Artichokes for Louise's Picnic Game

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSURf30CkOr2ROM0jGKEFku8w8y-w4_eQ-Ah_oMaynZa3mkwxMjXumwbX1MjmTXDZXeSniRGW-jyvFaTHz9W8p5sVY8A-O7iM_gCYkaQaPIbefWaGk9ss0988yqZWvq3EfRCX-LzwSnOoR/s1600/+artichoke-xray.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSURf30CkOr2ROM0jGKEFku8w8y-w4_eQ-Ah_oMaynZa3mkwxMjXumwbX1MjmTXDZXeSniRGW-jyvFaTHz9W8p5sVY8A-O7iM_gCYkaQaPIbefWaGk9ss0988yqZWvq3EfRCX-LzwSnOoR/s320/+artichoke-xray.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />Louise at <a href="http://monthsofediblecelebrations.blogspot.com/2012/06/time-to-stage-picnic-game-its.html">Months of Edible Celebrations</a> is organizing a big virtual picnic among all her blogger contacts. I'm participating in this picnic; my contribution, <b>representing the letter A</b>, will be steamed artichokes with mayonnaise. While I'm at it, I'll also put in some asparagus, and avocados from the fabulous Santa Barbara Farmers' Market.<br /><br />Last Saturday I wrote about cooking artichokes -- see this post:<br /><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;"> <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2012/06/artichokes-for-louises-picnic-game.html">Artichokes</a></h3><div><br /></div><div>I described how I begin by trimming the sharply-pointed leaves, then I steam the artichokes and cool them off. If you picnic with me, don't forget -- whole steamed fresh artichokes must be eaten with care by scraping the soft part from each leaf with one's teeth. Artichokes are the only food I know of where instructions for eating them are as important as instructions for cooking them! If you are fearful, you can buy jars with just the soft interior leaves, marinated and ready to put in a salad, but it's nowhere near as fun as working with the big, tough thistle just off the stalk:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtBRrYpoTq3zNXINPDp9WBrOjz7_q13sRgErA8dnq-o3i6KqoCv-m8ncUXsND_CKOda3R0UfUIb_2T7fJ-jXdzAGyFpZV5HFY-0KYBim87W3M-640KurgURsIj1d9ibXQn38Dgue4xLNnU/s1600/artichoke2-+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtBRrYpoTq3zNXINPDp9WBrOjz7_q13sRgErA8dnq-o3i6KqoCv-m8ncUXsND_CKOda3R0UfUIb_2T7fJ-jXdzAGyFpZV5HFY-0KYBim87W3M-640KurgURsIj1d9ibXQn38Dgue4xLNnU/s320/artichoke2-+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />I just love seeing all the different kinds of artichokes in the market, and I'm equally excited about avocados and asparagus. I also steam the asparagus, and serve it chilled with vinaigrette for a picnic (or fresh from the steamer with butter.) Here's what you can see at the market here:<br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpZsPRVX2i45ogHdqQGJt79569wWG-wxDGqxvM2XLVFZbovc7OQtWZ2Rl-Q7vgn53XPhID7cqHJV9F79t9TjL2dmEVTScteRHXj5oaNBiC9TAzFm9i7oFf8NkiDLb4qMuc8ZEadELJTM0c/s1600/artichoke1-+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpZsPRVX2i45ogHdqQGJt79569wWG-wxDGqxvM2XLVFZbovc7OQtWZ2Rl-Q7vgn53XPhID7cqHJV9F79t9TjL2dmEVTScteRHXj5oaNBiC9TAzFm9i7oFf8NkiDLb4qMuc8ZEadELJTM0c/s320/artichoke1-+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The avocado vendor:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgThOVk26eAcW57g4YqMQUEjGcwuw3BJEoIak_ujdBHc3HkaAUaplXN6v3cx0WK3kJL_CRH0AuBwLKYCJqeXF4s3aOiPXwfntnMkSv1oyxp76O1KSBpa4MRInRwv2AqTj61zhHxCQynCZoL/s1600/a-fruits9911.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgThOVk26eAcW57g4YqMQUEjGcwuw3BJEoIak_ujdBHc3HkaAUaplXN6v3cx0WK3kJL_CRH0AuBwLKYCJqeXF4s3aOiPXwfntnMkSv1oyxp76O1KSBpa4MRInRwv2AqTj61zhHxCQynCZoL/s320/a-fruits9911.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I guess being away from home, where artichokes and avocados don't grow, makes me appreciate this all the more. I eat ripe avocados with lemon juice and salt, but of course they too can be made fancy or added to salads. And of course there's always guacamole, but it doesn't start with my letter A.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgBLQYiyg7O8fKmRySWfwV0dIOMp-grKGR90Txa6uwCqRqlKS-7RzGv-4TYTZnafNSOgr02xdeOFGlzhZtlldAIClsi0p-4-W6RupJiWI3AlSkdYY8c-rMEeQN82b6i_DlPCD2Doz-SBMf/s1600/Picnic.Logo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgBLQYiyg7O8fKmRySWfwV0dIOMp-grKGR90Txa6uwCqRqlKS-7RzGv-4TYTZnafNSOgr02xdeOFGlzhZtlldAIClsi0p-4-W6RupJiWI3AlSkdYY8c-rMEeQN82b6i_DlPCD2Doz-SBMf/s320/Picnic.Logo.jpeg" width="248" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /></div><div><br /></div>

