Turkey Day: The Old, the New and the Different

This year I went to Georgia, where my mom and most of her family lives, for Thanksgiving. I really had a great time there!

My family all owns shared land on the Chattahoochee River. The land has a little pond on it and we have a basic one room building with picnic tables to enjoy Thanksgiving.

And the newest edition, a professionally plumbed outhouse. I don't feel it should even be called that, once you walk in you feel like you are just inside a normal bathroom inside a house. A brand new house at that.

It's weird that a place that seems so close, like Georgia, has such different food. Maybe it's just my family, but the food is just off from the norm. They have some of the classics, but some other really "out of place" things in my opinion.

Sure there's the turkey and cranberry sauce. That you can't not have and still try to call it Thanksgiving. And new this year (which no one could seem to figure out who brought, I think it was some sort-of miracle sent by the Thanksgiving fairy) was sweet potatoes. But that's where the similarities between my family's and most other Thanksgivings end.

(And I feel that I should say that when we were growing up my mom did cook the traditional Thanksgiving meal. She obviously picked that up from other people.)

Georgia's Thanksgiving has no gravy, no mashed potatoes, no green bean casserole, no pumpkin pie.

New this year, no pecan pie (maybe the Thanksgiving fairy substituted it with sweet potatoes?).

And instead of stuffing they have dressing. They all swear it tastes better, but my tastes buds don't agree. I like the stuffing.

If you don't know what dressing is, the only way I know how to describe it is more bread, less flavor and packed into a casserole dish. It comes out in squares like cornbread. No fluffiness to it.

But in lue of the normal food, rather, we got these great dishes:

1) Lima beans (everyone loves to eat something half of all people probably hate.)

2) Rice (I'm not even going to pretend I know why that seemed fitting on Thanksgiving.)

3) Congealed Tomato Aspic (Tomatoes, good. Celery, good. Onions, good. Vinegar, good. Cayenne pepper, good. Gelatin, good. What's not to like?)

(Seriously, this reminds me of Friends. Only, the pages didn't get stuck together on this recipe. Here's the actual recipe that you can enjoy if you click here. Someone send Georgia the memo that gelatin can NOT be added to anything, and should probably be reserved to only sweet foods.)

4) liver & egg whites (I accidentally scooped this out, realized what it was and then didn't want to have to hurt someones feelings by unscooping. Literally every piece of food it touched was tainted with that gross taste. We really didn't need to go there on Thanksgiving.)

But I am feeling a little guilty now. I do LOVE most of the food that is there. But I like to make the point that there are differences. Some to my liking, some not.

The tradition that lies in Georgia that I also LOVE is after the big meal a group of us always go for a long walk. Not only do you get to enjoy nature at its best, but you get to enjoy the feeling of walking off that food!

But this time we did something a little different at the end of the walk. My aunt said something about the the farmers (we rent out parts our land to peanut farmers) tilling the land (is maybe what she said they did, I really don't know anything about farming) and bringing up Native American pottery.

This was news to me that our land had Native American pottery just lying around. But we walked that field and I did find pottery! It is so cool too, you can see the patterns in the pieces and the rims of others. I am not going to try to pretend that I know when the pottery dates back to. But I will tell you that my Aunt Rachel found an arrowhead in that field and we matched it on a poster that dated it back to 5000 B.C.!!!

It's been about 20 years though since one of my cousins found a complete piece of pottery, a cup. Native American stuff is pretty prevalent in that area. Just a couple of miles from my mom's house are Mounds built by the Native Americans. And I am talking some REALLY big mounds that I would guess are about three stories high!

After the pottery search came to it's conclusion, we hung out by the pond where we watched the alligator swim around. This thing terrifies me. Especially since the one they have there now has been there for a while and has now reached what they think is probably 10 feet long! When even the guys won't get on the pond with a boat, I know that the alligator is getting to be a serious size. He stared me down at one point in the middle of the pond, I am telling you, I nearly peed my pants. Here he is sun-bathing on the island.

On Saturday my mom, Aunt Rachel, Uncle Claude and myself went back to the land on the Chattahoochee. My aunt and I searched for more Native American pottery for awhile. Then we cooked out just outside of their camper. They have a new Airstream and it is so nice! Such a swanky camper!

(And I swear we had more than just steak, there were some sides. I just didn't take a picture after that happened!)

I had a great time in Georgia! Love it there, it is so relaxing and stress-free. Could really use more of that place in my life!