Sinfully delicious artichokes

Last night, we hosted an international dinner. Four of the guests were a Chilean family, one guy was Canadian, and the rest were American of varied backgrounds. Pretty much everyone agreed that the artichokes were phenom, so we re-resurrect this blog to bring you the Ranch House version of heart attack on a plate:

Prepare 4 artichokes (we adjusted the recipe for six) the normal way (tops down in three inches of water with olive oil and garlic, covered, boil for thirty-forty-five minutes). If you are like me, you always over cook them, but this is good, because it is then easier to spread the leaves, which you do after draining them and placing them on a baking sheet.

While the chokes boil, put four tbs of olive oil, four tbs of butter, one clove of garlic (minced) and two cups of fine white bread crumbs (I made my own from a loaf of stale rye, seemed to work out alright) into a pot, and stir until browned.

Toss the bread crumb mixture with 1/2 tsp herb salt* and 1/2 tsp dried marjoram.

Divide the mixture among the artichokes, making sure it gets down in there among all the leaves. Place in a warm oven to keep warm (I put a bowl of water in with them so they wouldn't dry out too much).

Served with an herb-salt-butter dipping sauce, and I was sure our cholesterol skyrocketed, but it was WORTH it!

*I keep a jar of this stocked up: 1 tsp garlic salt, 2 tsp onion salt, 1/2 tsp dry parsley, 1/8 tsp dry basil, 1/8 tsp marjoram, 1/4 tsp celery salt, 1/8 tsp thyme, all ground up in the mortar.