This week was all about cooking things I love before school starts next week.
First off, I made my absolute FAVORITE salad, Zuni Cafe's Roast Chicken with Bread Salad. There are many versions of this famous recipe online. I personally like Ina Garten's, Smitten Kitchen's, and America's Test Kitchen's versions. The absolute best part of this salad is the bread. You cook the bread under the chicken while it roasts, so it absorbs the drippings from the chicken, and it caramelizes in the hot oven. I could live on that bread. The salad is perfectly balanced with the currents, scallions, and vinegary, mustardy dressing. Someday I hope to eat the original version at Zuni Cafe in San Francisco.
Another recipe we love that I made this week is Crisp Gnocchi With Brussels Sprouts and Brown Butter. It's so yummy. The textures are fantastic in it, and it comes together quickly and easily. I use Trader Joe's shelf-stable gnocchi, and it works great.
I also made Giant Crinkled Chocolate Chip Cookies, which is an internet-famous recipe I've been dying to make for a long time. I used the recipe from the NYTimes, but there are a lot of versions out there. The cookies are called "pan-banging cookies." As the cookies back, you pull the pan out of the oven and bang the pan, so the cookies fall as they start to puff up. The caused the crinkles, which brown slightly as they back. The cookies hit all the marks. They are thin, crisp, chewy, and soft. I added a little sea salt to the tops, so they were sweet and salty. SO good. They are giant too. I made mine slightly smaller than the recipe suggested and they were enormous, but they are super thin.
Finally, I made indoor cheeseburgers. Why do I crave food that is out of season? I have never made burgers indoors before, but they turned out great! I used my cast iron skillet and heated it first in the oven, and then cooked the burgers on the stovetop. They had a nice crust on the surface and were super juicy. More so than on the grill. They didn't have that wonderful grilled flavor, but it satisfied the craving.
Class starts next, and I'm really looking forward to diving into the semester and getting back to my routine.