Pumpkin Juice and Butterbeer

Those of you who know me locally, might know that I am a HUGE Harry Potter Fan. That said, one of the things that has intrigued me is that I have yet to find a cookbook with the recipes of the food mentioned in the book. While some of it is odd, most of it seems eatable and cookable.

Here are some of my favorite links online to inspired cooking. It is perfect for October!

Hogwarts Celebration:
Yumsugar
Butterbeer Recipe

So far, the cream soda/rootbeer mixed with butterscotch Italian soda syrup and clarified butter seems the most plausible to me, or rather the most palatable. I somehow don't think that JK intended it to me mixed with Schnapps or instant pudding (both of which I found in variations of butterbeer).

Pumpkin Juice is easy. Boil and puree pumpkin (just like apple or grape juice), season and sweeten to taste, and then chill to drink.

I am still bewildered as to why there is no official cookbook. I mean, there is every other merchandising junk theme out there, why not a cookbook? Just saying.

Wish Me Luck

In the next of our using all the beef series, I am making a Shank Boil. Wish me much luck.

Farm Roof Progress

Before:


After:




What Dearest is doing right now is stabilizing the roof structure and preventing further water damage. We plan to re-roof in the Spring/Summer (gah, more color decisions!). If we left the leaks through the winter, not only does water continue to penetrate the house, porches, and basement, BUT it also would freeze-thaw cycle. That does the most damage, more so and more quickly than just water and water rot. Freezing actually destroys the wood fibers by exploding them on a minute level, allowing for more rot and instability; many freeze-thaw cycles later it is almost like paper fiber and about as strong as cardboard. Water is an amazing and formidable enemy to homes of any age.

Many Apoplgies Owed to My Dearest

I was a big baby. A big whiny baby all day long. The thing is as the "thing" cooked it looked and smelled more and more like a beef roast. I had actually planned to take Lil'Bug to the Science Center that day, so I wasn't really escaping. Not really. I did clean the kitchen, really well at that. I talked with my aunt in TX who assured me that it was actually tasty and I needed to stop be such a snot about the whole thing.

So I was ready to try it. Sort of.

But Dearest didn't know that and he came home he was frustrated at me. He grumped a lot, discovered that we were out of tortillias, and finally plopped the tongue out onto the block to be cubed and sauteed.

I ran from the room. Um, poopy diaper to change.

When diner hit the table, Lil'Bug was confused that these "tacos" didn't have cheese. She wanted cheese. Also, she likes to build her own. Things were not right and she got ancy. Blueberry started insisting on being fed, NOW, and because of the lingering latch issue feeding her takes two hands. Dearest was frustrated. He took a bite of the food. Apparently, it was not good.

And that was that. I never even had a chance to take a bite. Dinner was cleared from the table. Feeling were hurt, tot was climbing things in another room, bellies were still hungry. We headed out of the house to diffuse the anxiety and buy art supplies.

I still feel bad, because I intended to be supportive and a good sport, especially after I worked up to it all day.