Artichokes for Louise's Picnic Game

Louise at Months of Edible Celebrations is organizing a big virtual picnic among all her blogger contacts. I'm participating in this pi...

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Artichokes

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtnnwTBxg4GHtzSgk0_f7DESmk7idMvo_0GxOHNHGxqSCF3kPqLLeV7LT7RgRzCgvvtXQswPyFXlrFcEiQ5uV6tUhLVUwc-mptoPu4L_1XidQW074Yw8MOgSNyzwktA9F-DUQLFEPbCAb/s1600/artichoke-collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtnnwTBxg4GHtzSgk0_f7DESmk7idMvo_0GxOHNHGxqSCF3kPqLLeV7LT7RgRzCgvvtXQswPyFXlrFcEiQ5uV6tUhLVUwc-mptoPu4L_1XidQW074Yw8MOgSNyzwktA9F-DUQLFEPbCAb/s400/artichoke-collage.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br />The Santa Barbara Farmers' Market offers a splendid selection of produce, including many vegetables and fruits that simply don't grow back home in Michigan. The artichokes are especially fascinating -- it's really quite a pleasure to choose from several sizes and varieties.<br /><br />Cooking artichokes isn't all that difficult if you have a steamer, and my small kitchen here fortunately does have one. After trimming the tips of the leaves with a scissors and peeling the stems, I steamed my artichokes until they were quite soft.<br /><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrrynUqQ0eiKz9xlLh21Ns1aaLeoQImgvPH8L-sGpre8hyj0Gmjd3o6wOzTyfrJbn5TSQ-g3KJZIUpEhJ_MdYju59omwUuvN0rZ5kId7kp24VdtvZREI0R0wDzxjpVR5UoispUz5KxODob/s1600/artichoke2-+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrrynUqQ0eiKz9xlLh21Ns1aaLeoQImgvPH8L-sGpre8hyj0Gmjd3o6wOzTyfrJbn5TSQ-g3KJZIUpEhJ_MdYju59omwUuvN0rZ5kId7kp24VdtvZREI0R0wDzxjpVR5UoispUz5KxODob/s400/artichoke2-+1.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj41lHw4mvMqd0avzDLS2aP8VElvuXyLCSvmBz1jUM9A73XcHKrHtNNJz5vvO3vi1dbwy6enAC20QUh_75x1HVsYfIvjhHat1JcF_gciY8uvuH2rJpXLgeBtJr6gdImj12fCqDtsTx-IckB/s1600/artichoke2-+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj41lHw4mvMqd0avzDLS2aP8VElvuXyLCSvmBz1jUM9A73XcHKrHtNNJz5vvO3vi1dbwy6enAC20QUh_75x1HVsYfIvjhHat1JcF_gciY8uvuH2rJpXLgeBtJr6gdImj12fCqDtsTx-IckB/s400/artichoke2-+3.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br />Above: trimmed artichokes in the steamer basket. Below: cooked artichokes ready for us to remove one leaf at a time and dip each leaf into mayonnaise or vinaigrette.<br /><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgELeY_Y5t0dvY3wQ3hD7ecrSRU399t2TcHZyMZIGUVuPKOUG9jVV8Id_rD988jdH-cQB8eMawipQo4zMAEyGjdfy0qg1goMF1989vd1qZFYKymFvuof_Ei2M5V2MnBTHl7gXNNqFwtCusr/s1600/artichoke2-+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgELeY_Y5t0dvY3wQ3hD7ecrSRU399t2TcHZyMZIGUVuPKOUG9jVV8Id_rD988jdH-cQB8eMawipQo4zMAEyGjdfy0qg1goMF1989vd1qZFYKymFvuof_Ei2M5V2MnBTHl7gXNNqFwtCusr/s400/artichoke2-+5.jpg" width="400" /></a> <br /><br />The first time I ever tried to eat an artichoke was with my parents and siblings. None of us had ever tasted or seen one. We tried to eat the whole thing, and after chewing away at the fibrous outer leaves for a while, concluded that they weren't much good. I think that happened to lots of midwesterners who had no background in these Mediterranean exotica. What surprises me is that my parents were even willing to try something that unusual. We normally stuck to our old favorite vegetables, many frozen or even from cans.<br /><br />On my first visit to France, someone gave me a lesson in how to take each leaf from the whole artichoke, dip it in sauce, and scrape the soft part with my teeth until I reached the entirely-edible inner leaves. I've been an artichoke fan ever since. I like the way they make other food taste sweet.

