They are easy to cook! Steam for 45 minutes to an hour, or microwave for 7 min/lb and let rest for a minute or two before eating. I've seen complicated instructions involving cutting off tips or removing outer leaves or even more wacky stuff that I didn't even register because none of that is necessary.

I'm not gonna tell you they are easy to eat. You do have to get the hang of it. But so delicious!

Aren't artichokes the things where you only eat a bit of the bottom of the leaf?

I steam them as -t says. Back when I was just cooking for myself I didn't do much prep, but the kids eat them more happily if I cut off the prickly tops and pull off the tough outer leaves. They are a bit of job to eat, but that is a plus if you like to play with your food. The only tricky part is using a spoon to scoop out the inner part of the flower after you've nommed all the leaves, and then you get to nom on the heart!

Oh, and yes Connie. The tender inner leaves are more edible.

I lob off the prickly tops so that they can steam upside-down without rolling over. No idea why other than that's how my mom did it.

When I was a toddler, I used to walk around the table making puppy-dog eyes at other family members until they shared their artichoke hearts with me. I looooooooove them.

I loves me some artichoke hearts, but eating the yummy stuff at the base of the leaves always felt like too much work to me. (I also dislike shelling pistachios, so basically you can assume I don't want my food to put up too much of a challenge.)

Artichokes. Yummm.

The internet is getting on my nerves. I've wanted to write derisive comments on almost every article I read today.

Hil, it's a Reform COngregation. The webpage for bar/bat mitzahs say they welcome all family members to participate in the ceremony, regardless of religious affiliation, and they customize the ceremony with the kid's input, so I think it's up to M. He's a doll, and loves all of his parents, so I'm happy to participate or to witness, whatever HE wants.

What roles might a parent-figure play in the ceremony? Do family members give speeches or toasts at the after-party? As long as I wear a modest dress, are bright colors or such verboten? Do parents just pay for the party, or is an additional gift to the child de riguer?

There are lots of things that you could do at the ceremony. Sometimes parents give speeches there. You could also lead the congregation in a reading in English for one of the prayers, or something like that. At a Reform congregation, you don't really need to worry about dress rules at all. I'd avoid anything sleeveless, or with too short a skirt or too low a neckline, but you don't really need to worry too much about that.

The usual thing done at the party is that they bring out a cake with 13 candles, and the bar/bat mitzvah kid gets a microphone and calls 13 people (or small groups of people) up to each light one of the candles. Usually, the parents write something for him to read about how each person is special to him. (This is to avoid what happened at one bar mitzvah, where the kid was just given the list of names, and he introduced my parents with, "I don't really know them -- they're friends with my parents.)

As for gifts, I'm not sure.

Artichokes: I find them to be great appetizers, not only are they nummy when dipped on butter, but the fact that they take awhile to eat makes them great for staving hunger before the main course while also not filling you up.

Stuffed artichokes, however, are nasty dirty wrong things.

Never had artichokes.

Came back after another meeting, and he ison the phone talking about varsity this junior that, and the woman in the cube behind him was the very picture of exasperation. Poor thing. At least I wasn't here.