Red Door By the Beach

“Well, it may choke Artie, but it ain’t gonna choke me!”  (Stymie, one of the “Our Gang” kids)

Nothing says Spring in the farm fields near the Red Door than the beautiful globe artichokes (Cynara Scolymus) just waited to be stuffed or made into filling for ravioli.  Yum!  Here are two recipes from Allrecipes.com for your artichoke eating pleasure.  The first reminds me of how my Italian father used to prepare artichokes, the second is a wonderful “lite” Alfredo sauce which is great over Trader Joe’s fresh artichoke ravioli.

Stuffed Artichokes                     Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce

And then there’s the wine.   Definitely a pinot grigio.  Light, cool and crisp.  Castoro Cellars or Meridian both make wonderful ones.

Here’s my nephew playing one of the drums in a Scottish band.  He’s the one doing the fancy stick work.  Glad those music lessons paid off.