Macaroni and Peas

Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away. For some reason, this fall season has flown by. I can’t believe it’s almost time for turkey and crack-o-dawn shopping.

We generally spend Thanksgiving here at home in Iowa. We’re not having any relatives come visit this year. That’s good because our house is…let’s just say the house is not clean. All of our relatives are at least a thousand miles away…so we don’t do a lot of weekend visits.

Duncan’s class has recently started talking about Thanksgiving, its history, and being thankful. I thought I’d share some thoughts about this very food-centric holiday.

Family Ties

My mom was very interested in genealogy. She traced our family back to the 1500’s. Well, as much as one can trace one’s family back that far. Tony’s dad is pretty into genealogy too, although he tends to focus on the Civil War. So we know a fair bit about our history.

Both of my parent’s family names are German. My dad’s family name, Kessler, means cheese maker. My mom’s family name, Lieser, means lover. Yeah, I love cheese.

Despite all this German-ness, I’m mostly Scottish, albeit from tons of different sources. Most of my Scottish ancestors come from the Highlands. One of them claimed to be descended from William Wallace (aka Braveheart).

My husband and I find it rather amusing that his family descends in part from the McDonalds and mine from the Campbells. These clans were the Hatfields and McCoys of Scotland. Yeah, that’s the first feud that springs to mind…followed promptly by Romeo and Juliet’s families: Montague and Capulet. But then I laugh and realize that Tony and I are not likely to kill ourselves over something as silly as what our parents want.

By far, my coolest ancestor was a privateer in the employ of Queen Elizabeth. Yay, Pirates!

The point of all this is that Thanksgiving makes me think of family. And in doing so, I am reminded that the Rancks, a family from Southern Britain, came to America shortly after the Mayflower. These were the first ancestors of mine and of my son’s to set foot in America. I like to share the stories of our ancestors with Duncan so he feels a little closer to his history.

Food History

We watch a lot of Food Network, History Channel, and Discovery Channel around here. That means we see a lot of shows about the history of food, especially this time of year. We learn about what the pilgrims really ate for Thanksgiving (more on that later) and when certain American staples like pie and turkey came into the picture.

I enjoy telling Duncan all about the history of the foods he’s eating. For me, Thanksgiving dinner isn’t complete without mashed potatoes, but the pilgrims didn’t have potatoes at the first Thanksgiving.

Potatoes are originally from the Andes Mountains in South America. It was first cultivated about 7,000 years ago by pre-Columbian farmers. It wasn’t discovered by Europeans until the early 1500’s. The potato made its first trans-Atlantic trip in the 1570. Even then, it wasn’t used in everyday meals until the 1780’s. Finally, in the 1800’s, the potato made it back to the Americas and found a home in American kitchens.

I like to share stories about the ways the Irish might have cooked potatoes and why the Europeans were so reluctant to eat it (its leaves really are poisonous). I make sure Duncan is involved in cooking Thanksgiving dinner and we talk about what we’re making while doing it.

Traditions

When Tony and I got married, we talked about starting our own traditions as well as keeping certain family traditions alive. Both of our families celebrated Thanksgiving with tons of food and family.

However, his family also enjoyed football. Growing up in Alaska, football wasn’t exactly popular in my family. I’ve become a fan of football in the course of our 12 year marriage and look forward to watching the Thanksgiving games each year. Heck, I even enjoy the turducken that John Madden dishes up each year.

I know a lot of folks who don’t eat breakfast or lunch so they’ll have room for a bigger dinner. Tony falls into that camp along with most of my family. I’m that person who MUST have breakfast every morning. Duncan got that gene from me, so we eat breakfast together. I usually make oatmeal with fruit and nuts to make the meal last.

We try to get outside for a while both before and after dinner. It’s always nice to let Duncan work off some steam at the playground across the street before dinner. Being cooped up all day can be rather boring. After dinner, we enjoy the chance to get some fresh air. The exercise does us all good and it feels better to be moving than lying on the couch digesting.

I’ll share some fun activities as well as great recipes between now and Thanksgiving.