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Turkey Talk: Kindergarten chefs plan Thanksgiving dinner

Deborah Prescott | Daily Press Chefs from Lisa Gagnon’s kindergarten class at the Webster Kindergarten Center gather in front of paper turkeys they recently made. Standing are, from left, Jason DeGrand, Colten Quaghebeur, Liam Langenfeld, Xochitl Gutierrez, Mavis Gribble, Landin Dubord, Landon Clausen, and Cameron Schmidt. Sitting from left are, Bradon Doan, Ava Cretens, Oliver VandeWiele, Roxanna West, Rogue Porath, Jackson Izzard, and Evelyn Orth.

ESCANABA — Kindergartners from Lisa Gagnon’s class at the Escanaba Webster Kindergarten Center have some tips, hints and ideas about cooking this year’s Thanksgiving dinner. Here is how they would prepare the perfect holiday meal:

Jason DeGrand likes to help a lot during Thanksgiving preparations. After his dad and big brother return from hunting, DeGrand advises to cut the feathers off the turkey before putting it in a hot oven at five degrees for 10 minutes.

“Five so it doesn’t burn,” he said.

DeGrand doesn’t care for potatoes or gravy, but if they are on the table he might have a bite. For those who want mashed potatoes, DeGrand suggests scrubbing the vegetable and cooking them before smashing them.

“Scrub it clean and just crush it … with a hammer,” DeGrand said.

He likes green beans, but they can’t be cooked, only cold. DeGrand prefers pumpkin pie and recommends adding chocolate in the pie.

“I say pumpkin pie, because my mom made pumpkin pie and it had a lot of chocolate in it,” DeGrand said.

Get your chocolate from the store and the pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. Wash it all down with Sprite. DeGrand said his mom cleans up after the meal, but the whole family should probably help.

Mavis Gribble is a seasoned professional who has helped cook a turkey before.

“I shove the turkey in the oven … for 12 minutes … like a little hot and a little warm,” Gribble said.

Gravy should be cooked for 13 minutes after taking it out of a container and dumping it in a bowl.

“Put some water with it, a little, and mix it until … voila,” said Gribble.

Make sure you say ‘voila’ at the end, and dancing wouldn’t hurt.

She does not recommend potatoes, brussel spouts, or green beans, but cranberries should be on the table with bread and butter baked in the oven. Gribble adds cornbread to her table with help from her grandmother.

“I love cornbread … my gramma makes them in hearts … and stars, diamonds,” said Gribble.

She advises to add both pumpkin and apple pie to the table, but don’t eat too much — you could get a stomach ache or ruin your teeth. Mom cleans up with Gribble and her siblings.

Colten Quaghebauer’s Thanksgiving advice is short and sweet, as he is not familiar with making Thanksgiving dinner, but he hopes to bring something back home after hunting.

“We know we’re going hunting, but we don’t know if we’re going to get a turkey, or anything like that,” he said.

Quaghebauer says if they don’t get a turkey hunting, someone will bring one over to his house. Besides turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and bread are items he recommends, but he doesn’t know how any of it is made.

He doesn’t recommend making any pie, but people should provide a variety of options to drink.

“I don’t like any fruits or vegetables, but I will eat a tiny bit of apples,” he said.

Dad will clean up the kitchen.

Evelyn Orth suggests turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. A turkey can be purchased from the store of your choice. To prepare it, put it in the oven and wait for a little while, check on it sometimes, and bring the turkey out when you think it is done.

Orth advises adding mashed potatoes and gravy. She doesn’t have advice on making the potatoes, but she knows how to make gravy.

“I buy a jar and put it in the oven,” said Orth.

Cranberries are alright, but stuffing is not a good idea.

“Stuffing … how gross. I don’t want to eat that ever,” she said.

If someone insists on having dressing though, that would be alright after it is heated up a little bit and they can put it on whatever they want to. Broccoli is found on Orth’s table after it is cooked with red flakes that make it sweet.

When it comes to dessert, her grandmother would be the person to talk to about making a pumpkin pie.

“She never buys it from the store, she makes it,” said Orth. “I think she gets pumpkin and she has crust and she puts the pumpkin in the crust … and she puts cream in it and I like it with cream on it.”

Wash it all down with water, milk, or lemonade. Uncle Matt and Auntie will clean up, and everyone helps.

Oliver VandeWiele is eager to share his information with everyone about cooking. He has watched a lot of meals prepared. Both turkey and ham should be on the Thanksgiving table. VandeWiele recommends cooking the ham on a charcoal grill for 10 hours.

“(I) love grilling out. It’s cool,” said VandeWiele.

He advises that if you want to cook a turkey on the grill to cut it in half.

“I would cut it in half … ’cause it would be too big,” he said.

VandeWiele recommends mashed potatoes — because sweet potatoes are too sweet — green beans, broccoli, pumpkin and apple pie, and gravy on meatballs.

“That’s another Thanksgiving food. Take the beef out and roll it together and put it on my old pan — it’s old, and we put it in our old oven, that’s old too, ’cause our house is old,” said VandeWiele.

