will you miss me when i'm gone?

Celebrations are so often centered around food. We remember birthdays and weddings for the cakes, wakes for the casseroles, holiday meals for the mashed potatoes and gravy. But there are foods that evoke a different kind of memory. A quieter, personal event. Food that reminds you of a person or a mood.

There are a handful of foods that remind me of my grandmother. Apple pie, orange rolls, Texas sheet cake, spaghetti and meatballs, peanut butter cookies with apple juice. She was always an amazing cook and with six children of her own and twelve stepchildren, she knew how to feed people well, whether it was a crowd on Easter Sunday or her six-year-old granddaughter on a summer afternoon. She's since moved to an elder living facility with her husband and eats many of her meals in the community dining room. I feel honored when I can offer her my own creations and repay some of those memories.


The first and last time I ate artichokes, I was much younger and sitting at the kitchen counter of my grandma's old house. We ate the tender leaves dipped in melted butter, scraping the soft flesh with our teeth. I had never encountered this meticulous vegetable before that moment and, thinking of it now, I can picture my grandma's yellow kitchen with sunlight in the windows and the scraped artichoke petals laying in a pile on one of her thin white plates.

Last Thursday, we received three small artichokes in our CSA box and I was given the opportunity to revisit this moment. Artichoke hearts that are bought marinated and jarred are always delicious, but a far different experience than the slow, methodic nibbling of a whole artichoke. We ate them last night with creamy vegenaise for dipping. This vegetable, simply boiled tender, tastes more sophisticated than it might let on. Try one as a simple appetizer after a long day or on a sunny afternoon with your grandma.