Holiday food evokes a certain comfiness in my brain. So many of my childhood memories are so strongly associated with food, that a simple whiff of gravy (albeit from a jar) makes me feel like a kid again. Comfort foods define this time of year. Not only do they fill your tummy, but they embrace you like your favorite childhood blanket.
The thing about Thanksgiving foods is there are so many that are naturally appealing to toddlers (and puree nicely for those without teeth.) I'm not going to tell you what to cook, because I think planning your family's holiday meals is a personal decision. The very fact that I demand the Stouffer's Stove Top Stuffing of my childhood over whatever gourmet version my mother makes this year, proves this point (very embarassingly). I am, however, going to tell you the story of my apple pie.
Nothing quite reminds me of Thanksgiving as much as apple pie.
In eighth grade I took a Home Economics class at school. By "Home Economics", I really mean we learned how to scramble eggs and make a pie. That year, for Thanksgiving, I told my mother that I was going to bake pies. My mother is fantastic cook, however, baking is not her passion. Regardless, I decided we were going to have a homemade desert for Thanksgiving. I made everything from scratch. I purchased a pastry cutter to make the pie crust; I peeled bags of apples; I intricately decorated the crust exactly as my teacher had. I wish we had iPhones and Instagram back then, because that pie was beautiful. My family ate the pie, and I was happy. In future years, I upped the ante and made multiple pies. In the interest of time, I decided to buy the Pillsbury dough frozen. No one noticed that my love and effort weren't in the dough, my family ate the pie, and I was happy. As the years went by, Thanksgiving desert became "my thing". Every year my father still tells me that he can pick up a pumpkin cheesecake from Costco, and I try to explain the love and effort that goes into my pies.
Last year, with my 11 month old daughter in tow, that love and effort hit a major snag. I put Chuck on the floor of the kitchen, gave her some kitchen things to play with, and started rolling out my dough. I quickly realized that baking a pie was not going to be easy to do one-handed with my attention divided. As I was trying to get my beautiful homemade, handmade pie into the oven, I tripped over one of the measuring cups that she was playing with on the floor, dropping the pie, and breaking the pie plate. Shocked, I sat on the floor temporarily defeated. Then, I did what any new-mom would do: I pulled myself together and I faked it. I pulled a Pillsbury dough out of the freezer, filled it with pre-made apple-pie-filling, decorated it with my piecrust cutters, and showed up at Grandma's house. I didn't lie, or pretend that I baked it from scratch, and no one really seemed to care. My family still ate the pie, and I was happy.
This year, to keep myself Martha-organized, I have developed a little survival plan of my own. It is my hopes that these tips will help me prepare my meal with as little frustration as possible.
With that said, I now pass on my second thanksgiving survival tip: be prepared and plan some fun in your menu! Play with your food! You may be able to host a Thanksgiving feast of blog worthy proportions, however, right now, you are just trying to survive Thanksgiving with a couple of fun stories to share with your Grandchildren.
Enlist the help of a tiny kitchen assistant (and some adult ones)
On the cusp of two years old, Chuck is definitely joining me in the kitchen this year! I hope to enlist her unique skill set to help me crumble up crackers for the stuffing. Given the right task, toddlers can make great kitchen helpers. They can assist in giving veggies and fruit a "pre-rinse". Toddlers also find cleaning up a lot of fun! Chuck is great at picking teeny tiny things off the floor, and wiping surfaces clean (her innerMartha would be proud).
This year, when an amazing friend asked what she could bring to Thanksgiving Dinner, I happily texted back "desert." Though I still love to make pie magic happen every Thanksgiving, I always welcome help. I hope that one year, Chuck will take up an interest in pie baking, and the pie-making torch can be passed on.
Plan for accidents
Knowing I have a back-up plan makes me slightly less anxious about things going wrong. When I am purchasing the ingredients to make Thanksgiving magic, I always buy a few extra. I figure the worst-case-scenario is that I wind up with frozen pie crust in my freezer, and the possibility of a fake-n-bake pie in my future. As my pie was hitting the floor that Thanksgiving Eve, I was concocting a back-up plan. I knew I had extras of all the ingredients used in my now splattered pie, so i had all it would take to fake-n-bake another pie. What, me panic? I think not!
Play with your food
For Thanksgiving, my "innerMartha" says that you should play with your food. There is nothing formal about hosting toddlers at the Thanksgiving table (and I'm pretty sure Martha would be OK with that). I had a great time making a "fruit turkey" with my niece last year! There are so many fun food creations to make for or with your kid!
Follow our Pinterest Board if you need a little inspiration!
Remember, you are feeding your family and friends around the same table, and that is what matters most.
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