Gluten-free Gourmand

My cooking partner and I are really into making food over a campfire.  It's so much easier to make the whole meal on one heat source, and what is an open fire but man's first stove?  When we heard about grilling artichokes, we loved the idea, because artichokes are the perfect accompaniment to so many other things that we like to grill.  However, all the recipes we found involved boiling the artichokes first - not an option for the lazy camper.  We wanted to cook them just on the grill.  This recipe is the result of our inspiration. How to cook artichokes on the BBQ or grill : Serves two Ingredients: 1 artichoke oil salt 1-2 Tbsp butter 1-2 Tbsp water lemon juice (optional) Directions: Cut the artichokes in half, then scoop out the pale choke in the center.  Oil and salt both sides.  Put a few chunks of butter in the center of the artichokes where they are hollowed out.  In the center and around the leaves, add a bit of water until the artichoke seems like i

I try to always document this day in the year, mostly for my own reference.  Then, there's also that desire to brag a little.  This year, I'm not sure it qualifies as bragging, but I finally have my first ripe tomatoes. These are Sun Gold tomatoes, and they ripen very early.  If you consider August to be early.  Well, the point is that they ripen earlier than other varieties.  Last year my first ripe one was July 23rd.   The year before , it was July 17th.  I posted a Sun Gold tomato salad recipe on July 20th that year.  It has been a cold, wet spring in the west of the country this year.  Snow packs are still high, the weather only just turned warm, and tomatoes aren't exactly getting in early.  Here's a photo I took of Mt. Adams last weekend.  Look at all that snow! Not that I'm complaining.  It's always nice to have water.  Some of my spring crops are still going strong, and I have a ton of beautiful, huge sunflowers - all volunteers. How is your garde