Vanilla Chai Cupcakes

To christen my new apartment, I'm having a few people over tonight. As ridiculous and backwards as it may sound, I just don't feel like an apartment is real until I've had people over. Of course, it also never hurts to break up the winter weather with a night of mulled wine and good company. There will be no shortage of savory finger foods, but I had to make at least one dessert. That dessert, in this case, is vanilla chai mini-cupcakes with cream cheese icing. People will never pick up a normal sized dessert at a party, but if you put out smaller versions of the same, you will soon have an empty plate on your hands.

I only made a half recipe this time because I don't need 24 full sized cupcakes. Also, I didn't feel like buying a huge thing of vanilla soy milk and wasting most of it (and the small ones weren't in the store), so I used regular milk and tossed some sugar and vanilla in with it. Turns out essentially the same. Mmmmmmmmmm. Susan (nanny) used to make me vanilla milk sometimes when I was a kid... magical stuff.

On to cupcakes!

Sweet Potato Spinach Curry

I love this curry. I've made it probably 30 times and it's my go-to for vegetarians (well, this and the pinto beans)... vegetarians who like spicy things. Let me go ahead and address your concerns: this is spicy, but you can tone it down just by reducing the red curry paste to a reasonable level, so be brave! It is also ridiculously easy to make. Really. You put things in a pot and you leave them there. The end.

Here. I'll show you.

First, dice an onion and mince some garlic (I used 3 cloves). Most of the things I cook start like this.

Shepherd's Pie w/ Sweet Potatoes

One day, about two months ago, I got it into my head that I needed to make a shepherd's pie. I have never made a shepherds pie, my mom didn't make them, my friends don't make them. Basically, why this became something that I needed is, at best, unclear to me. Things we learned: lamb is totally overwhelming and even cutting it with beef was too much for me. Apparently I only like lamb in the context of Indian food? However, if you do like lamb, then you're good to go. Secondly... I forgot to add the spinach (yes, spinach, I was going to put some in here, go with it), so you'll be seeing some spinach from me soon enough.

Also, I love sweet potatoes. Love them. They are happiness and sunshine to my palette. As a result, I made the pie with a sweet potato topping instead of white potatoes... though I did have a random yukon gold sitting in my fridge, so it went in the pot too. See?

Pretty, isn't it. The topping was phenomenal, and I think that if I just go with entirely beef next time, I'll become quite attached. It might also help if I remember the green things.

Ice Cream for Breakfast

This is the story of how I ended up having bacon and ice cream for breakfast on a Sunday morning.

I moved into a new apartment a couple of weeks back, then, after unpacking the kitchen, I discovered (while trying to make a meatloaf) that the oven was broken (toaster oven to the rescue!). It was fixed shortly thereafter (I have a good landlady), and I was ready to delve back into the wonderful world of food. So, I invited some friends over and got ready to make a pointlessly fancy dinner. Since I happen to know that these two particular girls are very fond of their ice cream, I decided to make a fancy blueberry sour cream ice cream that I've seen in the little ice cream maker my little sister gave me for Christmas. So far, so good.

Then my plumbing decides not to function anymore. Ok, no problem, I'll call the plumber. Plumber comes over, can't fix it, guess we're waiting until tomorrow. Dinner party cancelled, evacuation to my friend's house for the night. 8AM rolls around and my landlady informs me that the plumber has decided not to return, so she's finding a new one. 8:30, the new one calls, says they'll be by in an hour. I drag myself out of bed (I am not a morning person) and head home to wait. I'm waiting... waiting... waiting. Sigh. Hunger.

Hrm, well, I had started to make the ice cream last night in my dinner prep process, but it hadn't solidified properly so I just stuck it in the freezer when I left. Let's see what it's like now. Oh hey, it's frozen... Let's let it thaw out just a touch and churn it some to make it a nice, even consistency, and see how that goes. It worked! Victory is mine.

Now that I have the ice cream, I want to eat it, obviously. Still, I'm not traditionally a sweets-in-the-morning kind of a girl, so I'm going to have to balance it out. What is this? Ah ha! Bacon left over from my most recent chowder. Perfect. Into the toaster oven you go to broil.

The end result? Well, it's a little weird and I'd trade it for an extra several hours of sleep in a heartbeat, but it definitely hits the spot.

Hopefully my plumber will get here soon and there will be a happy ending to this, my tale of woe.

Absence makes the stomach grow hungrier

I know I'm not around, but I just moved into my new apartment! So, I should be up and running again shortly (as soon as I unpack my kitchen).