Mini-Ramble: Various Foods That Do and Don't Exist (Going To Hogwarts).

     Hello, all.  G-star here.  Everything's been going just fine and dandy since I updated the site; more views, more comments, and a little free advertising.  I knew that sharing option was a good idea.  ^_^
     Also, the music player is great.  Apparently it scared MC (a new purpose for it) just by playing King of Anything.  Think what it would've done if it had been playing Monster...heheh.
     Today's my dad's birthday.  Happy birthday, Dad!  We're going out to dinner straight after I get picked up from Minecraft club; which, by the way, Smore has decided to join.  (I shall sacrifice her to the horrors of gaming...)  My dad picked Cornucopia for his birthday dinner.  But not just any Cornucopia.  No-oh.  Usually the food tastes weird and the wait is horrible, but this is a special outlet.  It still has a long wait, but the food's great!
     We found it together by accident when Dad and I went out to a fundraiser concert for a Christian singer.  She was pretty good, but what I really looked forward to was the opening act, Caleb and Sol, one of my favorite groups since elementary school~ ^_^  But that wasn't the best part.  It went on pretty late, and by the time it was over, Dad and I were starving.  It was a pretty long drive home and the closest restaurant was the Cornucopia across the street.  We resigned to eating there, but when we got our burgers I realized we had stumbled upon heaven.  They were SO AMAZINGLY GOOD.  Juicy, flavorful, perfectly spiced....
     We've been dreaming of going back there ever since.  I'm looking forward to it.
Yesterday the French club had a Harry Potter day.  Naturally, I attended.  It all worked out, because although I had to skip Gaming Club, I had gone on Tuesday because Book Club had been moved to Wednesday.
     ...probably the only one who understands my schedule is me...
     Anyway, they played The Goblet Fire in French, with English Subtitles.  Their French voices sounded odd, especially Hagrid's, but Fred and George's sounded right.  Speaking of the twins, I noticed that during their fight after growing beards because of the Age Line around the Goblet Fred threatens George with "I'll tear your ears off!"
     ......ah, the irony.  The sad, sad irony.
     They served butterbeer along with Berty Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and the butterbeer at least was great!  (I didn't risk the jellybeans because once when a boy brought some back from Orlando I kept getting spinach and play-doh flavor.)  At Hogsmead the butterbeer is slightly alcoholic, but obviously they didn't do that for French Club or they may have been arrested.  Instead, they used an abundance of cream soda, ginger ale, heavy cream, and brown sugar.  And LORD, WAS IT GOOD.  I had two, even though I was still full from the first.
     A few otaku friends of mine were there too and we had some intense discussions about the movie.  We agreed that sometime we have to organize a movie marathon at one of our houses.  I would bring the butterbeer.
     The best part is that sometime this year my family's going to Orlando to visit Disneyworld, Universal Studios AND Harry Potter World!  (A feat only accomplished after weeks of nagging.)  I'm desperately anticipating it.
     Well, that was all I had to talk about today.  Here's a butterbeer recipe so you can make your own at home!  (Minus the alcohol.)  Enjoy, and until next time, this is G-star, signing off.



Ingredients
**All research I conducted turned up that McCormick’s Imitation Butter Flavor is vegan, but I cannot guarantee it**

FOR THE BUTTERBEER
6 12-ounce bottles chilled cream soda, or 1/2 recipe Homemade Cream Soda, substitute diet cream soda for a still yummy sugar-free version
3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) imitation butter flavor, or 2 tablespoons clarified butter (instructions linked above **clarified butter does not always blend well with the cold beverage, see info above**)
OPTIONAL – 1 ounce light rum, per serving, for adults only

FOR THE FOAM (Vegan/Dairy-free recipe linked above)
2 cups heavy cream
6 tablespoons sugar, or splenda for sugar free version
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons imitation butter (if using clarified butter, double the amount to 3 teaspoons, or 1 tablespoon)

To make the butterbeer: Set out 6 16-ounce glasses. Place 1/2 teaspoon of imitation butter (or 1 teaspoon clarified butter) in each glass. Pour 12 ounces of cream soda into each glass, over the butter. Lightly stir, if necessary.

