Behind The Scenes: November Magazine

Take a peek at the photo shoots for the different sections in our November 2012 issue.

You might not be able to tell but this gorgeous and perfectly cooked turkey is about to go up in flames at our November "Word of Mouth" column shoot. We had to stand pretty far back to protect the equipment -- and ourselves. Dim the lights, douse and light 'er up!
 --Mackenzie Craig, Associate Photo Editor

Melt down! This toy truck got a little too close to our flaming turkey on the November "Word of Mouth" column shoot. With it's charred and melted ladder, this prop certainly earned its spot in our photographer's collection of mementos at the studio.
 --Mackenzie Craig, Associate Photo Editor

These ice cubes won't melt under pressure -- or more importantly the camera's lights! Food stylist secret: "ice cubes" made of gelatin. Now that's genius!
 --Sonal Dutt, Executive Lifestyle Editor

Using the newest technology on set like this iPad, we didn't even have to get up to approve this shot at our "Dinners for a Deal" shoot. What a great way to keep everyone involved without crowding the creative space.
 --Mackenzie Craig, Associate Photo Editor

I snuck a shot of our fabulous stylists at the "Word of Mouth" photo shoot while they figured out how to best style the foodie iPhone cases.
 --Sonal Dutt, Executive Lifestyle Editor

To make sure all of the props show up to the studio in one piece, everything is packed very carefully. On the "Instant Expert: Bread Booklet" shoot, our stylist got a little crazy with all of the prop packing materials.
 --Kim Gougenheim, Photo Director

Did I mention the immense amount of prop packing materials we use? Our food stylist was so overwhelmed she crawled under the prop table and hid in the packing materials at our "Instant Expert: Bread Booklet" shoot. So funny!
 --Kim Gougenheim, Photo Director

No joke -- I'm officially a pro at doing the napkin folds featured in our November 2012 issue! To illustrate our step-by-step instructions the Art Department had to snap photos on my hands. Although, this was probably the 17th time I folded this particular pattern that day!
 --Allyson Dickman, Assistant Lifestyle Editor 

All of the holiday table-setting ideas from Rachael's buddies in our "Life of the Party" story were so fun! I especially loved this creative centerpiece idea using real produce from Libby Langdon.
 --Mackenzie Craig, Associate Photo Editor 

This centerpiece from our "Life of the Party" story features "What I'm grateful for..." rocks and is great during the holidays or any time of the year! Thank you, Libby Langdon, for such a sweet idea.
 --Lauren Smith, Online Editorial Assistant  

This look from our "Life of the Party" story is from Erica Domesek, founder of the DIY brand P.S. -- I Made This, and serves up some serious table-setting shine! I'm thinking of making this for my table to add some shimmer to my holidays!
 --Judith Pena, Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief

Instant wallpaper! On our photo shoot set, our stylist created a "room" to hang our November "Life of the Party" column's chandelier by Robert and Cortney Novogratz in.
 --Mackenzie Craig, Associate Photo Editor

Who doesn't love ooey, gooey cheese fondue? We tapped three chefs, including New York City's Artisanal's Terrance Brennan, to pull together 10 amazing cheese fondue recipes for our November "Twists on a Dish" column.
 --Stacy Adimando, Food Editor 

For our "Twists on the Dish" column on cheese fondue, we wanted to get the perfect shot of the cheese dripping off the bread. To do this, we hooked the fork up to this contraption so the fork would be held super still!
 --Mackenzie Craig, Associate Photo Editor 

At the "Instant Expert: Bread Booklet" photo shoot, we tacked up print out and variations of the story on the wall to see how it was coming together.
 --Kim Gougenheim, Photo Director 

Our Editorial Offices are located in NYC, so we do the majority of our photo shoots in the city. Here's a peek of my view at one of our photo shoots. I think it's almost as a pretty as the photos we were taking for the magazine.
 --Stacy Adimando, Food Editor

In between takes for our 30-Minute Meals photo shoot, Executive Food Editor, Pamela Mitchell (left), Photo Director, Kim Gougenheim (middle), and Creative Director, Jill Armus (right) were hard at work.

Shhh...here's a food stylist trick of the trade! At our "Instant Expert: Bread Booklet" shoot, we used a blowtorch to heat butter to make it look extra "melty" on a bread roll.
 --Kim Gougenheim, Photo Director

After shooting our pull apart bread for the "Instant Expert: Bread Booklet," the crew couldn't wait to dig in! Believe me when I say that all of the bread tasted as good as it looks!
 --Kim Gougenheim, Photo Director

Don't stop here! Find out more about making the magazine, specifically our Thanksgiving feature!

See Behind the Scenes of the November 2012 Issue!