Toasted turkey? Kids Thanksgiving recipes

Carrie Stetler By Carrie Stetler The Star-Ledger
on November 25, 2008 at 9:56 AM, updated October 05, 2009 at 3:08 PM
If kids ran Thanksgiving, the turkey would be cooked for ten minutes. Or fifty hours. Depends. AP Photo
You wouldn't want to try 5-year-old Isabella Imperati's turkey recipe.

"Cook in the oven at eight degrees for eight minutes," she instructs.

Her side dish of corn soup sounds better.

For eight years, kindergarten teacher Kate Washington of Mount Tabor School in Parsippany has been collecting Thanksgiving recipes from her pupils.

The suggestions include popping the bird in a toaster oven, with bubble gum as a side dish and monster truck fruit snacks for dessert. Some helpfully point out that you should kill the turkey first.

"You wouldn't want to eat it alive," cautioned one child.

"They have a lot of knowledge at that age, and they can sound really authoritative, but what they perceive is not always accurate," says Washington. "It's cute."

She interviews each child for the cookbook, asking them to pretend they're famous chefs and prompting them for instructions and ingredients.

Washington hasn't finished this year's book yet, but here are some recipes from a previous class:

Put the turkey in five cups of salt and chicken nuggets and some pepper. Cook in a toaster for five minutes. Serve with white bread, Arthur juice and chocolate milk. Gogurt for dessert.

-- George Kagous

Put turkey in a 20-degree oven for 50 hours with syrup and sugar. Serve with macaroni and cheese. Brownies for dessert.

-- Tammy Tang

For the turkey, put in two teaspoons of cheese, two teaspoons of boiling water, let it sit for seven minutes in the microwave. Serve with: NOT mashed potatoes (I hate them), chicken nuggets, pears and pineapple. For dessert, a really big birthday cake with lots of ice cream.

-- Liam Andersen

Put the turkey in a six-degree oven for 10 minutes and when you take it out it's chicken! Serve with coffee, oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, dinosaur chicken nuggets and applesauce. Dessert: Batman cereal and fruit snacks.

-- Alex Qassis

For the turkey, put eggs in a pot, mix them up, put sugar on it. Put it in a 10-degree oven for five minutes, put on some applesauce and sprinkles. For dessert, whipped chocolate pie with sprinkles on top.

-- Ikenna Mbah

Put the turkey in a pan with pepper and a little salt, put it in a toaster for 20 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes, pasta, macaroni and cheese, pineapple, cucumbers and grapes. For dessert, chocolate cake, cupcakes and apple crisp.

-- Julia Signorelli

Go out for dinner! Drink water and have pizza with onions. For dessert, celery and tomatoes.

-- Vaidehi Patel

Put turkey in a pan with some bones, pizza seasoning and crispy sauce, microwave for 20 minutes. Serve with rice and beans and sauce, bread with gravy, mangoes and pig. For dessert, crunch cake, ice cream and cupcakes.

-- Gaven Martung

For the turkey, pull off feathers, put on ketchup and microwave for 50 minutes. Serve with lettuce around it and a stick like when my dad gets a sandwich (toothpick). Also, mustard, celery, macaroni and cheese, chicken, hamburgers. Dessert is ice cream, brownies and some monster truck fruit snacks.

-- Alphonse Huss