And a magic beer mustache!

Yeah, we made Butter Beer the other night. It's non-alcoholic, but sinfully loaded with calories. Butter Beer is mentioned in a couple of the Harry Potter Movies, and some friends of mine had it when they were in Orlando, at Universal Studio's. I found the recipe on-line, and made it one night so we could all enjoy it again. =)

Mmmm - reminds me of a hot butter-rum toddy. Dangerous because they're sweet and easy to down, like soda pop or something.

It's made with cream soda. I forgot how much I love cream soda, till I made these delightful holiday drinks.

Alan

I'll take two!

I hope I don't get in trouble for posting this total off-topic recipe here, but...It's a bit time consuming to make, but easy to make.

No need to travel to Hogsmeade (or to Universal Orlando) to get a taste of Harry Potter's butterbeer. Universal isn't giving out its recipe, but we've created an easy version of the formerly fictional drink made famous by the young wizard.

BUTTERBEER

Start to finish: 1 hour (10 minutes active)

Servings: 4

1 cup light or dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

6 tablespoon butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

3/4 cup heavy cream, divided

1/2 teaspoon rum extract

Four 12-ounce bottles cream soda

In a small saucepan over medium, combine the brown sugar and water. Bring to a gentle boil and cook, stirring often, until the mixture reads 240 F on a candy thermometer.

Stir in the butter, salt, vinegar and 1/4 heavy cream. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Once the mixture has cooled, stir in the rum extract.

In a medium bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar mixture and the remaining 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Use an electric mixer to beat until just thickened, but not completely whipped, about 2 to 3 minutes.

To serve, divide the brown sugar mixture between 4 tall glasses (about 1/4 cup for each glass). Add 1/4 cup of cream soda to each glass, then stir to combine. Fill each glass nearly to the top with additional cream soda, then spoon the whipped topping over each.

Alan, I gained 10 lbs. just reading the recipe. I know, keep it the same but use diet soda. From 2000 cals to 1995 cals. That way I can have two glasses.

Yeah, the first time I made it, I went the all calories included route, but I think next time, I will try it with the diet Cream Soda. I can't imagine that it would hurt it that much?

I don't know that it makes that much diff with a 1/4 cu of sugar per drink, lol.

It uses a whole can of soda per serving Sheryl.

A&W Regular 12 oz can cream soda - 120
A&W Diet 12 oz can cream soda - 0

So if you decided to have two, you could knock of 240 calories.

BTW, per serving made regular, this drink is, I believe I read 500 calories per serving.

So two wit regular soda, 1000 calories, Two with diet soda, 760 calories.

It all adds up at the end =)

Or on my end, as it were. Think I'll stick to my Shiraz!

I'm not certain if this plant belong in this category, however, it is in serious trouble and I would like to save it. Does anyone know what this is and what I can do to help it survive?

I found this piece of plant in the trash can at a bizarre about the third week of November. It didn't get any attention until I arrived home many hours later. Not knowing the proper thing to do, I put the thing into a jar of water.

For many weeks I watch it slowly go brown from the bottom to almost the top, sill not having a clue what this is and how to help it even though I devoted many hours and days to trying to find the answer.

About three or four weeks ago I get the feeling the plant was drying out even though it was in water. Also I noticed some attempt at growing roots, so decided to use rooting powder and put this whatever it is into soil in a pot. Fortunately it is still green at the top. How can I help my plant friend survive and enjoy a healthy happy life?

I'll try uploading the pictures again and hope they will load. Apparently this is not working. I could have made lunch, ate it, and still this is uploading. This is ridiculous!

The picture uploading is still a work in progress.

Update on my mystery plant and what may be happening to it is:

I asked my aid to take a look at it for me to see if there was any pests of any kind that she could see. She said no as far as she could tell. I have a magnifying camera which I use to make print big enough for me to read it, and even with this camera I didn't see any bugs or other issues. I have to admit that there is some bird dander on the leaves.

Trying to upload picture again.

YEAH!!!!
Finally I successfully uploaded this picture of my plant friend who is in desperate need of help. So, please take a sideways look and if you can give me an idea about what is or isn't happening and what to do or not to do about this I would appreciate any help from you. What is this plant? Why is it going brown? Now that I know how to get this to work I will try my best to load the pictures in the correct direction. :-)

Dogpack,
Looks like it's been thru the war. Nothing that spring and summer outside sun and rain can't fix. May need more light? I think as long as it survives, wait till spring and move outside. Don't know anymore to help you. Sorry.

It's a mystery! Now everything is working the way it should have from the beginning, but didn't.

Dogpack,
Just saw the second picture. It may be mealy bugs. If so, a spray is in order. A general house plant spray from the hardware store. Take it to the shower or out side if weather is nice. Best of luck.

Yeah... I'd even go more drastic than Stush is recommending, chop it off and re-root it - the places that have completely lost the leaves won't get them back again, and the leaves that have been browned at the tips won't regenerate either; I'd carefully trim the brown off with very clean pair of scissors. But it definitely needs a soapy shower, thorough rinsing and probably just a lot of TLC.

If I remember correctly, they're pretty low-light plants, so I wouldn't put it in any direct sun, but something fairly bright would probably be best.