California-Style Thanksgiving

For maximum flavor, David Tanis rubs the bird with butter seasoned with sage, thyme and garlic. Dried porcini give the wild mushroom gravy a woodsy flavor boost.

Cristina Salas-Porras tosses assorted nuts with sage and rosemary and bakes them for a long time at a low temperature; they come out perfectly crisp. No wonder she’s famous for them.

Sour cream or cream cheese may be the usual spread with salty smoked salmon, but chef David Tanis thinks softened butter makes a tasty alternative. (Think of ham-and-butter sandwiches.) To give the butter a zippy bite, he stirs in lemon zest and both Dijon and grainy mustards.

Chef David Tanis had the Mexican heritage of Hudson Vineyards’ Cristina Salas-Porras in mind when he created this raw vegetable platter, brightened with guajillo chile powder, lime juice and salt. He makes it year-round with whatever vegetables are in season, but he always includes crunchy cucumbers.

Chef David Tanis grew up in the Midwest, with rich corn bread stuffing for Thanksgiving. He tweaks his mother’s recipe by adding a smoky element. “She’d roll over if she saw the bacon,” he says. But it’s not critical to the stuffing, which also gets savory flavor from hearty kale, so you can leave it out.

At Thanksgiving, it’s always great to have a couple of dishes that don’t have to go in the oven. This combination of creamy white beans and slightly crunchy haricots verts makes an interesting textural mix, and it’s sturdy enough to stand at room temperature for several hours.

With patches of man-size pumpkins and green gourds hanging from trellises at Hudson Ranch and Vineyards, some kind of squash dish is a requirement at Thanksgiving dinner. This simple gratin features cubes of melt-in-your-mouth winter squash flavored with thyme and sage.

There’s so much richness on the Thanksgiving table that a few tart and spicy things are necessary for balance, like this raw beet slaw.

David Tanis’s cinnamon-and-cardamom-spiced pie is a nod to Napa winemaker Lee Hudson’s Texas background. It has a classic mountaintop profile, because it’s packed with lots of tart, crisp apples.

Since one dessert is never enough at Thanksgiving, David Tanis bakes a buttery French-American tart to complement his classic apple pie. The sweet-and-tart berries in the creamy custard pop when you take a bite.