We?re cooking here!

Leaves are falling, Whole Foods has their official holiday bags in stock, life is pumpkin flavored, and the New York City trees are suddenly adorned with Christmas lights.  I think we all know what this means?Thanksgiving.  Next Thursday.  Where has the time gone?  Seriously, the time has flown by in not only the last eight weeks, but in the past year too.  Only a year ago I was sitting on my bed in the tiny town of Mineola, Texas bawling my eyes out to fly back home to Tucson after working a short couple months at a new restaurant until it inevitably failed, while killing time with yoga podcast after yoga podcast.  At that point I was only a couple weeks into this little blog.  I think I?ve come miles (literally and figuratively) since then.  I?m now sitting in a third floor bedroom in middle of Brooklyn waiting for granola to finish baking in the oven, day dreaming of when I can truly call this city home.  I really don?t want to go back to school after this externship ends, but I know I have to.  Sigh.

It?s been one full year since I departed Texas, and now ladies and gentlemen, let us count down the days until graduation day, shall we?  Less than a year to go.

Until then, I have recipes to play with.  I had the stellar opportunity this past Tuesday (given to me by my ever popular and most talked about sous chef) to make a vegetarian brioche stuffing recipe and  a cranberry chutney recipe for a New York Times article photo-shoot, to go live that evening on the NYT website.  How cool is that? God (and everyone else) knows I?m only an extern, nothing of importance, and pretty much irrelevant in terms of restaurant business?and for goodness sakes, it wasn’t even my recipe?BUT, I did bang it out in the midst of my own daily mise en place and lunch service.  For the New York Times website.  I think that?s pretty cool.  That?s cooking though, right?  As one of the line cooks at work always sings out in his very Italian, baritone voice throughout the day, ?We?re cooking, here!?

Image copyright: Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Cranberrries!

And a little collage of New York City holiday spirit.

Pumpkin ice cream at Emack and Bolios in SoHo and a pumpkin smoothie at Xoom in the East Village.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?  If you’re vegetarian, what’s your favorite dish?  Turkey’s always my least favorite anyways.  This Thanksgiving is my first away from home, and I’ll be working, but I’ll be still be doing something I love, so I’m happy.