Don't Joke about my Artichoke

Photo: Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Artichokes are by far and away one of my more favored vegetables. I love the whole bizarre leaf-teeth-wiping-eating technique, I love the ouchy, prickly choke furr, and I love the taste of the golden treasure that lays beneath it all, the heart. I would describe it as sort of earthy, sort of sweet, not unlike a savory mushroom.

When I was a kid, I had my first artichoke when I was 6 years old. Living in California at the time, my hipster parents were all about grilled salmon steaks, artichokes with the crudites, and bleu cheese dressing. My dad even had a mustache and zippered ankle boots. We were all about embracing our SFO 'hood in the '70s.

Now, every spring, when those round, green globes are more easily found at the supermarket, I grab 5 or 6 and share one with my daughter (who also loves the whole teeth-swipe-eat thing). While we avoid the butter or mayonnaise, I do like to drizzle olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and loads of fleur de sel. No joke, I love you, Artichoke.

Steamed Artichokes

This is the simplest way to prepare artichokes — there’s hardly any trimming involved. The time is spent in the eating.

2 large or 4 medium artichokes

1 lemon, cut in half

1. Lay an artichoke on its side on a cutting board. Using a large, sharp knife, cut away the entire top quarter in one slice. Rub the top with the cut lemon. Cut off the stem at the bottom, so the artichoke will stand upright, and rub the bottom with lemon. Pull off the tough bottom leaves (bracts). Then, using scissors, cut away the thorny end of each remaining bract. Rub the edges with lemon.

2. Bring two inches of water to a boil in a steamer or pasta pot, and place the artichokes in the steaming basket. If they are too big to fit, place them directly in the water. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes or until a leaf easily pulls away. Remove from the heat. Serve hot or at room temperature with a sauce for dipping the leaves. Use your teeth to scrape the flesh from the bottom of the leaf. Have a bowl or plate on the side for the discarded leaves. When you reach the papery leaves that cover the heart in the middle, cut them away along with the choke and discard. Divvy up the heart-if you must and enjoy.

Oh Pretty Pony...

On March 5, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis announced budget cuts which included disbanding the Boston Mounted Police Unit, the oldest in the country - founded in 1870!

Does nothing say 'Law & Order' more than a clomping horse and jack-booted Johnny Law?

The unit, which comprises 12 horses and 10 officers, will be closed this summer, bringing to an end a service which dates back to the 1800s. About a dozen staff who help tend the horses will be laid off and the 10 mounted officers redeployed to foot duties. Boston Mayor Tom Menino described the decision as irreversible, but a petition has been started in a bid to save the unit, which costs $US600,000 a year to run.

New England Cable News Network, reporting on the closure, said homes were still sought for about seven of the horses.

Sergeant Chris Walsh said his preference would be to be find homes for the horses with other mounted patrol, given the horses' specialist training.

The oldest among the draughthorse crosses is Captain, at 26.

The horses have occupied leased stables at Jaimaica Plain since 1964.

Consider Florida

Every April Break we spend a week or so in Marco Island, FL. Scott's folks live there, it's an easy flight, the kids dig the scene...so off we go.


So, there are these the beaches, see.....





















where you can often find a variety of shells, including the elusive sand-dollar,













or to the marina, serving icy Cosmos,


that after you drink a few one, you prefer to just simply stare at the sugary sands and cooling surf, or the frolicking dolphin creature....




































and burn your retinas on the daily glowing sunset.


(Disclaimer: Scott and I try to get over to Miami/South Beach for a quick overnight and a taste of solidly good food, sophistication, and culture. Didn't happen this year but what Marco lacks in the former, it more than makes up for in natural beauty, peace, and quiet.)

A different perspective?

Or maybe this is what will go down on our Spring Break trip to Florida.....




Helpless from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Spring Break in New England

Spring in Boston usually means 40 degree temps with a near-freezing windchill. Forsythia is out. Maples and oaks are just starting to bud.

It also means that people are generally so desperate for warmer temps they dress as though it were mid-70's and will just quietly suffer the icy cold. Flip-flops and all.

Not me, so much. While I refuse to wear my sleeping bag winter coat, I will try and stay warm. And find the sun. Without the wind.

Spring in Boston also means that all the billion of public schools are on Spring Break this next week, including Brookline schools. So, we're heading out. Or down.

