The Fork: Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving, Fork Frenz!

Hey Fork Frenz, it's us—The Fork. Happy Thanksgiving. We think this is one of the weirdest holidays of all time, and while we think there's a lot to say about the whole Natives-were-glad-the-Europeans-arrived narrative (which is hogwash), we do like the part where we take a second to think about that for which we are thankful.

For example? We're thankful for all y'all. We get to write our weird little food newsletters every week, and that's only because you dorks keep reading them.

We're also thankful to live in a world where we can eat ham for Thanksgiving. Turkey sucks, buds. Sorry, but it's dry and tastes weird and then you have to deal with eating it for weeks after the fact. Sometimes the whole going-through-the-motions thing of holidays wears us down, but we're still thankful that we're OK enough socioeconomically speak that we can choose between ham and turkey. Oh, and btw, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's have some bitchin' fully-cooked hams in case you can't bring yourself to go through the whole thing.

Still, turkey remains the most popular T-Day item, and the USDA estimates that Americans will eat about 46 million of those bad boys this week. Dang. That's a lot of dry-ass bird.

We're weirdly thankful for cranberries, too. Did you know that their sojourn to America dates back to colonial times, and that we harvest them in this fun way that basically breaks down to flooding an area of land—because they float?! Yeah, cranberries grow in soil—y'know, like plants do—and it's just easier to harvest them by flooding their little zone and lettin' 'em float to the top. We just think that sounds kooky.

We also love us some mashed potatoes. We'd just eat those, really. Our trick to making them sooooo tasty? A generous amount of butter, some minced garlic, about a cup of 1/2 'n' 1/2 and just a little splash of oat milk. Oat milk is often slightly sweet, which interacts nicely with the garlic without dominating the flavor. Try it if you dare (it's good!).

We also like to make Brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving, because it's what the Belgians would want. Our trick for that one? Get your sprouts, toss 'em in a big bowl and pop in some olive oil, salt and pepper, the smallest dash of paprika and a bit of brown sugar. Swirl the bowl around to coat, then bake at 425 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Voila!

The biggest of all for your old pal The Fork, however, might be the pumpkin pie. Our dad was never a big sweets guy, but he took pumpkin pie very seriously (he probably still does since he's not dead), and what started out as our imitating him eventually morphed into us actually caring deeply about pumpkin pie. We'll level with you, though: None of the bakeries or grocery stores in town have very good pie, except for one—La Montañita Co-op has pumpie-p that's to die for (God, we can't wait for the letters about that cool "pumpie-p" term we just invented). Seriously, though, we had some the other night, and the melange of spices and textures were among the best we've ever tasted in the pies-our-mom-didn't-make category. We know that you're likely reading this at home and already have that stuff on hand, but if you're desperate, maybe see if they're open and pop by for pie?

We know that the world is really scary right now. Politics feel awful, the cops run amok and we live in a world where companies who make life-saving medicine are OK with you dying if you can't afford it. But like the proverbial thing about putting your own airplane oxygen mask on first so you can help others, the first step to doing cool shit is being well-fed and well-rested. We know that some folks will be alone this year, and we know that some folks have complicated relationships with their families. If you're able, however, to be with people you love, or if you're able to be warm or fed or whatever else, think about how good that feels sometimes and be thankful.

We want to close this week by asking our y'all to do us a favor—donate to a food bank near you. Yes, you can take food (and none of that canned bullshit or cereal without milk, ya jerks!), but nonprofits like Santa Fe's Food Depot and Albuquerque's Roadrunner Food Bank can stretch a dollar further than you ever will. We'll link their donation portals below. If you send us photographic proof that you did indeed donate, we'll do our best to rustle up some kind of thanks for all y'all. Happy Thanksgiving, ya Fork-a-Maniacs (TM). We love you.

BONUS FROM THE VAULT: We know most folks likely have all their food plans in motion, but if you find yourself needing a vegan mushroom gravy for any last-minute add-on guests, or just because, some stores are open for a little bit on Thanksgiving and you can throw this recipe together pretty easily. We first debuted this one in 2022, but we got some positive buzz around then, so do with it what thou wilt.

