Chicken Makhani (& How to Make Ghee)

Chicken makhani, aka murgh makhani, aka butter chicken, just might be my favorite food ever.  It's also surprisingly (and dangerously) easy to make at home.  Since discovering this, I've been consuming a lot more butter a lot more frequently than I should.  Be warned: with the power to create this delicious Indian dish comes the responsibility to not eat it every week, for your heart's sake!

That being said, I did cut almost half the butter from the recipes I based my version on.  You're welcome!

Happy almost Equinox! Spiced Squash Harvest Soup

Tomorrow it will finally be fall for real! I'm posting this recipe a day early in case you want to make it part of your celebration.  It's a sweet and savory spiced soup with butternut squash, carnival squash, acorn squash, Macintosh apples, yellow onions, fennel and apple cider. Yummm.

"cat tent"

Healthier Whole Wheat Spiced Oatmeal Cookies Two Ways (& Ginger Cubes)

I had a whole long thing planned out with a very large sequential illustration in progress that I was totally going to post tonight.  Then I got up (to make ginger cubes) and heard the most horrible of sounds from the couch - my computer booting up after restarting itself for updates.  No, I did not save.

So then, my fitness nut husband asked me to figure out a way to make him our favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with less fat.  I really wanted to have something to post and baking cookies is pretty therapeutic, and I had just bought the first couple Macintoshes of the season, so that ended up being just the thing to substitute for butter.  It smells like Thanksgiving in here now and I've eaten my dinner's worth in cookies.  Cause you know, I had to make sure the recipe turned out.  For science.  Thanks for the idea, honey!

"Kero-chan crazy hour"

A couple scribbles for your enjoyment until the next post.

sock baby.

From-scratch Masala Chai

Yesterday something wonderful happened.  The morning after I posted my love letter to fall, Mother Nature was feeling generous, and we suddenly went from 80s day and night to highs in the low 70s and nights and mornings in the 50s!  It is glorious.  And I am so ready for my first hot cup of masala chai.  (I've been drinking it all year, naturally, but chilled!)

how cool are star anise? nature makes the best stuff!

 

Melitzanes Tiganites a la Symeon's with Tzatsiki

Friends, let me tell you about the greatest restaurant in the world.  If you live near Yorkville, NY, you may not know how lucky you are, because Yorkville is home to a family-owned Greek restaurant called Symeon's.  I grew up going to eat there every time we visited my grandparents, and there developed at an early age my love for feta cheese, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), spanakopita, and that baked chicken dish with all the cheese and spinach and lemon and pilaf - having a foodie fit now just thinking about it.  I don't know if every other Greek restaurant I've been to just can't match the real thing, or if Symeon's is actually better than the Greek food in Greece, but I would drive 5 hours just to eat there if I could.  On our way home from last year's Adirondack vacation we took a detour there for lunch and ate EVERYTHING.  Years of missing it and building it up did not diminish the deliciousness.

"eyeball"

Hippy Elf Chick is under construction!