To Marco Island, Florida. It's not South Beach by any stretch...and it's on the Gulf and we stay with family -that has a boat. So, we make the most of it.



















Without our winter coats.

Peeps!?!... it must be Easter!

When I was a kid, Easter was all about food.

Really?

No - really.

All holidays at the Hall household were food related.

In fact, I think all days were food related.

But Easter especially. The day would start off with a cut throat competition lively scavenger hunt for our Easter baskets with my brother and I. My dad was totally into making it difficult, challenging, if not a little dangerous. In fact, our last hunt-when my brother and I were probably too old for scavenging-was a total goof on my brother. My dad had maybe 5 clues for me to follow while he sent my brother on such a complicated hunt that it included my brother ultimately getting into the car and driving a half mile or so to our neighborhood swimming pool for a clue (a genius move on my dad's part, I have to say).

At the end of the hunt, I was rewarded with a wink and a $100 bill. Just to see my brother's reaction. When my brother had appropriately thrown a fit of 'that.is.so.unfair', the deal was that I had to return the money. But still, I was the victor of the hunt (even if it was unfair).

Easter at our house also included the expected egg hunt, which was different than the scavenger hunt. These dozen or so eggs were usually placed all around our yard, if not the yards of neighbors' as well. I can so remember finding half-frozen hard-boiled-colored eggs that were cracked, grassy, dirty - all to my delight. Like they were all golden and precious.

Even today, when I'm looking for sand dollars on the beach with the kids or seashells...that nervous and excited feeling of whatever, of....look, keep looking...searching...who's going to find it first...keep looking.....Aha! It's like Hide the Thimble all over again.

Today, there's no yard, not even a neighbor's yard. No....just an urban building. A parking lot. But! We do have four floors and two sets of stairwells. We may not require a car for our hunt, but scavenging will definitely entails lots of stairs. We even have a creepy basement. Where maybe the Easter Bunny can just suddenly jump out and appear?

"Luke, nobody can eat 50 eggs"

Hey Maia, we need to color some easter eggs before Sunday....how many should we do?

Um, I dunno....6?

Just 6?

Yeah, 6. 6 dozen.

Right. Okay. So, that means that we each have to eat 15 eggs. Before they go bad. Like in a couple of days.

Message on a Bottle

David de Rothschild

This guy? This guy is building a sail boat, a catamaran (dual hull) to be exact, out of plastic. Plastic bottles. And he's sailing this boat across the Pacific. From his website, Adventure Ecology:

In Summer 2009, David de Rothschild and a crew of experts, scientists and creatives will sail 12,000 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Sydney in a boat made out of plastic bottles and recycled waste products. This epic voyage is named The Plastiki taking inspiration from Thor Heyerdal's 1947 expedition The Kontiki.

Through this audacious and bold adventure The Plastiki aims to draw attention to the rethinking of our everyday human fingerprints on the natural world and in turn capturing the world's imagination by telling a story; that of the pioneering and sustainable design process that created and built The Plastiki, to the oceans and the many challenges it and its inhabitants face.

This extraordinary ocean voyage will see The Plastiki sail through a number of fragile and ecologically challenged regions that that include the world’s largest waste dump through to The Line Islands and Tuvalu.

It is our aim to captivate, inspire and activate tomorrow's environmental thinkers and doers to take positive action for our Planet and to be smart with waste, ultimately we hope to inspire people to rethink waste as a valuable resource. One person's waste could be another person's treasure.

The boat. Which will set sail from San Fransisco in less than a month, is 60 feet long and will be headed for Sydney, Australia. It is to be made entirely of recyclable plastics, produce its own energy (stationary bikes, mind you), and generate no noxious emissions.

Earth Day is next Wednesday....I know we are deliberately trying to shrink our carbon foot-print but an undertaking like this always makes me feel like I'm personally not doing enough. Sure, I take public transportation, I walk everywhere, I avoid purchasing anything that could linger in a landfill for eons...but I never feel like I'm doing enough.

What's your message in a bottle?

This will forever remind my of warmer temps and Spring....

Seriously, Paul Weller and Mick Talbot of Style Council, My Ever Changing Moods from '84. One of my top ten best songs ever. You can almost smell the wet grass.....