"7 things" #2

[cellio]

More from that parlor game: Comment to this post and I will pick seven things I would like you to talk about. They might make sense or be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.
unique_name_123 gave me: computer, spirituality, laurel

Comments

[ralphmelton]

One of the obscure skills I got from my mother was that of eating fresh artichokes (though that skill lay fallow for over two decades).

I have ideas about smoked artichokes, but no actual experience as yet.

[cellio]

Smoked artichokes would not have occurred to me, but now that you mention it that does sound neat!

[zhelana]

comment!

[cellio]

Penguins, beagles, SCA feasts, Sears catalogs, Shabbat, spinach, rain.

[magid]

With full-sized artichokes, I'm pretty boring: boil and serve with whatever sauces are wanted. With 'baby' artichokes (a misnomer; they're fully-grown, just smaller side thistles), I'm more likely to break off outer leaves, cut off the leaf ends, and go from there, mostly because there less waste as a percentage, and if there's a choke at all, it's minimal, which makes things a whole lot more convenient.

And I'd love a teleporter :-)

[cellio]

Thanks for the advice! I think I've only seen artichokes in one size, a bit smaller than my fist. I'm assuming those are the regular ones? ('Cause if those are the babies, the parents would be huge!)

[magid]

Actually, I've seen large ones that are about grapefruit-sized, which is just crazy :-). The size you're describing are likely full size; I think of the 'baby' ones being more half-fist or so. And I see them regularly at one of the produce places I like best around here, but irregularly if at all in regular supermarkets.

[magid]

I also wonder what desperation got people eating rhubarb, since the leaves are toxic. Or I've heard of some other plant (which is escaping me just at the moment) that's poisonous in one season but not in another; who was brave/desperate enough to be the second person to try that....?

[cellio]

Thanks for the artichoke advice!

Artichokes are one of those things that really exemplify human ingenuity (or desperation to me).

Indeed. Right up there with certain shellfish -- what did it take for someone to decide there was food in there and it's worth getting?

Your list: singing, Vogon poetry, teleportation, passive flirtation devices, the perfect meal, ritual, the moon.

[dagonell]

The bravest man the world ever saw
Was neither a soldier nor champion of law
But the first to devour an oyster... raw
-- BC by Johnny Hart

[shewhomust]

I'm nodding along to your comments on 'quick replacement': when I find something I like, I want to stay with it.

As for artichokes, the laboriousness is half the point for me: a leisurely evening with good company and a glass of wine, chatting as you slowly work your way in to the prize at the centre (perhaps this is why there's no room in my life for board games)...

[cellio]

The good friends, and arguably the glass of wine, would make a big difference, yes. Do you also do pomegranates without the bowl of water? :-)

[shewhomust]

I don't do pomegranates at all - as a child I did battle with them, and was deterred by the mixture of fiddliness and - what's the word for how the pips ans skin taste? acridity? Now they are ubiquitous, I quite enjoy a few gems of pomegranate sprinked on a salad, if someone else has out them there. So perhaps I should revisit that! What do I do with the bowl of water?

[cellio]

What do I do with the bowl of water?

That's so you can divest the fruit of its seeds without getting red juice on your shirt. :-)

I never ate pomegranates until my husband brought one home not long after we were married. We eat the seeds straight with a dusting of sugar. I'll have to try them in salads; that sounds nice.