Artichokes are my favorite food. My preferred way to eat them is steamed whole and then served with melted butter or a balsamic vinaigrette. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love them. In fact, in my very first dance class at the age of 4 our final performance of the year included all the little girls creating a movement to go with their favorite food. Imagine if you will, 10 4 year olds in bright yellow leotards singing and dancing “Artichokes, artichokes. Pizza, Pizza. Strawberries, strawberries. Grapes! Grapes!” (yes, I still remember the damn song, I’m special).
As much as I love them, I don’t make them often. And Strawberry doesn’t like them at all. She says they taste like “earth, bland and unpleasant”. To me, they taste sweet. Anyway… I had one the other night and as is typical, Curly wanted what he saw me eating. He was banging and reaching for the pile of discarded leaves. So I pulled off a fresh one and handed it to him, fully expecting him to reject it just like he rejects most other green foods. Despite starting at the wrong end, he gnawed on it thoughtfully for awhile and then asked for more. As I got closer to the heart and the leaves got more tender, he was eating them almost faster than I could hand them over. And he was NOT patient when I had to stop and clean the heart. But oh man, did he enjoy eating it!
How do I feel about all of this? Well, part of me is thrilled that he loves something that I do. And the other part of me is thinking, damn, now I’ll never get to eat an artichoke by myself again, I’ll always have to share!
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Those pictures are so cute. Good taste, Miles!
I LOVE artichokes. C is a bit skeptical, but over the past 7 years I’ve converted her to most of my food weirdness. Ha!
I love mine steamed and dipped in melted butter with lemon juice. I’ve never tried one with balsamic vinegar– that sounds lovely.
Mmmmm, artichokes.
Miles is so cute with his artichokes!
what sweet pictures!! when he gets a little bigger, maybe you could steam 2? 😉
have you blogged about your tattoo? i cant remember…
You know me… I love artichokes also. We can have an artichoke feast!
This made me laugh, when I was a kid my parents were very big on trying every vegetable that you didn’t like at least once a year. On the basis that tastes change so what you may really really hate one year may be your favourite the next. The one thing my mother never, ever EVER made me try was asparagus because it was her favourite so it meant more for her if I didn’t like it.
He’s such a great eater! I love it.
I really hope our boys are as enthusiastic when the time comes.
I wouldn’t want to share either. Drat.
Love the song! I would have picked artichokes too, even as a kid. I have always loved both artichokes and brussels sprouts – another highly divisive veggie. 😉 Elliot is going through a ridiculously picky stage right now and it makes me so sad that he hardly eats any vegetables, but this is an excellent point about the silver lining of that – no sharing! Ha ha! 🙂
Mmmm! Someday soon he’ll be big enough for his own and you won’t have to share 🙂
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