As you may know, I love to cook.  And eat.  And write about food.  Lately, I've been writing a bit more about spirits and cocktails.  Although I enjoy drinking cocktails, my home cocktail making has been somewhat limited to a few standbys, and I've wanted to expand my horizons a bit and approach cocktail making with the same creativity as I use when I cook off the cuff.  With cooking, before you start creating dishes on your own, you have to have a sense of the basics.  With that in mind, I took a class at the Astor Center last night -- Home Bar Basics. with Will Wilmot and Don Lee (who I interviewed for Serious Eats).  They taught us basic general formulas for three major families of cocktails and showed us proper technique for shaking, stirring, and cracking ice.  I need to purchase a few more basic tools and make some simple syrup, but then, let the games begin.  Anyone for a cocktail?