Thursday, February 21, 2008

My Daughter the Artichoke

I never thought I would ever compare my daughter to a complicated vegetable.But after another one of our blow-ups that we have been having lately, that is all that comes to my mind. My daughter is an artichoke.

If you have ever eaten one you know how much work it can be for the little bit of pay off you get. First they are extremely prickly their leaves end in little sharp barbs that have to be cut off before you can eat it. You trim the leaves,cut off the finger thick stem and then you have to boil it down to soften it up. After it is a firm soft you cut it in half and dig out all the "choke" of the artichoke only then can you peel off the leaves and use your teeth to scrape off the fleshy part of the leaf usually dipped in garlic butter. After you basically have a discarded pile of leaf trash on your plate you get down to the actual good part of the artichoke the heart which is about the size of a large egg yolk. You cut that up in small pieces to make it last longer dip those small pieces in butter and then you are done. I always feel silly after I've eaten an artichoke because the small amount of what you get to eat makes no sense for the amount of trash this small vegetable generates.

Now, don't get me wrong I'm not calling my daughter trash but sometimes after a conversation with her I definitely feel emotionally trashed. She's very prickly with a hard outer shell. By the time you boil her down scrape her out add some butter to smooth her out and get down to the heart of the matter,you are very wore out. I always have the feeling that was too much work!! I'm not quite sure how my daughter developed her artichoke personality, maybe it's a defense mechanism from the divorce, you know don't let people get to close. But it's the source of a lot of our bickering thats been going on lately.I especially don't know how I got an artichoke daughter when I consider myself more of an eggplant kind of personality. Before I actually ate one I thought to myself WOW a purple plant(my favorite color) this has got to be good, but then you cook it and the purple turns gray and the inside is all mushy. That's me loud and colorful on the outside but add some heat and I go all mushy. My tastes are kind of bland too, like I wish I was a snappy dresser, just can't seem to know what to do...anyway I digress. Well if someone can find a good recipe for artichokes and eggplants then maybe me and my daughter can work this thing out...By the way my daughter loves artichokes maybe they understand each other.

2 comments:

Phyllis T. of Knitgirlll06 said...

You gave a very good explaination of this concept. I have a daughter just like that. I always feel like we are WW 3. As the mother of 7 does it ever get better? Single mother of 2.

NikkiJ said...

This is a very clear explanation of what's going on between you and your daughter.

Coming from a daughter's perspective. I'm often baffled at how little my mom knows about what's going on inside me. It seems she's so busy trying to widdle (sp?) me down to mush, she doesn't take the time to find out.