Santa Rosa resident Marilyn Evans said she likes to make her Thanksgiving yams with brown sugar, butter and Kahl?a.
She admits the dish won't be the most popular at her family's feast Thursday.
"I'm the only one that eats them. My sons take a token spoonful just to please me," said Evans as she stood in line Tuesday afternoon at Willie Bird Turkeys on Sebastopol Road.
Kahl?a yams represent a somewhat exotic spin on a traditional Thanksgiving meal that even in Wine County does not deviate too far from the old standards of turkey, gravy and stuffing.
Shoppers will be jamming grocery stores, specialty food shops and pie places today searching for that perfect ingredient to blend tradition with good taste.
One North Coast family will see couscous appear for the first time next to the mashed potatoes because the standard Thanksgiving menu, in the words of one Windsor mom, "just gets a little boring.
Guests, of course, are always the wild card on Thursday, and there's little you can do to stop members of The Greatest Generation from bringing the green bean casserole.
"A grandmother or great aunt usually ends up bringing it," Evans said.
But whatever the side dish, turkey will reign supreme on Thursday.
Willie Bird Turkeys' owner, Willie Benedetti, said he'll sell about 6,000 birds in the four days leading up to Thanksgiving.
Some of these go out in shipments, such as the 260 turkeys that went out Tuesday to Freeman Toyota. On Monday, Benedetti shipped 11,000 to LucasFilm and another 8,000 to Williams-Sonoma.
At G&G Supermarket in Santa Rosa, 4,500 turkeys are expected to be sold this week, with some of them coming from Willie Bird, according to Teejay Lowe, director of community relations at the market.
Crab, another Thanksgiving favorite, was also available at local markets, despite the oil spill-caused delay of the local crab fishing season.
A sign in front of G&G advertised fresh cooked and live crabs from Washington state for $6.99 a pound. Lowe said the crab are among the first to be shipped into Sonoma County for the holiday.
At the Safeway on Fourth Street in Santa Rosa, frozen King Crab legs were available for $9.99 a pound.
Susan Hylbak of Santa Rosa, another Willie Bird customer, said she usually prepares a crab salad to go along with her family's holiday bird.
"Since the crab season is pretty much shut down, my substitute is going to be a nice Waldorf salad," Hylbak said.
She said her holiday meal will include fresh vegetables -- not in a casserole -- and steamed cauliflower with a sharp cheddar sauce. A guest, she said, is planning to bring Rumaki, an appetizer of Hawaiian origin that usually consists of water chestnuts wrapped in bacon.
At Lombardi's French Bakery in Petaluma, packages of dinner rolls and festive loaves of bread were flying off the shelves, headed for Thanksgiving Day tables.
Dan Williams, a sheet metal worker from Rohnert Park, stopped by to pick up his mother's favorite sourdough bread, which is something of a family tradition.
Since she moved from Sonoma County to Queen Creek, Ariz., southeast of Phoenix, she has been deprived of its spungy goodness, he said.
"Hopefully, they'll let me on the plane with it," Williams said before grabbing two loaves.
As usual, both commercial and residential ovens will pop out pies by the thousands, especially pumpkin, a Thanksgiving favorite.
Pre-Thanksgiving chaos has arrived at Mom's Apple Pie in Sebastopol, which expects to bake about 2,000 pies this week. These include apple, pumpkin, pecan and blackberry, but mostly pumpkin and apple pies.
"It's kind of crazy right now," said Mom's Apple Pie owner Betty Carr, who started the business with her late husband, Harry, a quarter-century ago.
At Marie Callender's Restaurant & Bakery in Santa Rosa, some 500 pies were sold on Tuesday alone, according to Bryan Lund, the restaurant's general manager.
"We'll probably sell around 3,000 pies during the week of Thanksgiving, with 80 percent being pumpkin," Lund said.
Marie Callender's two telephone lines started "ringing off the hook" Friday morning, said Lund. But not just for pies.
The restaurant offers a Thanksgiving feast that includes a whole turkey, yams, mashed potatoes, corn bread stuffing, vegetables, cranberry sauce and a choice of apple or pumpkin pie, with pumpkin the most popular pie choice.
The meal costs $109.99 and comes pre-cooked, packed in a 3-square-foot box and ready to be reheated.
"So many people are stressed out, they don't have the time to do all the work," said Lund.
He said that if you can't reach Marie Callender's by phone, orders can be made via the Internet at www.marie
callenders.com.
Safeway also offers a fully cooked turkey dinner, 10 to 12 pounds, with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and an 8-inch pumpkin pie for $44.99.
The downside of going the quick route? You're not likely to find couscous, Rumaki or Kahl?a yams on the Safeway or Marie Callender's menu.
Staff Writer Paul Payne contributed to this story. You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.
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