On my walk home from the subway at the end of yesterday’s big snowstorm, I planted my foot in a giant, slushy mud puddle, which seeped into my boots (which apparently have lost their protective, waterproof seal), soaking my socks. Now, this tragedy by itself is not enough to ruffle the feathers of a New Yorker such as myself, but the incident was followed, not five seconds later, by me getting splashed by a passing bus, which covered me from head to toe in disgusting, frozen slush. Children pointed and laughed. So did their parents.

 I’m guessing that, when faced with this unfortunate sequence of events, most reasonable people would have picked up the pace and hightailed it home for a nice bath and Thai delivery, but not me. Instead, I was craving one specific comfort food item, which is why I found myself ducking into the market for a organic, free-range bird, weighing just shy of 4 pounds, and then hightailing it home.

One of the simplest and quickest recipes for good roast chicken is Ina Garten’s. It stars the drool-inducing combination of lemons and thyme, it roasts relatively fast, and there is very little prep. I also tried a great new technique that my friend Eva learned from her mom; brush the bird with soy sauce before roasting to give the skin a wonderful golden color and crispy texture.

Of course, my spontaneity rendered me ill-prepared, and I lacked both the requisite yellow onion and bulb of fennel that the recipe required. I compensated with extra garlic and carrots and still got amazing results.

A little chopping and stuffing, and before I knew it, my apartment was filled with the delicious herb-y scent of roast chicken.

By the time it was ready, I had unwound and relaxed. The chicken came out perfectly, full of great flavors, nice and juicy, with a crispy, salty skin. When served with a simple mixed green salad it made a comforting, yet not overly unhealthy meal, perfect for snowy Monday nights.

Perfect Roast Chicken 
Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten

1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs

1 lemon, halved

1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise

4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks

1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges ( I omitted, but I recommend)

Olive oil

Soy sauce

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the soy sauce and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the carrots and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.

Cooking for friends is one of my favorite things to do, and this is especially true when I’m cooking for foodie friends. It makes me want to bring my A game.  So when planning my contributions for a shared small plates dinner with my friends Jolene, Mike, and their absurdly cute 20 month-old son Ashton last weekend, I was being even pickier than usual.

I have so many great memories with Jo and Mike (and now Ash, who is a recent addition). Jolene and I, both Teach For America alumni, left the classroom at the same time to try out life in the private sector, and we met on the first day of our new jobs. We swapped classroom war stories, we marveled over having the ability to pee whenever we wished in a clean bathroom, and we discovered that we shared a love for wine. To make a long story short, we became fast friends.

But after a few years I went on to work at another company, losing my partner in crime, which makes the times that I get to see her (and Mike, and Ash) fewer and further between.  So when we do manage to align our busy schedules, it is something of a big deal.

I bought up a more than my share of the Union Square Whole Foods produce section in preparation for making this torte – a daring feat on the Saturday before the Superbowl, when shoppers will literally fight, as in with fists, over guacamole ingredients. Once outside, I was sort of amazed to come out alive.

The thing that makes this recipe stellar is its beautiful simplicity. It consists of delicious roasted vegetables, layered colorfully and then mashed together to make a vegetable “cake”.

The only thing that is added to accentuate all of the different vegetables is salt, pepper, olive oil, and a bit of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

It couldn’t be more simple.

There were only two minor hiccups. The first was that I only had an eight inch cake pan and the recipe called for a six inch pan. As a result, I did not have enough vegetables to do the double layers of peppers and eggplant, but that turned out to be quite OK. The second issue was that you are supposed to use a flat, round piece of metal (Ina suggests that you use the bottom of a six inch tart pan with your six inch cake pan) that is exactly the right fit for the cake pan to press down the vegetables and force out the excess liquids. My tart pan bottom was even larger than my too large cake pan, so I improvised by covering the top with wax paper and weighing it down with the large, heavy vase that we use for saving corks. This achieved the desired effect of pushing the layers together, but it did a lousy job forcing the excess liquid out. To do this, I held the pan at a 60 degree angle over the sink, doing my best to hold in the torte while pouring out the liquid.

When I finally upended the cake pan, the results were stunning. I mean, how sexy is this torte?

It was really delicious too. A great, fresh treat during what is beginning to feel like an endless winter. It cleansed the palate while we enjoyed it with many cheesy delights, and of course, copious amounts of red wine.

Roasted Vegetable Torte

Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten

2 zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 red onion, cut in half lengthwise and sliced

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Good olive oil

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 red bell peppers, halved, cored and seeded

2 yellow bell peppers, halved, cored and seeded

1 eggplant, unpeeled, cut into 1/4-inch slices (1 1/2 pounds)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cook the zucchini, onions, garlic and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat until the zucchini is tender. Season with salt and pepper. Brush the red and yellow peppers and eggplant with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast on a baking sheet for 30 to 40 minutes, until soft but not browned.

In a 6-inch round cake pan, place each vegetable in a single, overlapping layer, sprinkling Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste between each layer of vegetables. Begin with half of the eggplant, then layer half of the zucchini and onions, then all of the red peppers, then all of the yellow peppers, then the rest of the zucchini and onions, and finally the rest of the eggplant.

Cover the top of the vegetables with a 6-inch round of parchment paper or waxed paper. Place a 6-inch flat disk (another cake pan or the bottom of a false-bottom tart pan) on top and weight it with a heavy jar. Place on a plate or baking sheet (it will leak) and chill completely. Drain the liquids, place on a platter, and serve at room temperature.