The Big Apple Baby!

All prayed up and on my second missions trip. New York! This time my mom and younger sister Jacque are coming along for the 300+  Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle Missions Banquet. We will be working with the Chefs for Christ team putting on the three course dinner with a menu meant to be simple but elegant. I love being in the kitchen with this team! My dad is also traveling to New York and will join us as well. For three weeks after the banquet I will be staying in Long Island shadowing a chef from the church at his fine dining, chef's menu only restaurant. An amazing opportunity for someone that has recently graduated from culinary school!

Thursday, was dedicated to Manhattan, or as our tour guide said, the island of Manahata. We rode a Grayline tour bus to get around the city and see some of the sights, stopping at SOHO, Little Italy, Canal Street and Battery Park. The storm that passed through Wednesday came and went so it was a perfect day and stayed dry into the night. The view and unique perspective from the top of a double decker bus, wind blowing in your hair and all is amazing. Included in our day pass was a Brooklyn night tour, which involed ducking under street signs, traffic lights and low hanging tree branches while seeing the city-pretty exciting.

Friday was dedicated to traveling to Smithtown on the Long Island Rail Road and helping with the prep for the banquet. So, so happy to see our NY friends! I can't wait to catch up with them more and from the sound of it, God is moving in a awesome way in Smithtown too.

My mom, Jacque and I started on slicing the strawberries for the dessert then the four of us tackled slicing, buttering and sprinkling the garlic on 51 rounds of bread. Mass production at it's finest. There is a good size group of people putting together the food for the event and it appears to be very organized. There are about 6 lead chefs in charge of different parts of the meal, dessert in my case- big surprise. It's going to be a fun day, John (executive chef) plans to serve the 344 guests in 25 minutes, it's a tall order but will be fun seeing how it all comes together.

God Bless,