Free Republic

I’ve always thought that artichokes – as they are available to a suburbanite like me, in the supermarket – were expensive and time-consuming to prepare and cook. But I like them, and I like the ritual of eating them; so once or twice a year I’ll buy them as a ‘Rite of Spring’. I’ve always steamed mine but recently found some recipes for roasting them. Since I’ve come to enjoy roasted asparagus much more than I like it steamed, I thought I’d try handling the artichokes this way. I used this recipe from 'Pinch My Salt', but omitted the garlic,...

In a recent meeting of the Board of Education in the city of Artichoke, Alabama, it was decided to ban the reading of Homer's Illiad and Odyssey in the classroom. The grounds given for the exclusion of these towering masterpieces of ancient literature is that reading them in a public school violated the first amendment's guarantee of the separation of church and state. Wallace Nobrainer, the attorney for the Artichoke school system, explained that "the Homeric texts are obviously designed to promote the polytheistic view of the Greeks," and hence they should be looked upon in the same light as...

Doctor claims restaurant is responsible for telling customers how to eatIf you are what you eat, chances are Arturo Carvajal isn't a thorny vegetable capable of ripping up a person's intestines. The Miami doctor is suing a local restaurant after he knowingly ate an entire artichoke, thorny leaves and all, and then experienced excruciating pain afterward. The lawsuit, filed against Houston's in Aventura, essentially claims the restaurant was responsible for Carvajal's pain because employees didn't tell the man that he was supposed to eat the soft meat located on the inside of the artichoke, not the entire thing. That's about...

Ingredients: 2 packages of chopped frozen spinach 1 14 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped 1 onion, chopped fine 1 stick butter 8 oz. cream cheese 8 oz. shredded monterey jack cheese 8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. pepper

A serial killer who terrorized Wichita during the 1970s by committing a series of seven murders has claimed responsibility for an eighth slaying and is probably now living in Wichita, police said Wednesday. A letter The Wichita Eagle received Friday suggests that the BTK strangler was responsible for the Sept. 16, 1986, strangulation death of Vicki Wegerle, who was found dead in her home at 2404 W. 13th St. The crime was never solved. The letter contained a single sheet of paper with a photocopy of Wegerle's driver's license and three pictures that apparently were taken of her body. Each...