from the bottom joint. It was an absolute disaster, and now our house smells like we have smoked for 30+ years! The sad thing is...this is not the first time this has occurred with artichokes...I can't explain my inability to cook them besides saying it just must be a curse.

This is a picture of part of the spewing metal after it had cooled...it looks pretty cool!