Thursday, September 10, 2009

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

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hehe...love the boys in their underpants! Cute. Cake sounds yummy!! Um, and yes, I certainly do freak out before my mom comes to visit. We always want to please MOM!!

LJ said...

I'm curious as to who knocked up Ellie??

the Campfollower said...

Good question Laura! Well...the very sweet lady we got Ellie and Ike from had 18 other cats, so maybe Ellie found her true love there and was already pregnant when we brought her home. But Ellie is quite a frisky gal. We have tried to keep Ellie and Ike seperated, but she is very clever about getting to Ike. So it could totally be that her brother is also the father of her kittens. I don't know how scorned incest is in the cat world, but I have done some research on this breed (selkirk rex)and there is a good deal of inbreeding going on. The closer related the parents the more curly the hair of the offspring. We will call it a genetic expiriment and see what happens. I know that other flaws are exaserbated with inbreeding as well, so we will keep that in mind.Now, gestation is not very long among felines, so that will help solve the mystery as well. Royality have been inbreeding for ages and they seem to be doing fine ;o)

Ali Arostegui said...

I want a kitten!!!
<3

the Campfollower said...

I will sure give you one!

Kristin L said...

Our cat likes to sit on my butt too. :-)

Browndirtcottage said...

Wow...what a hunky soldier man....
sure got my attention!
W-a-y cute kiddie/cat photo too!!!

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