Thanksgiving on the beach

Informal beach feast

Photographer Shelly Strazis and her boyfriend, cinematographer Gilbert Salas, could make a food flick about their Thanksgiving. Every year for the past eight years, they’ve hosted it on the beach across the street from their home in Long Beach, California.

The menu is loosely themed around Gilbert’s Tex-Mex roots with a dash of California—which means dishes worth craving year-round, like chile-rubbed turkey with mole gravy, and chocolate cakes with a cayenne kick.

It’s a toss-up as to whether Shelly’s group enjoys the food or the beach more. Which makes us think that all Thanksgivings should at least involve a walk in the open air. Nature, after all, is partly what we have to be thankful for.

Beach Thanksgiving menu

Serves 18

Appetizers, main course and sides:

• Pumpkin Tacos
• Tortilla chips and green and red salsas (optional; try our recipe for Salsa Ranchera)
• Cranberry, Apple, and Orange Relish
• Chile and Spice Grilled Turkey with Mole Gravy
• Chorizo Apple Stuffing
• Grilled Rosemary Sweet Potatoes
• Roasted Chile Cornbread
• Fall Salad with Nuts and Pomegranates
• Roasted Chile-Lime Broccolini

• Spritzers of hibiscus-cranberry juice and sparkling water
• Tempranillo wine 
• Canela Tea
• Mexican Chocolate Cakes with Cinnamon Ice Cream
• Long Beach Lime Pies

Pass the time

Guests arrive at 1 for appetizers and activities like bocce ball, then sit down to eat in the late afternoon.

Pumpkin Tacos

Pumpkin tacos are easy appetizers to prepare, but offer complex flavors. Guests can assemble their own, adding toasted chiles, slaw, and pumpkin seeds.

Recipe: Pumpkin Tacos

Chile and Spice Grilled Turkey and Mole Gravy

A chile-rubbed bird cooked on the grill and served with mole gravy makes for a richly seasoned centerpiece.

Recipe: Chile and Spice Grilled Turkey and Mole Gravy

TURKEY TIPS

Brining: It’s the secret to a moist bird. Brine the turkey, breast down, in an oversize pot such as a boiling-water canner (if it fits in the fridge). Or use an ice chest.

Double-bag turkey using two 13-gal. plastic trash bags (not recycled plastic). Put bagged bird in chest, pour brine over turkey, and seal bags tightly. Add ice to cover.

Tying: For the most even cooking, leave turkey legs loose. Or if you prefer a tidy look, tie them.

Garnishing: Add color with herbs, a banana leaf, and fruit like kumquats.

Side dishes

Tex-Mex meets California in side dishes with plenty of personality.

Recipes:

• Chorizo Apple Stuffing
• Grilled Rosemary Sweet Potatoes

• Roasted Chile-Lime Broccolini
• Roasted Chile Cornbread
• Cranberry, Apple, and Orange Relish

Fall Salad with Nuts and Pomegranates

The pomegranate juice dressing echoes the flavors of cranberry relish.

Recipe: Fall Salad with Nuts and Pomegranates

Updated desserts

Try simple desserts with a twist on tradition.

Mexican Chocolate Cakes: Very chocolaty, with a chile kick—and fabulous with cinnamon ice cream. We decorated the cakes with stencils made from an autumn leaf traced onto tagboard.

Cinnamon Ice Cream: A super-easy addition to the table, inspired by Shelly’s favorite fall flavor from Fosselman’s Ice Cream, a SoCal landmark in Alhambra.

Long Beach Lime Pies: In honor of the Strazises’ Florida roots, Shelly’s mom whips up luscious Key lime pies. We use Mexican limes (the West Coast name for Key limes).

 

Canela Tea

After dinner, guests warm up with canela tea by the bonfire. A splash of tequila added to the cinnamon drink provides an extra glow.

Recipe: Canela Tea

What you'll need

Tote dinnerware to the beach in baskets or milk crates. Guests help carry tables and chairs, tiki torches, the cooked food, and a grill (for reheating).

Get the look: Setting the table

Mix vintage plates with flatware from thrift shops. Display succulents in votives.

 

Thanksgiving countdown

Here’s how two cooks can pull off this big meal—with one cook working indoors, using a single oven, and one working outdoors at a single grill. If you don’t have ample fridge space, you may need to store some food at a neighbor’s.

1 week ahead

• Make cranberry relish.
• Make cinnamon ice cream.

• Shop.
• Start thawing turkey in fridge, if frozen.

• Make pies.
• Bake chocolate cakes.
• Toast seeds and nuts for relish and salad.
• Make pumpkin spread and slaw for tacos.
• Brine turkey.
• Make stuffing through step 2.
• Grill sweet potatoes.
• Bake cornbread.
• Make salad dressing.
• Roast broccolini.

• Heat grill and start turkey (allow 31/2 hrs. for cooking, resting, and carving).
• Spread topping on lime pies.
• Top cakes with powdered sugar.

• Start gravy.

• Add almonds to cranberry relish.
• Finish tacos: Toast chiles, warm pumpkin spread and tortillas, then set out compo-nents. (Or do this as guests arrive.)

• Bake stuffing.
• Assemble elements of salad; toss at serving time.

• Reheat sweet potatoes.
• Finish gravy.
• Reheat broccolini and cornbread.
• Let turkey rest, then carve.

• Set out desserts.
• Make canela tea.