The Fork’s Vegan Mushroom Gravy

You’ll Need

  • 1 lb mushrooms (we recommend baby bella and shiitake—together at last!) You can do more, though
  • 1/4 cup olive oil...you can use vegan butter, but we’ve never found one that doesn’t make things taste weird
  • 1/3 cup flour—dealer’s choice, but all purpose is probably safest, ya maniacs
  • 4 cups mushroom broth, which you can get at the store, or you can make your own, which we won’t get into here, but the internet likely has a million recipes for that
  • Sea salt and black pepper—as much or as little as you like
  • Chopped thyme and rosemary, though a little more thyme than rosemary as the latter has a strong flavor profile

The Steps

  • Get to slicing your mushrooms to whatever thickness you like. #DownWithTheThickness.
  • Once they’re sliced, heat your olive oil over medium heat in, like, a pan...like, a pan you would use on your stove, y’know? Like, you maybe would make pancakes in it for breakfast? That kind of pan.
  • Toss just a pinch of salt in with the oil and dump them mushrooms all up in there. Keep ‘em simmering at medium heat until anything wet seems to have evaporated. This should take roughly 18 minutes—maybe a little more, maybe a little less.
  • Add the flour and continue to stir and simmer for about 3-5 more minutes.
  • Add a cup of your mushroom broth and then keep stirring that until everything comes together in a glorious, lump-free melange. You’ll notice it. Like, if you think, “Is this a little lumpy?” it just might be. This should take between 3-5 minutes total.
  • Once it looks good like that, slowly pour in the rest of the of the broth and mix it good. Toss in that thyme and rosemary and stir it good again.
  • Turn to medium-low and let simmer until it’s the thickness you like. Decide if you want more salt and/or pepper. It’ll thicken more, too, once it’s just sitting there in a thing on your counter later.

The end! See? Easy, right? We promise it’s good on potatoes and probably lots of other things. Except for a Field Roast. That thing is disgusting.

Also 

  • We've gotta hand it to the Santa Fe Foodies website for their list of local restaurants doing Thanksgiving service. Find that link here. We know some folks have thoughts about whether workers should have that day off or not, but remember that some people like working holidays (we did when we worked in foodservice because tippers were more generous) and it's totally OK to eat at a restaurant when it is open.
  • Over on the Santa Fe New Mexican site, writer Marianne Sundquist has quite a recipe for apple crisp, and while it can't possibly be as good for dessert as our vegan mushroom gravy, we just thought you should know. Check it out here.
  • If that's not enough apple dessert recipe for you, we stumbled acoss a 2020 recipe for brown sugar, dried apple, and pecan pie (that's the title, don't @ us) from celebrated local chef Johnny Vee. This recipe resides on the New Mexico Magazine site. Again, we know this Fork drops on Thanksgiving Day and you're probably knee-deep in stuff you planned, but these treats are good for anytime, dammit!
  • If you're already thinking about putting together a wine list for Christmas of Hanukkah, spots like Arroyo Vino have you covered. In fact, we just heard about a special December 2-pack deal featuring a 2019 Cab-Sauv from Heitz Cellars and a 2019 Cab-Sauv from Brendel Cooper's Reed. Of course, they've got all kinds of other deals, too, so you should click the link above or call or something. Also, in our experience, it doesn't get much more awesome service/selection-wise than at Susan's Fine Wine and Spirits. Seriously, they're among the most helpful folks in town and there is soooooo much to drink and learn.
  • That's it for local stuff because it's a holiday and you're likely busy. There will be no non-local section this week, so our little recipe up there will have to hold you over (we, too, need a little time to prepare a meal instead of traveling the internet finding stories about weird food goings-on.

More Tidbits

  • Psych! Like we'd ever do a shorter Fork when we didn't absolutely have to make it shorter. Though technically, this first item isn't just local or non-local per se—it's about safely storing your T-Day leftovers. That's helpful no matter where you live!
  • Eater-dot-com has a very cool piece about Native American Museum Cafés. In the broadest strokes, there are Indigenous chefs out there (and many right here in New Mexico) that have embraced certain pre-colonial techniques and ingredients, and everybody needs to know because that RULES.

A totally scientific breakdown of The Fork's correspondence 

In this week's print edition of SFR, no food, sadly, but this lets us issue a little oura-culpa over our raspberry Fork from last week. We hadn't heard of Heidi's Raspberry Farm down in ABQ, so let's link to them first; and we also wanted to mention that a reader from Embudo wrote to say she does indeed grow raspberries. Our bad listening to a botanist from not here. Raspberries abound, New Mexico, and we shall eat them.

Number of Letters Received: 17

*We get it, you're tired out from the holiday stuff.

Most Helpful Tip of the Week (a barely edited letter from a reader):

"Blackberries are better than raspberries."

*To the tune of Big Ben ringing in the hour: Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong...wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! That's five "wrongs."

Actually Helpful Tip(s):

"After even more research on the matter. Blowing a Raspberry originated in London as a slang term to mean blowing a fart..."

*Reader Patrick M with the helpful info! We cut off the rest of the missive for clarity's sake, but we want to be clear that Patrick told us the term implies you're farting directly AT someone. Glory be!

Thankfully,

The Fork