Well . . .
I just finished the artichoke. I trimmed the top and the stem, and steamed/boiled it for about 30 minutes (I don't have a steam basket, so I guess the bottom part was boiled while the top was steamed - please be in awe of my cooking skills). I kept checking to see how easily a leaf pulled off, and that's how long it took.
It took me a bit to get the hang of scraping off the leaves. The first few leaves didn't have much "meat" on them, but after a while they started to have a bit more. I used Trader Joe's roasted garlic hummus as a dip and that was delicious. Good choice.
Toward the center, the leaves started to be slightly limp and not really worth working with, I felt. Plus I kept waiting for this infamous "choke" to show up. I ended up getting impatient and pulling off the last layer of leaves and finally found the choke. It came up quite easily - I was surprised how easily it came out.
The heart stumped me a bit, honestly. I couldn't really tell what was edible of what I had left. Everything, even the stem (which I trimmed and peeled)? Just some of it? I ended up eating as much as I could, and got a couple of woody feeling stem pieces, which I didn't eat.
Overall, I'm glad I tried it, but I don't know that I would put it on the regular rotation. It was kind of tasteless, apart from the hummus.
It was kind of fun to eat. I like excuses for finger food.
I hope this thread helps some other people conquer the artichoke!