Happy Birthday, my Love.

Yesterday was a big day at the Curtis household. My mate had his birthday and we are now full players in the 21rst century! I got him an Ipod. A proper one instead of our junky Telefunkin one from the Outback. Sadly it will need to be exchanged as there is some sort of software malfunction. Oh well, I gave it a go. We had a pleasant dinner and a really wonderful cake. HE wanted an Apple Cake and I used a recipe from my FT Hood Sunday School Teacher (Wanda Lewis). It was Awesome. Very simple and straightforward. Both the taste and recipe. I will share it below.

The other big thing was Ike (our black fluffy cat) was castrated yesterday. He was feeling very insecure and found a nice warm place to rest and purr his brains out last night while I was reading the kids their bedtime story. This is odd for him as he normally just hangs out around the boarders of our family. Not that he doesn't like us, he just had rather supervise our activities instead of participate. Ellie (the gray lady cat) is always right in the midst of everything, she is just the sweetest thing. But his surgery went well and he seems quite recovered this morning. He is supposed to be taking it easy. Oh, for those of you with access to your Post Vet office they de-sex critters for almost nothing. It is $20 for a male and $40 for a female. That is a fraction of what it costs at the off post vets (civilians). We did have to wait a bit for one of the vets to return from Afghanistan but that is fine. Ike really was not that much trouble with nuts, but In the future he may be, right? At least that is what I hear from other owners of big male cats.


Well, maybe he did do a bit of damage with those reproductive organs of his...we will see soon. Ellie was supposed to have her uterus removed as well yesterday, but I just couldn't be a part of cat abortion. I know I know, I am a terrible cat owner. But I remember one of my favorite memories was our dog having puppies. She may just be getting fat, right? You will have to let me know if you want a free fluffy kitten ;o)



Ok, I need to go fold clothes and vacuum so my mom can see what a brilliant house keeper she raised. Do you all freak out a bit before your mom comes to visit? I do. I love her to bits and I want to impress her with my domestic skills!

Oh stand by! here is the Recipe for the Apple Cake. It is very nice and moist with a fantastic Caramel Sauce for the Icing. Sometimes I put cinnamon in, but this time I didn't since It was for my man. Oh and you can add a cup of nuts (walnuts) and it really makes it wonderful, but once again it was for my husband and he wanted a "JUST APPLE CAKE" so here you go the "JUST APPLE CAKE" the way I made it Yesterday.....

• 1 cup room temperature butter
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3.5 cups peeled and chopped granny smith apples

Butter and flour a tube or bunt cake pan. Mix the butter, oil and sugar together until light and fluffy, then add eggs one at a time. In another bowl I mix the flour, salt and soda, then I add it to the butter and egg mixture. When that is all mixed up I add the Vanilla and the chopped apples.

Bake in a 350 F oven for 1 hour (it said to bake for 1.5 hours, but my oven cooks too quickly so you may need to play with this part a bit. Good luck!)

Caramel Sauce for the icing

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup half and half
• 1 cup Brown Sugar

cook all this on the stove top and let it boil for a couple minutes. Make sure you stir it! Don't scorch it! Then pour it onto the top of the still warm cake and it will rock your world. I love it. I burned the heck out of my tongue tasting it, so watch out for that too. The sauce is very runny at first so make sure the plate your cake is turned out on will be big enough for some overflow. Enjoy it friends!

Off to clean a bit!

XO,

Tia