We had a nice party at our house on Saturday -- in honor of Brian and Amy's engagement!  Such a cute couple.  Kate and I were in the kitchen all afternoon cutting and preparing -- I love to cook with Kate.  We started with these cute little appetizers (photo courtesy of Rose, who IMHO does great close-ups).  They are little fried corn cakes with mayo, avocado, bacon, roasted tomato and fresh basil.  You had to just give up and cram the whole thing in your mouth, but you could taste every individual flavor.

Because it's been so gray and dreary, I just gravitated to a more winter menu.  Served brisket with root veggies, rolls with 2 butters (herbed and blue cheese), roasted leeks, a root vegetable gratin, and then I picked up a couple of things at Whole Foods because I was short on things green and too tired to cook some:-)
 I made my always-wonderful buttermilk yeast rolls -- they just do what they're supposed to do consistently, so for quite a while I haven't experimented on the roll front.

Rose wrote a nice party post on her blog...check it out.

I think it's supposed to rain most of the next few days.  I wonder if I can make it through this!  I know we need the moisture, so I need to keep telling myself that.  I need a plan...maybe tomorrow I'll tell you if I came up with one:-)