Butterbeer, My Biggest Harry Potter Love (Sorry George!)

If you really know me, then you know I'm obsessed with Harry Potter.

So it should be no surprise that I decided to make butterbeer.... on several occasions in fact.  After the first taste, I knew I was in love.  (Sadly though, I personally feel my first batch was the absolute best I've made.  I haven't quite gotten it as perfect since although Indy will disagree with me.)

There are a lot of butterbeer recipes out there.  Just Google it and you'll see for yourself.  I took bits from a couple of recipes to make mine although both recipes were relatively the same.

I pretty much followed this recipe:  http://thisshatteredsymphony.blogspot.com/2010/10/creating-butterbeer.html but added in the rum extract from recipe #1 here:  http://wizardingworldpark.com/top-5-butterbeer-recipes/2010/08/20/ .... not sure it made that much of a difference but I liked it all the same.

My original batch (from the 4th of July) was made somewhat like this:

*1 cup light brown sugar
*2 tablespoons water
*2 tablespoons butter
*1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
*1 cup heavy whipping cream, divided (although I will say the whipping cream you put on top of the drink per the recipes above wasn't stellar.... although admittedly my whipped cream sucked regardless LOL)
*1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
*1/4 teaspoon rum extract
*1/8 teaspoon pumpkin spice (can be left out if you don't like it)
*4 12 oz cans of A&W Cream Soda (but only because we can't buy Virgil's Cream Soda -- the best cream soda EVER -- locally any more)

Mix brown sugar and water in a small pot.  Over medium heat (doing it over medium heat will help the mixture cook slowly so you don't burn it), boil sugar mixture until it reaches 240* on a candy thermometer, stirring continuously.

After you've reached 240*, add butter, cider vinegar, and 1/2 cup of whipping cream to the pot.  Mix together well and remove from heat to let mixture cool.  I stir it occasionally to make sure it stays smooth and doesn't settle too much.

Once cool, add vanilla and rum extracts as well as pumpkin spice.  Be sure to mix the spice in very well or half the batch may taste more pumpkiny than it should.

At this point, I measure 1/4 cup of the sugar mixture out into each glass.  Then pour in about 1/2 a can of cream soda and mix well.  You'll have a lot of foam come up as you're mixing but it's supposed to be that way!  It is butterBEER after all!

Once it's good and mixed together, add the last 1/2 of the cream soda and stir again.  Put in the fridge for an hour or so (I like mine cooler so I leave it in longer) and enjoy!

Oh right... the other 1/2 cup of whipping cream listed above was used to attempt to make a whipped topping.  (The recipes linked above have the directions I followed.... because apparently I was going back and forth between them while I was cooking.)  Personally, I didn't like it.  The foam that comes off the butterbeer was enough for me!


And that, my friends, is butterbeer!  Maybe I should go make another batch to keep me company on this raining day!

4th of July

I said I'd post my insane 4th of July... guess the 25th of July is the perfect day to do it!  ROFL  The thunderstorm is keeping us inside so may as well ramble while I have the time.

Anyways.... back to the 4th!

A nice, quiet day at home was just what we needed!  Especially since none of us but Monster got any decent sleep the night before.  Haha

Since we were up with the sun (quite literally I'm afraid), I went a little crazy.  Apparently 3.5 hours (if that) of sleep and a holiday = a kitchen full of baking.

Here's my list of goodies I made:
(I'll post the recipes later for those who may want them.)

2 loaves of banana bread
2 loaves of dairy free banana bread (gotta let Tornado have some since they were his bananas to begin with LOL)
1 pan of honey cornbread
A big bowl of honey butter
A pineapple upside-down cake
All the fixings for yummy kabobs
And finally, a nice yummy batch of butterbeer

It was a fabulous 4th of July here!  I hope to do it again next year (but maybe without all the baking)!

Today's Random Thought

This is for you witches and wizards out there!  ;)

When holding your wand, do you hold it with your writing hand?

I can only assume yes unless someone tells me different.





Can you tell I'm excited for the second part of Deathly Hallows?  Oh yeah!  I can't wait to see Voldemort defeated!  Right... must buy more Kleenex. 

Ugh.

Seriously!? Why is it when I do finally get a bit of sleep I can't dream of beautiful people but instead I dream of a creepy guy I kick in the gonads.

#FML

How's that for a rambling post!?

Beating The Odds - Our CMV Story

 

39 weeks on 11/2/09

On a snowy winter night, the contractions started interrupting what little sleep I was getting.  After timing several of them we ventured out into the cold in the hopes that when next we returned home, our little bundle of boy would be with us.

It was November 8, 2009.

At 11:20 am, Lucius "Luke" finally came into this world after a fairly easy delivery... for me.  It was, however, not so easy for him.  The nurses noticed right away that something wasn't right.  He's blood sugar was low and he was shivering so they whisked him off to the nursery for closer monitoring.

A few hours after being born

For the next several days we weren't sure what was wrong.  His white blood cell counts were elevated, his platelets were extremely low, his liver and spleen were enlarged, and he had complications from inhaling meconium upon delivery.  Luke would have good days where we thought he was turning the corner then a bad day would put him right back at square one.  Every time we thought we had it figured out, a curve ball was thrown at us.

Finally after a week without any idea what was wrong, the doctors tested for Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and shipped Luke out to the Children's hospital in Seattle.  On November 18 - 3 days after arriving at Children's - we received the confirmation we were hoping we wouldn't get.  Lucius has congenital CMV.

After talking with the infectious disease doctors, we started treatment with Ganciclovir.  This treatment would help suppress the CMV long enough for Luke's body to recover so it could fight the virus on it's own.  Within days of starting the treatment we began to notice the difference it was making.

 

A few days old

On November 25 - the day before Thanksgiving - Luke was released from Children's and we made our trek home.  Treatment continued with an oral version of the Ganciclovir called Valcyte.  Luke remained on the medication for 6 to 7 months until we were sure the CMV was suppressed enough that we could take him off it without complications.

CMV can be devastating to children born with symptoms causing hearing loss, blindness, mental disability, and seizures to name a few.  Luke has been incredibly lucky because I caught it late enough in the pregnancy that it didn't have enough time to attack his growing body.  So far we can say, he's beating the odds.  But his fight won't stop as CMV can cause progressive problems.

May 2011 - 18 months old

Luke is monitored very closely by a team of doctors and has been receiving preventative therapy treatments since he came home from the hospital.  Other than a mild speech delay and some random seizures, he's a normal toddler!  His nickname is Tornado because he never stops moving (yes even in his sleep we can hear him moving around).  He loves books and music!  It appears a love of gaming and electronics is hardwired into his DNA as well.

I had never heard of CMV before Luke's diagnosis.  In the US alone, 50-80% of the population will be infected with CMV by the time they are 40.  Most of them will never even know they have it!  (http://www.cdc.gov/cmv/overview.html)  It's amazing how something that is usually harmless can be so scary and devastating.

June is National Congenital CMV Awareness Month!  Please pass along this blog post and wear a silver ribbon throughout June to help spread the awareness!

Wow.

I really got behind didn't I?  LOL

Guess I should probably update some stuff here on the blog.  Maybe that will spark the ramblings again?

Here's a shot of the Tornado (yeah.... Squirt has been renamed!) that I got this morning.

I <3 this little boy (even when he makes me wanna pull my hair out)!!