Thanksgiving. There is no more delicious sounding word in any food-filled American year. It conjures memories of my favorite cranberry jelly, slid straight from the vessel and sliced along the can’s very own rings. Buttery, homemade stuffing will be doused with mom’s own giblet gravy, which snuggles up against velvety smooth, cream-filled mashed potatoes. The very word Thanksgiving, to me, means leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast and reason to break out the good bubbly. Dinner is an endeavor that should take all day, not only to prepare, but also to eat. Spending hours upon hours in the kitchen is what I love most about the day and lingering for hours around the dinner table with family and friends is what is very best about the meal itself. Well, that and the homemade Parker House rolls. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!
The best of Wine Country’s holiday food provisioners
The Friday farmer’s market will thankfully be held on Tuesday, November 26, of Thanksgiving week. Here, you will surely find all the essential ingredients for your family’s feast: from gorgeous Paul’s Produce lettuces, delicate fennel, super sweet carrots, and fragrant herbs, to perfect Patch green beans and just-dug potatoes, beautiful root vegetables from Quarter Acre Farm, and Oak Hill Farm’s winter squash, leafy winter greens, or their spectacular fall flower arrangements. While you’re there, be sure to grab heavenly breads from Mike {the bejkr.}
If you miss the Tuesday market, and would like to procure gorgeous vegetables, flowers or wreaths for your holiday fête, the Oak Hill Farm Red Barn Store is open on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.
Still in need of vegetables? Venture slightly over the hill to Petaluma’s Greenstring Farm where you can stock up for the holidays on dozens of varieties of winter squash, gorgeous just-laid eggs, a plethora of herbs, potatoes, beans, and more. Greenstring Farm is located at 3571 Old Adobe Road, in Petaluma. Call 778.7500 for more information.
Our ever reliable, Sonoma Market, is taking orders now for turkeys, the best of which come from purveyors which support the local, free-range, and sustainably farmed credo. Of course, Sonoma Market has the area’s most perfect Dungeness crabs, dry-aged roasts, and a massive selection of cheeses and all the other Thanksgiving necessities. Call Sonoma Market at 996.3411 to place your order.
Whole Foods’ Holiday Menu is literally a catalog of scrumptious goodies that will help make your holiday not only way easier, but way more delicious. The selections range from complete, prepared feasts including roasted turkey, ham, or beef with every side dish, sauce, bread, dessert, and hors d’ oeuvres imaginable. An entire, lavish sounding, vegan dinner and gluten-free dessert and bread options are also available! Each item can be ordered a la carte, as well. Highlights include platters of beautiful, sustainable, smoked fish, the build-your-own baked brie, yeasty rosemary pull-apart rolls, and the bakery’s own brown butter walnut pie. Visit the market’s special holiday table to order, or call 938.8500. See the complete selection of holiday offerings at wholefoodsmarket.com
My favorite temple of all things meaty and beautiful, the Fatted Calf in Napa’s Oxbow Marketplace, is now accepting orders for heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. From Hudson Ranch and the Good Shepard Ranch, these super special, heirloom breeds are raised naturally and lovingly. Here, be sure to also grab the house schmaltz for your Matzoh balls, bags of heirloom grains, true wild rice, and handcrafted charcuterie. Visit the Fatted Calf Charcuterie, downtown Napa, at 644 First Street or call 256.3684 for more information.
Sheana Davis’ Plaza shop, the Epicurean Connection, is the ideal source for all of your holiday hors d’oeuvres and foodie hostess gifts. Her selection of artisan American cheeses, all hand cut, is by far the best in town. She will happily assist you in putting together an impressive cheese board, complete with the perfect accoutrements and even which of her selection of locally made crackers would be best. 122 West Napa Street, 935.7960.
Pre-order Chef Todd Humphries’ delectable sourdough stuffing, peppercorn gravy, roasted root vegetables, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, famous mushroom soup, individual pumpkin cheesecake, or a whole dinner for four with a fresh, brined and roasted turkey with all the fixings from Napa’s Kitchen Door! Visit Kitchendoornapa.com for the complete menu or call 226.1560 to order or for more information.
Sonoma’s Best is the place to pop into for amazing values on local and imported wines, house-made soups, gelato, and festive appetizers that range from herb marinated olives to Sonoma County cheeses and even Della Fattoria’s spectacular breads. The peaceful shop is the ideal place to pick up last minute goodies to avoid the holiday craziness around town, especially whole sipping one of their Blue Bottle lattes. 1190 E. Napa Street, 996.7600.
At Crisp Bakeshop, you must linger over a heavenly, dark chocolate mocha while picking up your hand-made Thanksgiving desserts. The team there uses only the finest local ingredients to produce outrageously beautiful holiday sweets that include layer cakes in flavors such as chocolate-pecan-bourbon, pear spice cake with ginger filling and vanilla bean-buttercream frosting, and pumpkin with a salted caramel buttercream frosting. Pies are amazing, no doubt, baked in traditional flavors with gorgeous ingredients. The choices include good old pumpkin with bourbon and maple and a cranberry-apple with fresh and dried fruit. Please place orders by Saturday, November 23 by calling 933.9999 or emailing koko@crispbakeshop.com.
I am obsessed with Petaluma’s Della Fattoria bakery. Every item made here is more mind-blowing than the last. When I received their holiday list, I ran straight to the phone to order probably way too many Parker House rolls. The bakery also is taking special orders for pecan, pumpkin, and apple pies, cinnamon roll rounds, old fashioned coffee cake, and bag of stuffing using their ridiculously good breads. Call 763.0161 or kim@dellafattoria.com.
What I am drinking now: Whole Food Juices
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massive cooler tucked into the corner of Whole Foods’ produce department now sports what seems like an endless selection of colorful, just-pressed juices. Fruits and vegetables are being squeezed in-house and bottled in cheery, single serving containers with cheeky names like ‘Fog Cutter’ and ‘Alternative Fuel.’ Many of the juices are begging to be mixed into rum-based cocktails or splashed into oversized glass bowls of holiday punch, but I got the wise idea to launch a four day, pre-holiday juice cleanse ingesting not much more than a handful of the juices. I was on a work trip to Philadelphia — yes, I packed them in my suitcase — and excited to start day one with a green concoction, not much more than parsley, cabbage, and celery. A zingy, throat tingling, ginger-filled carrot juice was on the menu for day two. The morning began innocently enough, the day-glow orange liquid tasted delightful and seemed to course through my veins, depositing an abundance of vitamins and energy into my system. And then? A porky bowl of ramen happened. And then Shanghai soup dumplings. Oh, and a Tsingtao. On the way home, there was hazelnut gelato but, in my defense, it was supposedly the worlds best. My food hangover was somewhat relieved by a slightly earthy tasting beet juice that tasted of dirt going down, but I strangely still loved. I was starving again on day four and heading home thankfully. Another combination of green juices constituted breakfast; the flavor a bright, but somewhat watery, but super healthy tasting mixture. Home could not have been a happier sight, particularly when I dug into my first Dungeness crab of the season, complete with a blob of my homemade Meyer lemon mayonnaise and a bottle of Gloria Ferrer. I would like to consider another multi-day dosage of Whole Foods‘ juices, but think I may add a splash or two of rum to cheer them up a bit.
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