so many posts, so little time!

i am so looking forward to halloween, counting the days and ready to start putting up my decorations! i have lots of white scraps that i saved over the year to add to my dead bride's tattered dress to make it very full! i found out that my son does a similar graveyard in his front yard, and apparently his is even more over the top than mine! i also found out from my cousin that an uncle of ours that lives in vegas does a halloween display that is totally awesome too. weirdness definately runs in my family! at least no one can say we are boring?!

here is my son and my brother-in-law in front of the giant artichoke at the restaurant, "the giant artichoke" in castroville, california where i grew up. my first house i lived in was on an artichoke ranch! we went here to eat on our trip in august, because i wanted to eat french fried artichokes! this place has been there as long as i can remember, and my great-grandmother lived in the house right behind it. you could smell the french fried artichokes being made, and it smelled terrific! the sign there says it has the recipe for them for 3 bucks! (oops! nope, that's for beer!) i have the recipe for them, and i made them a little while ago. i was trying to find the photo i took, and cannot find it in the mess of files i have on my computer! the french fried artichokes i had here were just o.k., not as fabulous as i remembered as a kid. they had lots of other stuff artichoke too. (stuffed artichokes too!) i recently bought a cookbook of all fried stuff, and it had a recipe for a french fried artichoke sandwich, and it mentioned castroville, "the artichoke capitol of the world"! (by the way, i DO have a cookbook that is all artichokes!) when i find the photo, i will post the recipe i have and you could try them...if you can find baby artichokes. trader joe's sometimes has them. i like french fried artichokes with ketchup!

i will leave you with a fun halloweenie thing...my sister says it's disgusting! it's the "bloody finger mail"! write a note and send it to someone you love... or don't love!