Artichokes, lentils and Hysteria

I have always loved artichokes, especially on pizza and in rissotos but I have never tried cooking them at home. 
I recently found fresh ones at the store and of course I had to buy them.

They looked very different to what is served at a restaurant.

I bought four of these but kept them in the fridge, having no idea how to prepare them.
Eventually I watched a couple of youtube videos and finally attempted cooking them.

Cleaning artichokes is a bit of a chore, you have to cut off all the inedible bits and at the end you are left with a very small piece of artichoke.  It is well worth the trouble, though.

Here is an easy to follow video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF78n_DvMWE

I boiled the clean artichokes in some salted water in which lemon juice and olive oil has been added.  It was delicious and looked like this:

I also made some soup using a mixture of lentils and barley:

Isn't that pretty?

I watched a very funny movie last week.  It is called Hysteria and is about the invention of the vibrator.  Maggie Gyllenhaal's character was charming and the movie was light hearted and entertaining.