The Thanksgiving walk!

     After Thanksgiving dinner, when you are so stuffed it is hard to move, but there is still pie to fit in... how do you do it? Well, that is where the annual Thanksgiving walk comes in. I saw on TV where there is a lot of walks for charity early in the morning before you eat the big meal but the best time is right after the big meal. It helps settle and burn it off. And makes room for more food.

Our delicious  bird this year courtesy of Aunt Patty!

Here we are starting out to walk the woods behind Aunt Patty's house.

Not everyone made it the whole way to the end of the property. This is no run for the finish line this is a bunch of overly stuffed Americans waddling their way as best possible around in my Aunts back 40. The kids love it cause it is usually when they are getting antsy and gives them something to do.

JR leads the way!

There is a lot to see back there in the yard and Aunt Patty is adding to it all the time.

JR checking out a figure in the garden.

There is a family of box tortoises that make the yard their home.

The former owner left a lot of interesting things lying about. This one is a giant ceramic power pole thing that Aunt plans to make into a planter.

Aunt Patty's puppy likes to look at the figures in the garden too.

There were a couple of pets who died recently (of old age)  and were buried under this tree. Aunt Patty said she is planing on
making some sort of memorial under this tree for them where she will hopefully incorporate the tree.

On the very end of the property is a sandy beach area.  

Even in the sand pretty little flowers were blooming.

Little fuzzy flowers that were fun to blow on.

It was Thanksgiving and we were just eating everything and JR thought the fuzzy's  would be good to taste.

He was wrong and spit them out all over his jacket. lol!

The Heslin's

Hope everyone had as good a Thanks giving as we did and enjoyed walking with us. Now it's Christmas time already!

Thanksgiving stroll.

After getting so full of Thanksgiving dinner we traditionally go for a walk around the block before eating desert. This year since we were at my Aunt's house we decided to walk her property.

Delicious  and juicy bird.

 We had to decide if we were going to wear  jackets and shoes because for Florida it was pretty chilly. The high was only 63.

You can see the fireplace fire was pumping.

 All my Aunt's animals decided to go for a walk too.

Manx cat following and listening to us.

 We found some interesting things.

Gopher tortoise hole. Gopher tortoise's are endangered. And once one is on the property you can not disturb it.

 Scattered through out the property are places to stop and meditate.

Buddha

 As we walked and explored we felt eyes on us and realized we were being watched.

Barred Owl

 From our family to yours Wishing  everyone has a happy Holiday Season this year.

The Copper Pot

Thanks giving in my family is always been a time when what ever family is available gets together. I remember when I was a child having a huge gathering with all my aunts and cousins out in California. There was never a focus on Pilgrims and Thanksgiving. It was always about being with family. Since our family was already in Florida, as they floated over with Ponce De Leon in 1513 and the Mayflower didn't land till 1620, the whole Thanksgiving story doesn't really apply and perhaps that is the reason why it was not celebrated in the way it was portrayed on TV by the people up north who were descendants of Pilgrims. We were already here before pilgrims. It is still a good idea to be thankful for what you've got but it's always been more of reunion time.

The buttery bird for 2012

It's wonderful to get together with family members you never see. Second cousins and distant relatives. To listen to the stories of the old days and what the family used to be like. You never know what bit of information that is interesting that you might hear. You hear stories you've been told but didn't quit believe and then find they were told the exact same stories. You might learn about the family history.

Cheese ball after I made it look like a turkey.

This year there was a lot of talk about a restaurant that my Great Grandmother owned up in Jacksonville located near the rear entrance of the navel base. It was called the Copper Pot or Copper Kettle not exactly sure on that. Apparently the restaurant has been converted into a house but there is still a big old copper pot out in front, from the days when it was a restaurant. I learned that one relative or another at some time or other bought the property only to be suprised to find they were a distant relative to the previous owner. My Mother and Aunt told tails of running around at the restaurant when they were younger. The big dance floor and the big kitchen area. They remember fondly an old fig tree that grew around the back and my grandmother becoming upset, when she was pregnant with one of my aunts, because she couldn't have chicken gizzards.  This was a home cooking place that served such food as turtle soup. I remember my grandmother saying something about turtle soup and I always thought she meant sea turtles but I know most turtle soup, from talking to people who's families are from Florida, was made from gopher tortoise  that are now endangered. In Louisiana they use snapping turtles for soup. I would imagine a lot of the family recipes and ingenuity for new recipes came the menus served at that restaurant. Turtle is definitely a meat that has escaped the palate of modern man. I have heard tails of people eating it in Louisiana and saying it was the best thing they ever ate.

My grandmother used to say "your all full of the dickens" and look... here is where I get it, from my mom. Here she is sneaking the whip cream.

