Cameron Cooks In Chaos: Kid Friendly Thanksgiving Recipes

It’s Thanksgiving this Thursday.  I’m going to cook a few recipes that the kids really like. I’m not good at roasting a turkey.   Last year I put the turkey in at 9 am, I was so stressed out at how long it would take to roast.  I thought it would cook all day. We were planning on eating dinner at 2, and I thought this was good timing.  The turkey was done by noon – it was only a 9 lb turkey, and there was no little plastic thing that would pop up – so I pull it out of the oven, it was done by NOON – and I put tinfoil on it to keep it warm and threw it back in the oven at 2 pm to have it hot for guests!

This year I have a 13 lb turkey and I’m a little smarter about turkeys.  I think, I’m not sure. I think I’ll use a oven roasting bag and follow the directions for a change!

I like to be able to visit with people while dinner cooks, I don’t like to get all intensive in the kitchen, plus I’m chasing babies and toddlers around…

These are my kid’s holiday favorites:

Slow Simmered Cranberry Sauce

1 bag of raw cranberries

about 1/2 cup orange juice

about 1/4 cup maple syrup (or raw honey)

Put everything in a small saucepan and put it on a slow simmer for a few hours – it will turn into a yummy amazingness of jellied cranberry sauce.

Mashers

2 heads of cauliflower

Break the cauliflowers into florets and steam until tender.  Then mix with some coconut (or other kind of milk) with either potatoe masher (that’s what I do) a hand mixer or a food processor.  My family likes it a little chunky. Season with sea salt and black pepper.

My Famous Gravy

The ONE food I was ridiculously picky about as a child was gravy.  My mom made gravy from scratch and she made it look easy.  I was appalled to discover that in many homes, they ate instant gravy!  Packaged powders, jarred brown stuff – what a travesty! As a kid, if we had Thanksgiving at a friends house, I would go to the kitchen and inspect for signs of packaged or instant gravy.  If I found evidence of what I deemed gravy disaster, I would go to the host and DEMAND in no uncertain terms that my mother take over the kitchen and produce my favorite gravy, not caring what kind of social stress that caused my mother.  But, for real, instant gravy is all kinds of just WRONG.  Here’s how I make it in my house:

Up to 4 cups of broth or stock, preferably from the turkey

Bring this to a simmer.

Once it’s simmering, whisk together canned coconut milk – just like a 1/2 cup  – and then slowly add 1/4 cup brown rice flour to the milk  and whisk to combine throughly, it should be thick.  Then you SLOWLY add this mixture to the simmering stock.  Season it with an all purpose herb seasoning, and add sea salt and black pepper to taste.

In this recipe, the coconut milk really does make a difference as opposed to other milks.  It thickens it up real well.