Artichokes

The Santa Barbara Farmers' Market offers a splendid selection of produce, including many vegetables and fruits that simply don't gro...

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You know you are in California

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/7237105398/" title="california9750 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="california9750" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7219/7237105398_bbcb06912e.jpg" width="375" /></a><br /><br /><ul><li>You know you are in California when you are smiling at your burrito out in the sunshine.</li><li>You know you are in California when a farmer at the farmers' market explains that he sells three types of artichokes, and another farmer has two kinds of avocados, some ripe, some hard. And a third farmer says that last year's tomato plants still have some tomatoes on them. </li><li>You know you are in California when girls wear short shorts with Uggs. It's hardly worth mentioning the sight of surf boards, but they're here too.</li><li>You know you are in California when you see flights of pelicans, sea fog, lagoons, tidal sloughs, and rolling waves.</li><li>You know you are in California when you smell the eucalyptus trees.</li></ul>

You know you are in California

You know you are in California when you are smiling at your burrito out in the sunshine. You know you are in California when a farmer at the...

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It's Just about the Food

The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is a venerable event: I suspect it's the Gold Standard for food articles. Lazy me -- I haven't systematically read through the collected proceedings of these annual meetings where the best articles from each year since 1981 have been published. On a recent visit to the library, however, I checked out the 1998 volume, <span style="font-style:italic;">Food in the Arts</span>. I was especially interested to read "Food in the Detective Novel" by Joan P. Alcock, and to learn how a professional food historian approaches the <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/search/label/Food%20in%20Detective%20Fiction">subject that I often return to</a>.<div><br /></div><div>"Food in the Detective Novel" begins with a quote from W.H.Auden's famous article on detective fiction, though in fact he says little about food. Alcock acknowledges that the most basic role of food in crime is "in relation to killing the victim," and the second place goes to "the contents of the stomach" for clues to the time of death. She continues:</div><div><blockquote>"In recent years attention has been paid to the food eaten by the investigator, either as part of the story or to add background verisimilitude. This is evident in the historical whodunits, but it may also be a facet of the investigator. The number of cook/chef investigators is increasing." (p. 13)</blockquote></div>After this introduction, the article continues with a survey in chronological order by the setting of the detective stories. Inspector Marcus Didius Falco in ancient Rome is her first example: readers hear of the value of peppercorns, the economics of the oil trade, and the lost herb silphium. She continues by tabulating the food references in detective stories set in the middle ages, such as Brother Cadfael "who is more concerned with growing herbs ... than with his stomach, for his herbs have healing powers." (p. 14) She continues with Renaissance-era detective fiction, such as the protocol and place settings for a feast in the work of Kate Sedley. Alcock points out:<div><blockquote>"The feast is described in some detail but phrases such as 'I cannot remember at this distance of time more than a tithe of what was consumed that evening,' seem an attempt to avoid accurate description." (p. 15)</blockquote></div><div>The article proceeds with a study of several series of detective novels set in the Mediterranean, including those of Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Questura: </div><div><blockquote>"Chilled wine is sipped slowly while savouring views over Venice.... Prosecco or Fragolino are aperitifs; Soave is served with chicken and artichokes; Dolcetto with <i>pasta fagioli</i> and <i>cotoletta</i>; brandy or grappa with coffee." (p. 17) </blockquote></div><div>A summary of French detectives' food follows -- "If Madame Maigret has a vice, it is drinking her cup of Balthazar coffee, which she takes every morning." Then the classic English detective novel, "mainly by women writers... Food was of little account in their stories." She finds a few meals of interest in the stories of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and the less-famous Gladys Mitchell. </div><div><br /></div><div>Alcock invents another category for the novels of Conan Doyle, Michael Innes, and Rex Stout: "The Abstemious and the Aesthete." I was surprised that she made no mention of Stout's Nero Wolfe novel <span style="font-style:italic;">Too Many Cooks</span>, published 1938, where the subject is a meeting of 15 international master cooks. In it, Nero Wolfe gives a paper on American food; he consents to attend the meeting only because he wants to obtain a secret recipe.<br /><br />And Alcock goes on to discuss women detectives, such as the work of Amanda Cross and others (somehow, Miss Marple isn't in this category, but in the Classic English category). She lists the foods eaten by each detective, without being distracted by other features of the tales. Only in her conclusion does she apply what I would think of as literary analysis: </div><div><blockquote>"Other books than detective stories incorporate food, but it is obvious that the frisson between murder and food, between intellectual puzzle-solving and creating of dishes is eminently satisfying. ... The dinner party provides opportunities for endless twists in a murder plot, the murderer awaiting an opportunity, the victim calmly eating, unsuspecting of the final fate." (p. 29)</blockquote></div><div>I wish she had been more explicit about how each author made use of the food details that she catalogued.</div><div><br /></div>

