Mushroom Soba & Miso-Braised Mustard Greens

You could say I'm on a bit of a soba kick lately. I've been slurping up a great bowl of buckwheat noodle soup for breakfast, lunch or dinner almost every day these past few chilly weeks. Let's talk about the soba in a bit; a really good bowl of any noodle soup, in my opinion, is in the soup. It's generally thought that a good broth takes hours or even days to make right. But I've figured out a quick and easy system for turning out a savory mushroom stock that doesn't taste like instant powder and is, moreover, completely natural and vegetable-based. So there's hardly any time needed to prepare a bowl like this in the morning, no matter how hungover I am (and I won't be for long).

German Sunchoke Salad with Bacon & Scallions

Meat and potatoes people, here's a new reason to celebrate (or deviate?): sunchokes. They're sweet and nutty-tasting, great roasted with rosemary, and they made for a delicious variation on a favorite side dish that needs little more excitement in my opinion -- German potato salad. So this dish is really an excuse to combine two of my recent food obsessions, in one platter. It'll make a good addition to the Thanksgiving table, too.

Chipotle Baked Beans In A Pumpkin

Last Halloween, Dave introduced me to a dish that involves baking stuff inside a hollowed-out pumpkin. He explained that he'd taken it from a Ruth Reichl recipe in Gourmet. This past Halloween, I hosted, and I copied Dave's (or Ruth's) dish to a T. (Only mine was in a white heirloom "ghost" pumpkin, and I served a side of beet-and-tomato "blood" soup.) It's sort of like French onion soup, inside a pumpkin: you stuff stale bread cubes and pour chicken stock inside the pumpkin, and top it with grated Swiss cheese while it bakes. A great concept, I thought, and I loved the addition of the roasted pumpkin that gets scraped up along with each spoonful of the finished stuff.

Arugula Salad with Wisconsin Blue Cheese

I've been to Wisconsin a few times, whether traveling for work (involving food) or pleasure. So I've gotten a good taste of the dairy state, and even toured the caves of a cheesemaker once. So when I was asked to recreate a recipe from Wisconsin Cheese and Chef Michael Symon's cooking series, Favorite Foods, I thought it'd be a good way to cook with one of my findings. But also, to maybe overcome a lifelong aversion I've had for Blue cheese.

Broccoli & Roasted Garlic Soup

Rather than watering it down with milk and cream, or confusing its flavor with a tomato-laden broth, this soup is all about broccoli, from its florets to its stems to its leaves. You'll get a big burst of the broccoli with each spoonful of the stuff, and that's a somewhat new way to experience a vegetable that's been around (and has been disdained, in many cases) for all our lives. It starts out with roasting the pieces to concentrate their flavor even more, and it has roasted garlic and shallots to cement that sweetened touch. A drizzle of distractingly good olive oil to finish and that's your bowl packed with the power food. Eating your greens has never been easier.

5 Seasonal Veggies You Gotta Try This Thanksgiving

I recently wrote a post on Brooklyn Based about Where To Get Your Gobble Gobble, a round-up of sustainably-minded turkey farms and purveyors in the region that are now offering their best for the big, birdy holiday. But as I was walking through the Greenmarket today, I thought, these vegetables are pretty fascinating, too -- and I'm never short of finding a new one with each stroll. So, since we all know the most exciting part of the Thanksgiving meal are the sides, here's a few shout-outs to vegetables that might even be worthy of a main course of their own.

Cook-Off With Chowder This Saturday

Another weekend in New York, another cook-off to attend! However, this one's for a brand-spanking new cause. Held at Jimmy's No. 43 this Saturday, from 1-4pm, pots of chowder will be steaming up the back room in a seafood-filled fest to raise better awareness of what's in that soup. This cook-off will be a benefit for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA) and its continuing efforts to bring seafood into the sustainable food discussion. A $10 donation will get you in the door to taste all the chowders, and will go right to the non-profit organization.

Red Cabbage Salad with Quince, Pickled Carrots and Maple-Cider Vinaigrette

Question: Why do we eat coleslaw in the summer, usually? Okay, it's crisp, sweet and cooling, and I even thought it was called "cold slaw" as a kid. But it's made primarily of... winter cabbage. And we'll be seeing lots of heads of those for the rest of the year.