It's sad that the old  culture here in Florida is all but gone and it is only in listening to these old stories that we learn about it and who we are and where we come from. Or we will have to read about what others say our culture is and what type of food we eat in Southern Living magazines and you can never get a full picture or find out exactly why things were done a certain way from that.

Yep there's a little dickens in all of us. Here is my Aunt waiting for everyone else to be seated so she can eat.

Thanks Giving Cheese Balls

This year for Thanksgiving we are going to my Aunts house. It's the first time in about fourteen years we haven't hosted the big day, so it's exciting for us this year to let some one else make the turkey and deal with the dreaded clean up. We are tasked with glazed carrots and cheese balls and rolls. They didn't have the flavor of ball I wanted, when I went to the store, so I decided to make my own since the recipe was so easy. I think they came out pretty good but we wont know for sure till we take them to my Aunts house.

 We also had to have nuts in the shell. I don't know why you can only get nuts in the shell at Thanksgiving time  but they are always a sign of the season at my house. They remind me of my grandfather and discussing which nuts are the best and what the names of the nuts were and where each nut can be found. It's strange the small things that remind you of long past relatives. Each Thanksgiving food reminds me of some one special to me.

And a pomegranate cause they are good. When I was a child in California we used to get them fresh from a neighbors tree. They were a real stolen treasure since the neighbor never new that they had given them to us. The little red jewels found inside were better than candy. I always imagined I'd have  a crown with jewels in it the color of those seeds.


Cheese balls all done and wrapped up ready for the feast.
 

Every one always discusses what they are thankful or grateful for at Thanksgiving and people seem to appreciate the small things in their lives just a little more. I guess I'm no different because even though I can't be with everyone I want to be with, I sure am thankful for the ones I will be with.



Thanksgiving



Mom



We had a great Thanksgiving. Mom and Karen stopped by and we all pigged out all day long. As usual it was more than my Mom's delicate stomach could take and she got a little sick from it but lately everything she eats upsets her stomach. She likes that spicy food despite what it does to her and was eating bar-b-qed lil smokies with Italian sausages and short ribs that she made in the slow cooker. They were good but her stomach didn't like it. She also may have eaten some habanero BBQ almonds that she brought just for us. Then we served her some bodacious onion dip that had horseradish in it that probly didn't help. She also brought some fish dip that was mostly fishy but also spicy. Not to mention all the good thanksgiving foods. To yummy for her to take.







 Me checking on the bird.

I belive in dirtying all the dishes at thanksgiving or at least that always seems to be what happens. Usually I start off cooking and washing each dish as I go then I realize I'm in over my head and call in Chris, my husband the pro, who comes out and saves the diner but destroys the whole kitchen in the process.

This year I had a bottle of spiced wine that I picked up when I was in Kansas. We mulled it with some oranges and cinnamon sticks in a pot on the back of the stove and the aroma was fantastic. But we also had to have a taste of it and turns out I like warm wine.






Erica, Mary(me), and Veronica

We all tried to spend as much time with Erica as possible because she is leaving Monday for Korea and we wont get to see her for two years. She is excited about visiting a new culture and seeing a different part of the world but with all the bad news coming out of Korea lately we are all on edge about it. 





 Since there were only a few of us this year we used the good dishes and crystal. The table looked great. The turkey got carved before I could get a good picture of it. Mom made a sweet potatoe pie with raisons and pecans in it that was fantastic I had to wait a few hours after dinner before I could eat it. 

Evan the dog was passed out after ward. That turkey sure was good and the leftovers are going to be even better! Shortly after this picture Erica and some friends got ready to do black Friday. They were going out shopping with the plan that they would not stop until they were tottaly broke or dead tired.

Thanksgiving

In this picture I'm wearing an apron my mom made for me a long time ago. When I was little I remember her wearing one similar to it every year at Thanks giving as she prepared the meal. People don't where aprons anymore and it's a shame. They just say something about the cook and let you know when it's time to eat. When the apron comes off.


Some people sat around and enjoyed hors devours and others enjoyed checking out guns. For some reason we had an odd amount of guns at Thanksgiving. Which is even stranger when you consider no one went turkey hunting this year. Maybe next year we will. But I'm saying right here and now I do not pluck or clean birds. I just cook them.

And here is the yummy yummy star of the show. Before carving you should always check the internal temperature of your bird or you'll end up like we did with it being a little too pink. But it was not a problem we popped it back in for a while longer and it came out just fine. All in all I'd say the food was pretty good and the company was even better. Can't wait to do it again next year. Oh, and yes we have been enjoying turkey soup and turkey sandwiches and turkey, turkey, turkey. MMMM....