I had good intentions, I promise!

While making pretzels I ran out of flour, so I made a mental note to stop by the grocery store right after work, but only for flour. Then I found a Martha Stewart chocolate mousse recipe. Ok, just some cream and the flour. But my shopping list grew even more when I saw an episode of The Cooking Loft where they made a really yummy mac and cheese. Long story short, I bought a LOT more than flour. I got some great lettuce, a few cheeses, a few herbs, eggs, steaks and 2 different yeasts.

But I have plans for all this food. :)Here are a few things I'll be making in the next week:

Steak and onion sandwiches

Fish with an arugala and herb salad

Chicken with dill dumplings

Chocolate Mousse

Hummus and homemade pitas

Homemade bread

Peanut butter cookies

Normally I just trim the stem, boil and eat, but while looking online for the cooking time I found some suggestions on

adding additional flavor to the artichokes. It demonstrated trimming the tips, which I had never done before, and now after doing so I can't say it was worth it. It is prettier though.

I added a tablespoon of garlic, a tablespoon of lemon juice and a bay leaf to the boiling water.

I made a simple dip of 2/3 part mayo and 1/3 part lemon juice.

It's simple and delicious and well worth the burned fingers I seem to always get!