I love artichokes. A lot. But I do not make them often because Marc despises them. We’re talking mortal enemies. He can sense from two days out if I steamed an artichoke while he was away for the weekend, so clearly, I only serve this Artichoke and Preserved Lemon Soup when he’s not around. The funny part is that of the two of us, artichokes should be my mortal enemy. The great artichoke debacle of 2007 occurred due to the perfect storm of Marc at a conference in Chicago, an overabundance of fresh baby artichokes and too many late night episodes on the food network. Feeling inspired by a delicious looking plate of fried artichoke hearts and the fact that I had all the ingredients on hand, I decided that late night frying was the most natural path to a delicious midnight snack. I was a very inexperienced fryer at the time but recently had great success with fried chicken. I had my big bottle of frying oil and filled my fancy schmancy stock pot with oil, turned it on and carried the artichokes out to the living room where I could clean them from the comfort of my couch … Continue reading →