I was around five years old the first time I had a steamed artichoke for dinner. They were a favorite of my parents' and so we'd often eat them for dinner, dipping the leaves in melted butter and then finishing the meal up with some salad. However, sometime around my high school years, they fell out of favor (I think my mother couldn't handle the volume of butter our family of four required to make them palatable).

While I was in Portland last week, I picked up three nice looking artichokes and took them back to my parents' house, in order to re-live old times and satisfy a longtime craving. We steamed them for about forty-five minutes, until they were fork-tender at the stem. While they cooked, I stirred a few tablespoons of Best Foods (Hellman's on the east coast) Mayonnaise together with a pressed garlic clove and some lemon juice, in place of our traditional butter dip.

Sitting around the dining room table, we quietly ate our artichokes, scraping the tender bits at the bottom of the leaves off with our lower front teeth and commenting occasionally on how good they tasted (we all determined that the mayo sauce was far tastier than the old butter dip). My parents both reminisced about their first artichokes (my mom was in high school, while my dad grew up eating them) and we ate them down to the stem (scraping out the prickly bristle under the leaves).

I've been thinking about artichokes since I got back to Philly and I do believe that they'd make a perfect starter to a mellow New Year's Eve meal. They're easy (steam in a pot with a couple of inches of water until they're tender), they're delicious and you get to eat with your hands. Add some bread, a light soup or salad and a simple dessert and your dinner is complete.