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.