Speaking of backyard cooking, here is one of my all-time favorite recipes: grilled artichokes with a vinegar cheese dipping sauce.

Artichokes are in season during the summer, and this recipe makes for an amazing appetizer, side, or even a whole meal if you want.

It’s surprisingly easy to do, and it’ll impress the heck out of your friends.

The Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3T Mayo
• 2T vinegar
• 1T parmesan cheese
• 2T chives
• 2t golden mustard
• Some dashes of parsley

Directions: Add vinegar and parmesan cheese and warm up in microwave to melt the cheese. Then add mayonnaise, mustard, chives, and parsley. Mix.

Butter marinade

Melt and mix 2T Butter with 1t salt and 1t ground pepper for each whole artichoke being cooked.

The Artichokes

• One artichoke per 2 people is usually enough.

• Fill a pot with enough water that all the artichokes can be submerged. I also will add a cup or two of chicken or vegetable broth.

• Boil artichokes in water until the stem is tender enough that a butter knife placed into the top of the stem can easily pierce. (Takes about 45 minutes.)

• Remove artichokes from water and cut them in half from top to bottom.

• With a spoon, scoop out the Inner Petals and the Choke (basically all the parts that you don’t want to eat) from each half.

• Spread the butter marinade onto the inside of the artichoke and get it in between as many of the petals as you can.

• Place the artichoke halves onto a hot grill with the Heart facing down

• Cook for 3-5 minutes (sear them; don’t burn to a crisp).

• Flip over after a few minutes to sear the other side.

• Add more butter marinade if you have any.

• Once both sides have been cooked and have grill marks, remove from the grill.

• Eat it by plucking a petal off at a time and dipping it into the sauce.