arti-choke

last night i attempted to cook an artichoke for the first time. they were on sale at the store, so i picked one up, thinking "i love (spinach) artichoke dip; this should be interesting" a week passed before the opportunity to steam the sucker arose, what with s & the whole moving into a new place business.
i read up on a bunch of cooking sites about the best ways to prepare the scary & spiny-looking thing. clipped off the sharp ends of the leaves, trimmed the stem & the pointy end & threw it in a pot to boil with a little lemon juice. i don't have a steamer big enough or i would've used that method.) boil, boil, boil. remove from water & let cool briefly. then i started plucking away at the leaves(?). dipped the end in a little butter & sucked/teethed them off. okay, s tried it too when he got there.
until we got to the choke. yes, that is what the center, fuzzy part is called. so i cut it off as recommended, waiting to find the good part, the heart... to no avail. seriously, there was nothing underneath that resembled anything edible, unless you're supposed to eat the top of the stem? um yeah, am not so good with odd vegetables.
but we had leftover chinese for the rest of the meal, so it's not like we starved.
ps~i'm pretty sure i gave myself a concussion when i got home from work (after meeting suzanne's sister to procure my very own, signed (thank you, thank you!) copy of her book). yeah, i'm a klutz. thwacked my head into the doorframe while talk to my mom on the phone & bending over to grab something. it brought tears to my eyes & in the next day or two i'm sure to have an enviable black eye. yikes!