Apple Turkeys

The Thanksgiving Craft You Can Eat

Top down and heater blasting in our new 1969 white Chevy Impala convertible, open can of Pabst Blue Ribbon nestled safely between his legs, my dad would drive me and my sister Hilary from our house in the Castro to Stella Bakery in North Beach to pick up the dessert for Thanksgiving. 

“Gobble! Gobble!” my dad would lead the call as we yelled from the car at anyone we saw along the way. After picking up the Sacripantina cake at Stella Pastry, there would be the inevitable stop for “just a minute” at Gino & Carlo’s on Green Street or Cookie’s on Kearny Street, where we would be treated to Shirley Temples and play dominoes while my dad, a journalist, and editor of the radical magazine Scanlan’s, offered a T-day round to whoever was at the bar.

He enjoyed the escape from my mom’s list of Things To Do before a hoard of family and friends arrived for the holiday meal. She would always roast a monstrous turkey that barely fit in the oven, the black and white squared floor of our big kitchen filled later with the feet of the many cooking generals in my family. 

We were at the “kids’ table,” perched on the edge of the dining room and free to eat and roam and eavesdrop as we pleased. We would play tag around the house with cousins and the children of grown-ups we didn’t know. When it came time to sit down and eat, my mom gave up something to do so the grown-ups could get on with their important chatting, drinking, and eating uninterrupted: Apple Turkeys.

My daughter Simone, aged 7, with her Turkey Apple.

Apple Turkeys were a perfect craft to keep us occupied. I don’t know if my mom invented them or was given the tip from another parent at Presidio Hill School, our progressive elementary school. She would make a pile of apples, raisins, and mini marshmallows in the middle of the table and ask me to watch the younger kids so they didn’t try to eat the toothpicks. And then they (the grownups) would leave us alone to work it all out for ourselves.

Three decades later I resurrected this craft with my own kids who were equally taken with building tails out of toothpicks and eating the mini-marshmellows while building their turkeys.

Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble! Gobble!

Turkey Apple closeup. Gobble! Gobble!

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Apple Turkeys

INGREDIENTS

• Apples (1 for each turkey)

• 1 box raisins

• 1 bag mini-marshmallows

• Toothpicks

• (Optional: yellow raisins, dried cranberries, or other dried fruits)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Take 4 toothpicks and make legs for your turkey. (Children under 4 may need help to do this.)

2. Use toothpicks to create a “tail” on the backside of the turkey by inserting them at all the same depth in a fan pattern. Leave enough room between picks to decorate each pick with a mix of dried fruit and mini-marshmallows.

3. Break a toothpick in half and decorate with raisins for eyes.

Note: Small children should be supervised.  They may not have the motor skills or hand strength to insert the toothpicks, and well, kids and toothpicks.