How to get your little ones involved in the kitchen!
By Anjali Shastry with Larry Bain
What food do you associate with Thanksgiving? Definitely turkey, stuffing, cranberries, potatoes, and of course, no meal is complete without pumpkin pie!
Well, this is a pretty modern take on Thanksgiving; none of the dishes listed above made an appearance at the first Thanksgiving meal in 1621. While we don’t know for sure what they had back then, historians have a pretty good guess — venison, fowl, fish, eels, shellfish, stews, vegetables, and beer!
Here at the museum’s FoodShed cafe, we were inspired by how the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people came together for this meal and combined a variety of foods that were both native to the Americas and transported from England. Using the concept of old-world ingredients like apples, and new-world ingredients like cranberries, we’ve come up with a few hybrid recipes that you can use this holiday season to bring a sense of history to your Thanksgiving spread.
Invite the children in your life to participate in the kitchen and get them excited about the food they’re about to share with friends and family!
Apple Cranberry Chutney
Ingredients
2 lbs tart cored and diced apples
1 lb fresh cranberries
½ lb red onion diced
1 tbsp fresh finely diced ginger
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 cups brown sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp allspice
2 tsp chili flakes
Salt and pepper
Method
- Prepare all the ingredients. Little ones can assist in the kitchen by measuring out dry ingredients. Older ones can, with supervision, peel apples or chop onions.
- In a stainless steel pot, simmer onions, cranberries, spices and sugar in vinegar for 10 minutes.
- Add apples and simmer until cranberries are soft.
- 4. Adjust the seasonings and serve cold with turkey or sweet potatoes.
Turkeys are native to North America and were plentiful in the American Northeast in 1621, but they actually have their roots in Central America. Another Central American staple? Sweet potatoes! This delicious dish pairs these together for a perfect “day after” dish.
Leftover Turkey and Sweet Potato Quesadilla
Ingredients
1 lb cooked turkey (cut into bite size pieces)
1 lb sweet potatoes (cut into bite size pieces)
1 cup Apple Cranberry Chutney (see above) or spicy salsa
1 cup shredded Jack cheese
½ cup chopped cilantro
6 large flour tortillas
Method
- Spread turkey, sweet potatoes, chutney/salsa and cheese over three tortillas. Little ones can spoon out prepped ingredients onto the tortillas and use their hands to spread it out evenly.
- Sprinkle with cilantro and top with a second tortilla. Kids can decide how much to stuff the quesadillas with!
- Heat up the quesadilla on a griddle or pan if using the stove, or on a baking sheet in the oven. They are ready when the cheese is melted.
- Cut quesadilla into four pieces. Older kids can help with the cutting or plating. Enjoy them warm!
Larry Bain runs the museum’s FoodShed cafe, and develops recipes to delight and inspire you and your kids.
