getting unexpected results with str_replace

[Couling]

I'm getting a little trouble replacing a charicter in a string. I'm running php 5.1.2 on a windows XP pro machine. The following produces no result and no error message:
<?php echo(str_replace('&', 'and', 'eggs & beans')); ?>

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong here.

Thanks a lot for your time. 🆒