Little Chefs At Thanksgiving

 Any home chef needs help in the Thanksgiving kitchen, Now with the holiday winnowed down to immediate family, it'll get even crazier. Yet if you have kids, you have help. Any age can help you and can delight in creating a tasty and memorable holiday dinner. They'll think of it as fun too. 

Melissa Clark wrote about this in her A Good Appetite column in yesterday's New York Times Food section. She , herself, is putting her own twelve year old daughter to work, mostly as a diversion. As with other kids across the country, she won;'t be able to see her grandmother or play with her cousins. Thanksgiving will be a remote activity this year for  her. It applies to tweens and high schoolers where  Thanksgiving football games and dances were always the highlight of the season. Yet cooking is fun and tasty. It allows kids to become deeply invested in the process, along with experiencing the joys and flavors of holiday cooking. She gives three recipes which can involve all ages, even three year olds. What about clean up, some worried parents may fret. Cleaning as you go is as vital as properly holding a knife according to Ms. Clark.  Yet kids will be messy. Her advice? Let them. Just take a deep breath and let them drop a Brussesl sprout  on the floor or splash gravy on the stove top. There are two useful tips - one, have a damp cloth at the ready for wiping up splatters and spills, and two, use trash bowls that are easy to reach.

Ms. Clark gives recipes that even adults would love.  There is a scallion cheddar cornbread stuffing, a traditional one zinged up with a topping of grated sharp Cheddar and Parmesan. Little ones - and bigger ones can easily crumble stale cornbread into big crumbs for the base.  Supervised older kids can saute the veggies such as celery  and scallions on the stove top , Tweens will love making sweet potatoes with sour cream and pecans. This is cutting the potatoes into wedges, like those popular potato wedges most restaurants serve. It's then mixing with garam masala and coconut oil. They're then roasted in a 350 degree oven for half an hour. a mix of sour cream, lime juice and salt is drizzled on top and them finished with a sprinkling of toasted pecans. The dessert is a tasty kid and adult friendly  pumpkin fudge torte. The base is a deeply rich cocoa torte that also has pumpkin puree added along with brown sugar. It's topped with a pumpkin cream  which is blend of pumpkin puree, confectioner's sugar, ans heavy cream. The kids can easily make the topping, then serve it over the torte. It's finished with a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon, which even little ones can do.

This Thanksgiving will be different for the kids.  Make it fun by getting them involved in holiday cooking and baking. They'll enjoy it as will you.