A little piece of home

Martin and I started dating our senior year of college and I always thought it was ironic that he came 800 miles from home to meet the girl of his dreams his future wife. The space between him and home (being Fairfield, CT) never really seem to bother him. I think he often kept his homesickness to himself.  He also always blamed it on all the snow that they got during the winter.  Nevertheless, it bothered me more often than it did him, especially when Jack Jack and P were born. I hate it even more now that the kids are growing up faster than ever and Grandma is unable to see such growth on a day to day basis or even a month to month basis. So when we get the chance to hightail it north we do!

And it is on these special visits I make it point to take note of recipes from home. One of Grandma's recipes in particular that is a huge hit around the Harper household is stuffed artichokes. Yeah artichokes, you know those green spiky things that look more like a weapon than a vegetable. Those vegetables that no one really knows exactly what to do with. Well Grandma has the answer and Jack Jack loves it! The recipe actually was Martin's Grandma Longbricco's recipe (I could be wrong but was a Hungarian recipe). It has different variations but our favorite is stuffing them with bread crumbs, cheese, and ground sausage. It is a meal in itself and Jack Jack alone can eat two! Jack Jack also has Daddy tell him of a story from his childhood of how Aunt Stacey (Martin's sister) squished his artichoke out of spite and meanness. He was then given another and she did the same thing to the second one. (I think Daddy just tells Jack Jack this story to teach him a lesson on being nice to his little sister!)

So if you are curious, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
fresh artichokes (one for each person depending on their size)
ground sausage (you can use lean/turkey sausage to make it healthier)
Italian bread crumbs
mozzarella cheese
seasonings: garlic powder, salt and pepper
olive oil

Preparations:
*rinse and cut the stem and the tip off the artichoke
*fan out the artichokes leaves
*brown sausage in a pan and drain grease
*mix sausage, bread crumbs, cheese, and seasoning in a bowl
*stuff mixture in between fanned out leaves (trying to get it evenly around the artichoke)
*put an inch of water in a deep sauce pan
*put artichokes in the saucepan and drizzle olive oil over artichokes
*bring water to a bowl and then cover
*steam artichokes until you can pull off a leaf easily

And the key to eating them is turning the leaf side down and scrap with your bottom teeth.