The Fork

Get Your Turkey On

Have you reserved your Thanksgiving turkey yet? Hint: If you hate turkey get 1 pound per person. If you want leftovers for the house, think 1.5 pounds. If you want to send everyone home with leftovers, plan on 2 pounds per person. Seriously, can you have too much turkey?

Now, for where to get it. Check out the Pollo Real booth at the Santa Fe Farmers' Market this Saturday and next Tuesday for pasture-raised heritage turkeys (also turkey broth). Kaune's is selling fresh Amish-raised turkeys from Minneosta. Sprouts sells organic and non-organic turkeys. La Montanita Co-op has Mary's Organic turkeys and local Embudo Valley organic birds coming in on Friday. Trader Joe's offers organic turkeys, kosher turkeys and brined birds (above).  Whole Foods has a range of organic, kosher and natural turkeys.

Looking for a bottle of New Mexico wine for Thanksgiving dinner or for holiday gifts? Check out the Holiday Bottle Sale tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 18) 4-6 pm at the Santa Fe Farmers Market. You can taste wines from 10 local producers—including Gruet, Black Mesa Winery, Ponderosa Valley Vineyards and Vivac Winery—along with several local hard ciders on tap. Other local food companies, including Cheesemongers of Santa Fe and La Lecheria, will be tasting their products, too. Tickets cost $15 in advance or $20 at the door

Did you know that you could also pick up Thanksgiving dinner to go?

La Casa Sena offers a take-home Thanksgiving dinner with enough food for 8-10. There are three different meal options. For $170 you get a 16-18-pound red chile-glazed turkey with buttermilk whipped potatoes, blue corn stuffing, green chile gravy, spaghetti squash, cranberry sauce and a trio of steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. The $185 dinner includes 1/2 leg of lamb and 1/2 turkey with similar sides, but an upgrade to truffled mashed potatoes. The $200 dinner comes with a 7-pound bone-in leg of lamb and the veggies get an upgrade to garlic parmesan sweet peas and carrots. You can pick them up on Thanksgiving Day from 11-1 pm. All dinners come with a choice of pie. The cool thing about La Casa Sena is that, because it has a package license, it also offers three wines paired with the meals. They're about $20 each or $50 for all three.

Inn of the Anasazi also offers a whole dinner ($140 feeds 4-5 people) or individual items a la carte. The meal includes pumpkin soup, a 12-16-pound organic turkey with green chile stuffing, Brussels sprouts, sweet potato gratin, heirloom carrots, cranberry sauce, pecan pie and a cranberry tart. Individual items cost $20 each. You can pick them up on Wednesday or Thursday.

Whole Foods offers cooked turkeys and whole take-out meals, too.

In this week's paper I highlighted some of the amazing dinners that local restaurants and hotels are serving on Thanksgiving Day. I have a few extras to add, including 315 Restaurant and Wine Bar, which is offering a $55 prix-fixe menu. Highlights include a starter of winter squash soup with chestnuts, nutmeg, pepita crepe and sage crema. 315 also has a kid's meal available.

Estevan at Hotel Chimayo has a four-course menu with organic turkey, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, maple-glazed carrots and green beans. It's $70 for adults and $35 for kids 12 and younger.

L'Olivier is serving its regular menu on Thanksgiving, along with a straightforward Thanksgiving plate including turkey, gravy, cranberry relish, piñon stuffing, green beans, acorn squash and mashed potatoes ($28). There's also a special dessert of pumpkin crème brulee with caramelized pecans ($9).


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