It's Just about the Food

The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is a venerable event: I suspect it's the Gold Standard for food articles. Lazy me -- I haven...

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Santa Barbara Farmers' Market

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5710436774/" title="sb-farmersmkt 5 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="sb-farmersmkt 5" height="375" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2142/5710436774_66887c197e.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br />The market is full of wonderful local and often exotic produce -- artichokes, chirimoyas, dates, citrus, greens of all sorts, avocados, strawberries grown just up the road, and early cherries from the Central Valley. There are Japanese, English and conventional cucumbers and many other interesting varieties of vegetables that usually aren't differentiated.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5709874353/" title="sb-farmersmkt 6 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="sb-farmersmkt 6" height="374" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2453/5709874353_b1d37e03a1.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5710436928/" title="sb-farmersmkt 8 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="sb-farmersmkt 8" height="375" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3339/5710436928_3a5d01ec00.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5710436368/" title="sb-farmersmkt 1 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="sb-farmersmkt 1" height="500" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3479/5710436368_42ff3b1c3c.jpg" width="375" /></a><br /><br />The prices at this market seem very fair: less expensive than comparable quality in a grocery store -- in the rare cases that you could find comparable quality. Example: two large very fresh heads of lettuce for $1.50, a lower price than not-quite-as-fresh local lettuce at Lazy Acres, not even more than mass-produced lettuce at Albertsons. Fruit was somewhat less expensive per pound than the grocery store items.<br /><br />Today I read an <a href="http://politicsoftheplate.com/?p=864">encouraging article</a> about a comparison of prices at farmers' markets and grocery stores (admittedly in Vermont). The study suggests that the common view that farmers' markets are expensive and elitist is false. It "found that prices at farmers’ markets were lower for many conventionally produced grocery items than they were at supermarkets. For organic items, farmers’ markets beat grocery stores every time hands down."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12003515@N05/5709874755/" title="sb-farmersmkt 10 by mesander2000, on Flickr"><img alt="sb-farmersmkt 10" height="375" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2755/5709874755_4ab530be66.jpg" width="500"></a>

Santa Barbara Farmers' Market

The market is full of wonderful local and often exotic produce -- artichokes, chirimoyas, dates, citrus, greens of all sorts, avocados, stra...

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Note on the Weather

We ate our artichokes on the back patio this evening, in glorious sunshine. I'm not sure we have ever been able to do this in March before. It was so enjoyable I didn't even think of taking a photo. The predictors tell us to expect a few more days of weather about 70 degrees!

Note on the Weather

We ate our artichokes on the back patio this evening, in glorious sunshine. I'm not sure we have ever been able to do this in March befo...

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