Trying my hand at cupcakes

Instead of cookies, I gave cupcakes a try last night as part of a cake decorating class I've been taking (my beautiful birthday cake stand is getting a lot of use these days).  I'm not sure I can accurately describe how much icing is piled onto these chocolate cupakes -- Katie, they are waiting for you!

Wine Tasting

It was easy to say yes to Jill and Brian's invitation to join them in tasting wines for their upcoming wedding.  Jill put together great spread of food, and Brian created a blinded taste test complete with a form to rank each wine in multiple categories.

I can't say that I contributed much to any sort of sophisticated analysis of the wine -- I choose wine based on price (low) and whether or not I like the label -- but I'm now really looking forward to enjoying the wine at their wedding!

A few new cookie cutters later and I created these for the occasion:

Housewarming Cookies

We were so happy to celebrate our friends Steve and Amanda's new house on Saturday night, and it was a great excuse to make a batch of cookies.  We miss them being closer to the city, but love their great deck and backyard, along with their beautiful house.