Sylvester the cat.

There have been a lot of exciting things happening around our household! From pies, to new soup recipes, crafts, and weddings, there has been all manner of excitement! The latest and greatest of them though is the addition of our new kitty cat, Sylvester. I LOVE cats, my husband is not their biggest fan, he would rather have a dog. BUT recently he finally caved in and got me a kitty.

 It happened at a Petsmart, my husband said "lets go in and look at the adoption animals" it was an adoption weekend. We walk in and immediately see the cats but there are no dogs to be found, too bad for my husband. So we walk over and look at the cats, they had kittens and older cats  they were SO cute. My husband knows how badly I've wanted one, I would always jokingly ask or tell him what I wanted for my birthday or Christmas was a cat, to which he would retort with a funny joke about cats... This time was different, I'm there looking at the cats and he says to me "Do you want to get one?" OF COURSE I DO!!! It was the best thing ever! My husband is so sweet and knew I loved them. So we spent the next like, two hours in Petsmart playing with different kitties trying to decide which one to get. You had your typical orange tabby kitten, and two wild brother and sister kitties, but there was one that stuck out. A funny little kitty with a funny looking face. 

He had a cute smushed looking nose, I initially thought maybe something was wrong with him but it turns out he just has a furry face. I just could not get over his cute little face. We held him and played with him and he just purred and let us hold him, I had a feeling he was the one.

We told the man we wanted him and that we'd like to apply to adopt him. WHAT A PROCESS. It wasn't awful, it's for the animals safety, making sure they are going to a good home. We could not wait to get our kitty though! We spent the whole, 4 days we waited, thinking up a name for him. It was my husband who came up with the perfect name:  Sylvester. When we got the call to go get him, we were elated! Like crazy new parents we were busy buying out Petsmart of it's kitten supplies. We did get pretty good deals on everything though, bed, carrier, and collars on sale! Boy, when we got that kitty he was PERFECT. He rode in my lap the whole way home and just purred.

It did not take him long to get adapted to our little place, I had work so he hung out with my husband on my day off and boy did he take to him.

Talk about instant best buds. Sylvester was just such a cutie! 

Sylvester has since gained like, 2 pounds had his first couple vet visits and passed with flying colors! 

He is totally one of those youtube-vine cats that runs around on two legs with an arched back. He.is.hilarious. He is super talkative and loves to snuggle. He also is fascinated with the birds that attend to my bird feeder. Pretty much the coolest cat ever.

He's even had his first road trip to visit his auntie in the mountains and literally slept the whole time... no whining or anything. It was awesome.

For now, Mr. Sylvester is busy growing, hunting, getting into things he shouldn't and just being an awesome cat.

We're thinking he takes after his fur daddy and naps a lot. 

We look forward to having Sylvester around for a nice long time :).

Strawberry Pie

So, I have recently baked a new and delicious pie! I thought my pumpkin pie from fall time was good but this summer treat was just the thing! I found a recipe for a strawberry filling that did not use any kind of gel or syrup and that you actually bake. A lot of recipes I saw either called for gel loaded with corn syrup and fake stuff or you just didn't bake it. I was looking for a wholesome, made from scratch, BAKED strawberry pie. I found it. 

Pinterest is where I find most of my recipes, that and sites like allrecipes.com.

I really enjoy the challenge of making something totally from scratch. I enjoy baking and cooking in general so this was a real treat, a chance to work on my pie crust skills. The recipe for the pie filling came from this blog: "Try anything once", here is the link to the pie filling.  http://www.tryanythingonceculinary.com/bucket-list-strawberry-pie/ This blogger gave a step by step tutorial for preparing the pie filling and when to prepare your crust. I used my trusty Betty Crocker pie crust recipe for one, 9" crust and just doubled it. I also got adventurous and attempted a lattice pie topping, it worked out alright.  UNFORTUNATELY for this pie I had run out of foil so my edges got pretty crispy, but it was still delicious. My husband's words were: "You need to make this again" he really enjoyed it!

There is my lovely pie, crispy on the edges but fresh and delicious!

I love that this filling was made from simple and fresh ingredients. My family is trying to steer away from overly- processed foods, they just don't make you feel good. This recipe also called for using something I had never heard of before, "Turbinado sugar". I had no idea what that is, turns out it is just minimally processed cane sugar, it was used to sprinkle on top of the crust to caramelize;it was a nice touch. 

My verdict is that this is a great recipe! A little sweet so follow closely to the sugar amounts called for, or even use a tad less. I will definitely be making this pie again!