Preparing a Thanksgiving dinner is a huge job.

Monday, November 20, 2000

Preparing a Thanksgiving dinner is a huge job. The kindergarten through second-grade students at St. Isidore’s Catholic School four miles west of Bixby have some cooking tips on how to prepare the turkey, stuffing, cranberries and pumpkin pie.

Their teacher is Jenny Iverson and she teaches the three combined grades. Most of the students live in rural settings and they all agreed the first thing one has to do is catch a turkey.

"When you catch the turkey, you first have to get the feathers off it, then you cut it, stuff it, put it in the oven and eat it," second-grader Kaci Kremer explained.

Spencer Jones, another second-grader went into more detail of how to clean a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner: "When you find a turkey, pull out the bad stuff."

"Yeah," second-grader Conner Robinson chimed in, "the bad stuff like the guts."

"Oh yeah," Spencer agreed. "Then put a stick under the turkey to hold it up."

"But you got to put a fire underneath the turkey," Conner Robinson added.

"Right, you need 11 matches to start the fire," Spencer Jones said. "Then when the fire is going you boil the turkey on a metal spit."

"I would turn the handle and cook the turkey for 15 minutes. Then you can eat it," Conner Robinson finished.

These two youngsters must be going camping for Thanksgiving dinner.

Tayla Jones, Spencer’s twin sister didn’t quite agree with her brother’s method of preparing a turkey.

"When you find a turkey you kill it, take it home, then you cut it up and skin it," she said. "Turkey looks a little like chicken. Then you stuff it with stuffing, put it in a pan, and eat it."

Robert Deitz, a first-grader, said: "You can buy a turkey at the grocery store if you can’t catch one. The turkeys in the store are usually frozen. My dad puts the turkey in hot water and then sticks it in the microwave to thaw it out."

The 5- through 8-year olds couldn’t agree on how long it takes to cook a turkey.

Holly Vogt, 5, thought it would take nine hours to cook a turkey. Most of the girls in the class agreed with her while the boys in the class thought it would take between 15 minutes to a half-hour.

The children all agreed the turkey should have stuffing in it. They weren’t sure what stuffing was made of.

Adam Miller, a second-grader, said: "There is rice in stuffing."

Kaci Kremer gave her recipe for stuffing: "Take mayonnaise, put water in it, a little rice, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper and put this all in the turkey."

The size of the turkey they were going to eat couldn’t be decided on either. Most of the children thought the turkey they would be eating for Thanksgiving dinner would weigh 100 pounds. However, it was pointed out that none of them weighed 100 pounds. Kindergartner Julia Borcherdt said: "Then the turkey must weigh between 1 and 20 pounds, if it doesn’t weigh 100."

The favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner they all agreed on was the pumpkin pie.

First-grader Timmy Donnelly described how to make pumpkin pie: "Take a pumpkin, cut it, take the seeds out, put the seeds in a bowl, take the pumpkin stuff out, then take stuff to make it taste good."

Franklin Klecker, a first-grader said: "I think there are eggs in pumpkin pie."

"Yeah," Timmy Donnelly agreed, "there is flour in it, too, and cinnamon. You have to make a dough and then let it rise."

"You know you can just buy a pie," Conner Robinson said.

Franklin Klecker, Spencer Jones and Holly and Hannah Vogt nodded in agreement that buying a pie was a lot better than going to all a the trouble of making one.

None of the students knew how to prepare cranberries, but Kaci Kremer must be a gardener because she said: "Plant the cranberries, and watch them bloom."