Wait for 102 minutes for the meatballs to cook in a 10 degree oven. He advises everyone to drink orange juice, chocolate milk, milk, and apple juice. VandeWiele doesn’t like cleaning too much, but he will do the cleaning.

“I will clean with wet wipes, and the smell good wipes, and the cleaning products like Windex and some OxyClean and I would use kitty litter for the cat,” he said.

Xochitl Gutierrez will have a lot of food on a long table with many members of her family for Thanksgiving this year. Instead of turkey, she suggests chicken for the main course. Her grandmother is going to teach her how to cook the meal this year.

“We get two or four chickens,” said Gutierrez. “And we warm them up in the microwave.”

After cooking the chickens in the microwave oven for two to four minutes she suggests to cool them down for a little amount of time, and then warm them up a little, because she cooks the chicken hot. She suggests pumpkin pie for dessert.

“You add pumpkin seeds to it and make it in the oven,” she advised. “My grandma makes it like a cake, it’s melted and it’s so good.”

Other choices she suggests are gravy, mashed potatoes, and hamburger — with ketchup, pickles, and cheese. Gutierrez advises warm juice for a drink during the good feast.

Liam Langenfeld recommends eating turkey or venison for Thanksgiving — it’s your choice.

“I usually don’t eat meat. All I eat is deer meat,” said Langenfeld.

He is unsure about cooking a turkey and questions whether the feathers should be taken off or not. When cooking, venison Langenfeld advises to dress it first.

“Cut the legs off, then you cut the head off, and the tail and everything like that,” he said. “Then you put the body … in the oven and you cook it and then start eating it.”

Langenfeld suggests adding raw carrots, green beans made from his school, cherry cake, and apple juice to the Thanksgiving meal.

Roxanna West suggests chicken for Thanksgiving along with potatoes and bread, apples, any kind of cookies and vanilla ice cream for dessert. West suggests topping carrots with ranch dressing.

After eating, West recommends shopping at Wal-Mart because they have everything there, except for a car.

“But there are other places to get a car, because cars are outside,” said West.

Landon Clausen has witnessed his grandma make a Thanksgiving meal in previous years and now she’s up in heaven he says, so his mom will be making the meal this year. Clausen figures it would be better if people asked her how to cook.

He does suggest adding corn on the cob, carrots, strawberries, raspberries, and apples to the table. No meat should be served. Mashed potatoes and gravy should be a side, as well as sweet potatoes. Refried beans with chips should be served on the side too, and no pie. Clausen would like his family to drink wine during their meal and shop after.

“I would rather say they drink some wine … red wine,” he said. “We go shopping … in the afternoon and when we pull up everyone is there.”

Clausen uses the broom and washes tables to clean up.

Landin Dubord’s Thanksgiving tips come from watching his mother and father cook. He says people can cook a turkey in a grill or oven.

“I like the grill,” said Dubord. “Because dad makes the best turkey dinner in the grill. It’s the best.”

Cook the turkey in the grill for two minutes, and watch it to make sure it doesn’t catch on fire. For sides Dubord says to have mashed potatoes.

“My mom gets a potato and then she peels off the skin and then she smooshes it into a pan and all of a sudden she cooks it and then it turns smashed potatoes,” said Dubord. “My grandma is a chef. She’s good at making stuff.”

He loves her cookies and says she makes the best.

Ava Cretens recommends baked chicken for Thanksgiving. She suggests to bake it in the oven for 10 minutes at seven degrees. The bones should stay inside the chicken to keep it together while baking. Cretens doesn’t like sticky chicken and says no vegetables are allowed.

“It doesn’t come with that,” she said.

Fruit is alright: pears and grapes — but don’t cook them. Chocolate cake should top off the meal with milk.

Cretens said to make the cake people should get cake batter, mix it up and put it in the oven and top the cake with frosting.

“Six minutes … one degree and 10 scoops of frosting,” she said.

Levi Young enjoys a good Thanksgiving dinner at his grandma’s and papa’s. While there, he reads books and plays games with family.

Young suggests buying a ham, take the wrapping off, put it on a big plate, and after taking it out of a warm-hot oven put ketchup on it. He’s not sure how long it should bake — he’ll have to ask his mom.

“Usually my mom just presses a button and it goes … 30 minutes,” Young says.

Some vegetables and fruit are included on his menu and many different desserts. Wash it all down with milk or water.

Cameron Schmidt advises to go to a restaurant for Thanksgiving and have turkey pie.

“A turkey pie bakes for eight minutes, higher than 16 degrees … 58 degrees,” said Schmidt.

She suggests to have cold broccoli and candy, and chocolate ice cream before going shopping.

Jackson Izzard says turkey is the meat of choice for him on Thanksgiving. Along with turkey he suggests butter, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and small carrots as sides. No desserts would be on Izzard’s table and along with the meal milk would be served.

Bradon Doan suggests turkey for a Thanksgiving meal, with no other sides, but chocolate milk and fruit juice.

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