Mom's birthday

[pegkerr]

Today's my Mom's (askchar) 75th birthday. Yay, Mom!

Here a few good reasons to celebrate this momentous occasion:

I get my love of chocolate and my squished little toe from her.

She taught me how to manage money.

She taught me how to fight fair.

She believes in me.

She took me to the library every week when I was a kid.

She has opened her home up, again and again, to all sorts of people, which gave me a much wider view of the world growing up.

She understands the importance of travel and education.

She taught me how to make hollendaise sauce and eat an artichoke.

She goes to Curves for Women several times a week to weight lift stay in shape (what a terrific role model).

She's been married for over fifty years, and she's shown me how a good marriage grows and changes.

She can laugh at a joke on herself.

She is a terrific Nana to my kids.

Comments

[red-queen.livejournal.com]

Happy mom's birthday, Peg! She sounds terrific (and it seems to me that you take after her in many ways).

Appreciating my mom was one of the things I'm glad I learned as I grew up (we *both* grew up). Adolescence was rough on us both, and maybe that sweetened it when I was able to acknowlege openly how much I'd learned from her. I don't think one can overdo it :-}.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday to your mom! She sounds wonderful. Yeah!

[jubilus.livejournal.com]

Exactly how is an artichoke eaten!? My mother and I bought three of them on the weekend because they look lovely when placed in a vase in the kitchen, but we're both entirely baffled as to how they're prepared and eaten!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Either boil them or steam-microwave them until you can easily insert a fork into the stem. Pull off leaves and dip the stem end of each leaf into sauce and scrape the underside of the stem end off with your teeth. Be careful not to prick yourself with the hooks at the ends of the leaves. (Some people cut the leaf ends off altogether before cooking an artichoke.) The outer leaves may be tough, but leaves will get smaller and more tender as you move toward the center. When close to the center, pull the leaves apart from the tender heart. Scrape the pointy, prickly tissue out of the center of the heart with a knife of spoon tip. Dip the heart into sauce and eat that, too. Mmm. Some people eat the stem as well, but I don't.

[jubilus.livejournal.com]

Wah! So much effort! Thanks for that - I shall print off your instructions, and make a special effort to prepare our three artichokes for Father's Day this weekend.

With all the prep that goes into eating an artichoke, it kind of makes one wonder who first went to all the effort of determining if it was an edible plant in the first place. Well it makes me wonder.