spring side dishes

I love being in the kitchen with my mom. She has a fully stocked kitchen, great lighting, and all the great kitchen tools. I love how adventurous she is in the kitchen, pretty much never makes the same meal twice. While we were at Pike Place Market we over heard a lady saying she likes to cook her artichokes in the pressure cooker. We were intrigued and had to try.

This is what we did:
Snip off all the pointy tips from the artichoke leaves. Place in a normal size pressure cooker with a little salt, a cut up lemon, and fill with water about half way up. Put lid on and turn on to high until pressure cooker lid starts to rattle. Turn down and continue to cook for 15 minutes. Take the pot over to the sink and run cold water over the pressure cooker until the valve goes down. Serve with a little melted butter and olive oil to dip in.
Normally it would take 45-60 minutes to cook an artichoke in a regular pot, but with a pressure cooker it took only 25 minutes. Wonderful!

Another side dish we tried was mashed cauliflower.
Here's what we did:
Cut cauliflower in florets and steam in a large pot. Once the cauliflower is tender drain the water and mash the cauliflower. We added some cream cheese and mashed until combined. Salt and pepper to liking.