To make the foam: In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, whip the heavy cream on medium high speed for 3-4 minutes until it starts to thicken. Add the sugar and continue whipping until very soft peaks begin to form, another 3-4 minutes (if you need to whip more or less, then be sure to do so, the times can vary quite a bit based on environment). Stir in the vanilla and imitation butter (or clarified butter), then whip for another 30 seconds or so, until soft peaks form.
Spoon a generous portion of foam on top of each glass of butterbeer, mixing gently, if desired (or spoon the foam into the bottom of the glass and pour the butterbeer over the top). Serve immediately.

Recipe by Darla

http://bakingdom.com/2010/11/butterbeer-oh-yes-friends-butterbeer.html

Sacrificed To the Horrors of Gaming (Oh, Caffeinated Seattle/Yet Another Dream).

     Hello, all.  G-star here, and no, I don't really have much to talk about...
     MC doesn't really want to say hi, since she's doing Spanish, but SHE WILL ANYWAY.
     I hardly remember the first week of Christmas vacation, which my health teacher deigned to call winter vacation because "some people don't celebrate Christmas".  And that is true, there's also Hanukkah, and other holidays I can't remember...but seriously.  We get that week off specifically for Christmas, and the next for New Year's.  That's just how it is.  I don't understand why the teacher would purposely point that out.  He even asked everyone if there was anything they noticed about what he says...
     Ah well.  Too late for that.
     Patveli has been pestering MC and I to read Homestuck, and while I was a tiny bit interested at first, it got annoying and slightly dirty.  MC, on the other hand, has become obsessed.  Dang you, Patveli.  You've stolen my best friend and sacrificed her to the horrors of the internet.  (Not that I haven't already committed self-sacrifice with all these roleplays and dating sims...)  The only reason I'm even trying to read it is because I want to find out who Davesprite is.  He was a character in a webcomic-based dating sim and my favorite character.  So yes...
     Speaking of MC, she went to Seattle over last weekend.  (I, on the other hand, stayed home all break reading, surfing the web, and playing my new Naruto game.  Which, by the way, my brother has become sadly obsessed with, even though he pronounces it "Nay-ra-too."  Sad, but MC finds it hilarious.  And yes, I have continued reading Naruto and am currently on volume 15.  My favorite character in the game is Rock Lee, by far, because of his epic Taijutsu skills.  He was also my favorite character in the manga, and his fighting style matches my playing style perfectly.  Unfortunately, I can't play very far in story mode because I haven't read far enough and I don't want any spoilers.  At the same time I bought the Naruto game I got Guitar Hero World Tour and am having a ball with it, though I discovered Patveli's favorite song in one of the first gigs of career mode.  Well, lookey there, I just filled a paragraph that was supposed to be dedicated to MC's Seattle trip with a parentheses comment about my newest video games.  Those are my priorities.)  Apparently the highlight of the trip was....going to an underground bus station that looked like a train station in a giant concrete tube.  While that is interesting, I don't see why it wouldn't be something like Fifth Street Market or Starbucks (her favorite store EVER and the most populous building in Seattle).  Whatever.  That is Miss Cappuccino.
    Since I don't have anything else to talk about, let me mention another odd dream I had last night.  The first part was myself, some old friends, and Stulte (the last member of my private club with MC and Patveli) at some sort of Minecraft racecar track.  Suddenly there was an odd tidal wave and everything was flooded, and I was on a large makeshift raft in the middle of a neighborhood at night with MC, two boys from IHS, possibly Patveli, and Symphony, a character from MC's and my telovelic.  A shark somehow broke the raft into four pieces by hitting the bottom, and I was on a piece with MC, possibly Patveli, and one of the boys from IHS.  We paddled toward the others to try to bring the raft back together (how would we do that?) and somehow we managed it.  The rest of the dream was pretty much nonsense, except for one part where someone said of Symphony "If he had any less testosterone, he'd be making daisy chains".  Oddly enough, this pretty much defines his character.  He's a WIMP.  Also, MC had a dream that my parents were running a sketchy business in the house where people had to actually come into the house, and for some reason my brother wasn't allowed to know and....hiding and...tonsils...you know what?  Nevermind.
     And that would pretty much be everything interesting that's happened in the last week.  Let's hope I get a life soon.  Until next week or whenever, this is G-star, signing off.