The beauty of a destination Thanksgiving is you get to go off-piste a little bit with the fixings. Nobody is going to fault you for cutting a few corners when you are hours away from home in an unfamiliar kitchen.  Our family spent the Thanksgiving-before-last in the Sacred Valley in Peru. It was strange to not sit down to a table full of turkey, mashed potatoes and pie. But it was also refreshing to savor the feelings of the season—gratitude, warmth and love—without any of the stress of meal preparation. 

Thanksgiving at Happy Cabin is an excuse to sample local fare rather than tire over a hot stove.  Make your favorite dishes if you’d like, but why not fill in the blanks with local specialties?  With all of that time you save, you can raid the board-game cabinet, snuggle up in front of the fire with a good book, or soak in the hot tub.  And still feast.

Here are our top picks for local delicacies to round out your Thanksgiving fare:

turkey

If you are craving the traditional Thanksgiving main, try an organic turkey from New Moon Natural Foods in Tahoe City.  Grab some fresh produce for your sides and salads while you’re at it. Order your turkey a week in advance.

fish

For a less traditional protein, pick up some fresh fish or lobster from Morgan’s Lobster Shack & Fish Market in Truckee.  Alaskan Halibut, King Salmon, Ahi Tuna, and Maine Lobster were recently on offer, though availability can vary based on the catch.

sides

Get your sides at Mountain Valley Meats in Truckee.  Try the sausage stuffing, prepared with in-house sausage, the roasted carrot and parsnip puree, or the brussel sprouts and bacon.

pie

For dessert, pick up a traditional pumpkin pie, peach double-crust pie, or even Sid’s Turtle Pie (pecan crust, chocolate ganache filling, caramel and sea salt) at Sugar Pine Cakery in Tahoe City. Locally made from scratch with fresh ingredients, you can’t go wrong with cakes, pies, tarts, cinnamon rolls, and pastry at this small but mighty bakery tucked into the Lake Forest Glen neighborhood, about a 15 minute drive from Happy Cabin. Vegan and gluten-free options make it easy to accommodate even the trickiest diets. Pies are made to order with 72-hours notice.

cranberry sauce

The local shops will have fresh sauce in the deli cases, but if you are cooking a few things anyway, this is a dish worth making from scratch. This easy recipe for “perfect cranberry sauce,” adapted from the Food Network, will make the cabin smell festive and leave you with a pungent, sweet sauce for spooning over your holiday meal. The original recipe uses twice as much sugar. I recommend starting like this, and adding more if you need it. For a little more citrus, substitute half the water for orange juice.

Ingredients:

12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 strip orange or lemon zest
2 tablespoons water
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Preparation:

Place all but a 1/2 cup of the fresh, rinsed cranberries in a saucepan. Add sugar, orange or lemon zest and water to the pan and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the cranberries are soft, about 10 minutes. Increase the heat to medium and cook until the cranberries burst, about 12 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the remaining cranberries. Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or cold. It’s delicious either way.

the whole meal…

If you really want to relax, leave the cooking and clean-up to the pros. Several local restaurants serve traditional Thanksgiving dinners, including the Ritz-Carlton, Gar Woods, Jakes on the Lake, and Granlibakken Tahoe. Make your reservations a few weeks in advance.

To visit Happy Cabin during your trip to North Lake Tahoe / Tahoe Vista / Kings Beach, click here.