I agree with Jeff and the nice Riesling, Johannesberg preferably. lol... Last spring, I decided I was going to try my hand at growing Gardenias after many failed attempts at our previous residence. I went to a local farmer's market and bought a 2 gal. one. It is doing so well and had/has what seems like a hundred buds. As soon as I would clip flowers off for my flower bowls, more buds just kept opening up. Here's what worked for me: I planted in a well draining soil which was a mixture of supersoil and finely ground bark chips. I also placed at the bottom of the pot larger nugget barks for better aeration.(Do not use a tray under your pots, gardenias don't like sitting in water and prefer for water to run off.) I place my 5 gal. pot in my patio and gets lots of morning sun and full shade after 1pm. I fertilize once a month with Miracle Gro and every other will use Ironite liquid. Someone suggested using a little vinegar to help with the acidity. But I heard that for acid loving plants, Miracle Gro works just fine. When my gardenias get tired of this routine, I may opt for beer or coffee grounds to see if there's any truth to these helpful tips.

Thanks, everyone for your responses. That link to realbeer.com was very helpful. If a keg will stay good for a couple of months, it seems it would be a good idea to do this. But now, I have to go back and look at our plans to see if I can find a spot to fit one of these "kegerators". Lots of room in the (unfinished) basement, but I don't think we want to be going up and down the steps for every draft. I guess that you also have to choose the type of tap based on domestic vs imported beer. We drink both, so we'd have to buy 2 different taps, or commit to one kind in the keg, and buying the other in bottles/cans. We also do a little home brewing, but thus far I've just been bottling...just small 5 gal. batches. Jojoco...just FYI...the realbeer.com site mentions a locking tap...a nice feature if you do have rascally teenagers in the house.

Sorry about that - here is Nigella Lawson's recipe: For the cake: 1 cup Guinness 1 stick plus 2 two tablespoons unsalted butter 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa 2 cups superfine sugar 3/4 cup sour cream 2 eggs 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 2 cups all-purpose flour 2-1/2 tsp. baking soda For the topping: 8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature 1-1/4 cups confectioners sugar 1/2 cup heavy cream. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and butter and line a 9-inch springform pan. Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter is melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and baking soda. Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake. When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the frosting. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sift over the confectioner's sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsifted confectioner's sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint. There are other recipes identical to this but use 2 8 inch layers - which I would like to do. Pat

The decision is made (and personally I think it was a good decision), but something else occurred to me reading this -- and I'm willing to risk embarrassment to have someone more logical than I am explain it to me. We were doing all this math about how much of the alcohol content burns off during cooking. OK, I'm with the logic on that one; the alchohol reduces due to an heat-induced evaporative process. Got it. Here's the part where I'm scratching my head. HOW is the alcohol content further reduced by dividing by the number of portions? If I have a bottle of wine that if 12% alcohol, then the single glass I have from it is also 12% alcohol and each sip of wine I take from that glass is at 12%. If I have a platter of Beef Burgundy (or whatever) that has a residual alchohol content of 3%, then the single portion on my plate is also at 3%, and each bite I take would be at 3%. Granted I will not consume the same AMOUNT of alchohol in one serving as opposed to the whole dish just as I wouldn't consume the same AMOUNT of alchohol in a glass as is in a bottle, but the percent stays the same. Or if it does not, someone please explain why not using non-technical terms. I'm setting aside the argument as to whether it's harmful or desirable and focusing on the math.