Well Happy Saturday Great Smoky Cookies!!!!
Here's my dinner from today!
Thanks for sharing in it!
Cheers! - Leah
I think I was so stunned to see artichokes available in our area (I eat one every day of summer and thus wait for it) that I had to do something with them today!
I chopped off the pointy top, to make a flat edge...
Used scissors to cut across each prickly sharp and triangular leaf, as to make it a straight edge...
And cut them in half...(If boiling, I'd boil whole, and often eat many of the feathers and purple leaves if they are fresh enough to get SUPER soft)...
but these middles were still "off season" and going to be too tough if eaten, and so I used a pairing knife to carve out the purple leaves and feathers...
Getting rid of namesake, or "choke" part of the artichoke, as these will make you cough like hell and choke even a bit, if not super soft...(Not worth the fight unless so mushy that you can eat the whole thing)...
And started snipping those "straight edges" on the leaves of the other choke as well...
And I used an olive oil spray can and sprayed those halves...
And fired up the little humble gas "machine" and put some grill grates atop...
And I smoked two halves face up and two halves face down, and for 45 minutes - same time as I do boiled...
And meanwhile, got portabella halves, sliced yellow pepper, and some sliced kiwi and added that to the smoker too - unsprayed - just plain...
Peppers and kiwis came off after just five minutes, as I didn't want soggy kiwi yet wanted smoky flavor (and it was AMAZING for the record), and I still wanted my peppers to audibly CRUNCH, and they indeed did...
I then started cutting around each kiwi, as to remove the peels/rind...
Sliced up the peppers, ate most of them, but saved "some."...
Got a huge raw elephant garlic clove to chop...
Pulled the mushrooms at 15 minutes (juicy and great)!!!
Chopped up the garlic...
Whisked balsamic and Tunisian olive oil...(WALMART, of all places, now sells a Tunisian olive oil that I do adore)!
And I got these two TINY, (but TASTY), grass fed Australian filet mignon beef steaks onto a plate - PLAIN.
Took those smoky artichokes off the mini thing, after 45 minutes...
Put the steaks on a sprayed (olive oil can) grill grate atop my smoker - for just 12 minutes...
Got a bottle of Red Burgundy (for my husband) and a bottle of White Burgundy, for me (drank red wine for decades but now am a White Burgundy lover entirely), and plated it all...
I added pink Himalayan sea salt and black pepper - both ground JUST before sitting down, and after the balsamic/olive oil mixture was just doused over it all...
Fresh basil sprigs got tucked around there too...
The smoked kiwi - and when eating the pungent raw garlic, was explosive, and warm - almost buttery - and just beautiful! (I am sneaking more fruit into my diet yet, right)?
The artichoke stem and heart were the best although scraping each leaf was terrific as well, and just as fabulous as boiled!
A "new and improved" summer I shall thus have! (From now on, SMOKED)!
The meat was SOFTTTTTTTTTTT and cooked to perfection!
Only scraped leaves remained...
Yes, only leaves.
Here's my dinner from today!
Thanks for sharing in it!
Cheers! - Leah
I think I was so stunned to see artichokes available in our area (I eat one every day of summer and thus wait for it) that I had to do something with them today!
I chopped off the pointy top, to make a flat edge...
Used scissors to cut across each prickly sharp and triangular leaf, as to make it a straight edge...
And cut them in half...(If boiling, I'd boil whole, and often eat many of the feathers and purple leaves if they are fresh enough to get SUPER soft)...
but these middles were still "off season" and going to be too tough if eaten, and so I used a pairing knife to carve out the purple leaves and feathers...
Getting rid of namesake, or "choke" part of the artichoke, as these will make you cough like hell and choke even a bit, if not super soft...(Not worth the fight unless so mushy that you can eat the whole thing)...
And started snipping those "straight edges" on the leaves of the other choke as well...
And I used an olive oil spray can and sprayed those halves...
And fired up the little humble gas "machine" and put some grill grates atop...
And I smoked two halves face up and two halves face down, and for 45 minutes - same time as I do boiled...
And meanwhile, got portabella halves, sliced yellow pepper, and some sliced kiwi and added that to the smoker too - unsprayed - just plain...
Peppers and kiwis came off after just five minutes, as I didn't want soggy kiwi yet wanted smoky flavor (and it was AMAZING for the record), and I still wanted my peppers to audibly CRUNCH, and they indeed did...
I then started cutting around each kiwi, as to remove the peels/rind...
Sliced up the peppers, ate most of them, but saved "some."...
Got a huge raw elephant garlic clove to chop...
Pulled the mushrooms at 15 minutes (juicy and great)!!!
Chopped up the garlic...
Whisked balsamic and Tunisian olive oil...(WALMART, of all places, now sells a Tunisian olive oil that I do adore)!
And I got these two TINY, (but TASTY), grass fed Australian filet mignon beef steaks onto a plate - PLAIN.
Took those smoky artichokes off the mini thing, after 45 minutes...
Put the steaks on a sprayed (olive oil can) grill grate atop my smoker - for just 12 minutes...
Got a bottle of Red Burgundy (for my husband) and a bottle of White Burgundy, for me (drank red wine for decades but now am a White Burgundy lover entirely), and plated it all...
I added pink Himalayan sea salt and black pepper - both ground JUST before sitting down, and after the balsamic/olive oil mixture was just doused over it all...
Fresh basil sprigs got tucked around there too...
The smoked kiwi - and when eating the pungent raw garlic, was explosive, and warm - almost buttery - and just beautiful! (I am sneaking more fruit into my diet yet, right)?
The artichoke stem and heart were the best although scraping each leaf was terrific as well, and just as fabulous as boiled!
A "new and improved" summer I shall thus have! (From now on, SMOKED)!
The meat was SOFTTTTTTTTTTT and cooked to perfection!
Only scraped leaves remained...
Yes, only leaves.
