Artichoke Soup (1985)

So, the blog has been quiet for a while now. If you follow my instagram or the facebook page, you know that the main reason is because Mr. Sauce, Esq. and I toured the southeast for our collective birthdays.

And I think I’m still recuperating from it! 

We drove from Atlanta to New Orleans. 10 days. 5 states. 4 whale sharks. 2 sloths. 1 awesome 40th birthday. 

Yes, kittens, I turned 40. And I am oddly okay with it . I am also enjoying being able to say:

I’m a middle-aged white woman. Just give me the Pinot Grigio!

I celebrated my 40th in  Helen, GA–a fake Bavarian village that some rich eccentric dude just decided to build in northern Georgia. I ate some fucking phenomenal German fare. 

And I got to visit Babyland General Hospital–where the Cabbage Patch Kids are born (admission is free)!

It was insane. We witnessed Mother Cabbage give birth. Nurse Savannah asked what I wanted to name it. I was at a loss and just said MARGOT.

If you happen to find yourself in Atlanta, Babyland is only 90 minutes away. It is worth it. There are a lot of lovely vineyards in the area. Also, because we went to Smiths’ Soda Shop in Cleveland, GA and had what was one of the best burgers of my life.

I didn’t get a photo of the burger (because we ate it as soon as it came out), but here is a delicious cherry soda.

(I may devote a post just to the hot dogs and hamburgers we ate on this trip). 

I can’t cover it all because we went to sooooo many cool places and ate so much food, that I can’t even list them. 

But I will mention one place in New Orleans that we went to–Kitchen Witch Cookbooks. This was a sizable store dedicated to nothing but old cookbooks. It is fabulous and you should all visit. 

I left with 2 local cookbooks–one of which was The Elenian Club Cookbook. 

Why this one? Because I love a good community/church cookbook, and someone’s name is written in the cover–Elizabeth Grilletta. And it’s Italian! 

As far as I can tell, this was published in 1985. 

Cool history, eh?

Well, I knew that oysters were big down in Louisiana, but I didn’t know about artichokes. There are sooooooooooooooo many artichoke recipes in this book. Dips, sides, balls, and soup.

I picked this one to make upon our return to Baltimore:

I picked it because it called for toes of garlic. I had never heard that before. And a SQUEE of one lemon!

Question: what the hell size is a “serving spoon”? 

Teaspoon, tablespoon, serving spoon….?

I used the big one.

Mr. Sauce and I decided to use 6 toes of garlic. I added an additional can of artichokes and one more can of water. After it cooked down, this was the result:

It was pretty good. 

I also made a “Caesar” salad–which was odd because it didn’t include anchovies, but it did include blue cheese. It was bizarre. But quite tasty.

So yes, back from the trip and back into the kitchen!

But first, ICYMI, here is the biggest highlight of the trip (turn on sound). 

Me & Sloth:

The trip was worth every penny. I cried. And my voice has never been so high.