My next Julia recipe

My first venture into mtaofc was on Sunday with the brussel sprouts. The same grocery trip that I made to purchase those I also purchased whole artichokes, which I had never done and have never prepared. This evening, I decided to delve into cooking these as an appetizer for me and Dave. The actual name of what I made was Artichauts au naturel. Basically, you trim the top of the artichoke and the clip the end of the leaves and boil them in salted water for 35-45 minutes. Ours were ready in the 35 minutes. You'll notice in the picture that there is no lid on the pot. Julia calls for putting a cheesecloth over the tops so that they don't dry out. Having no cheesecloth (and Dave suggested that putting a paper towel on top would be, in a word, icky) I had to stand there and baste them with the water every 2 minutes or so to keep them moist and edible. While those were boiling, I made another recipe of beurre au citron, which is lemon infused butter with a bit of salt and pepper. Mine didn't thicken up as indicated should happen in the recipe, but it was very very lemony nonetheless and yummy. Once the artichokes are ready, you drain them and then can eat them either warm or put them in the fridge and eat them cold. We opted for immediate gratification! It was a nice treat to have, especially when we got to the actual artichoke heart (which is one delectable bite!), but we decided given the time and effort into watching over the pots, it isn't something we'll make all the time and will die for. I'm happy to have made these two recipes and have tried something new. I imagine there are other choices for using fresh, whole artichokes. I'll discover those another day.