Notre Raison D'être

Thanks to a late night text from a fellow devotee (Kidj), we've got tickets for BOTH nights for Thom Yorke at the Orpheum Theatre this Sunday and Monday. I can hardly believe that we did it.... we're all getting in! I haven't had much time to process this yet, so it doesn't seem real.

But it IS... SO SO SO real.

-Catherine

Shooting Up, Downtown

Shot another month of Mindshare downtown. Art, 3-D music, personal aircrafts, talks about tantric, bass fueled fire displays, cocktails, tacos and fundraising for malaria mosquito nets in africa.....it always makes me wonder what else is hiding in the dark alley ways of our quiet city.

-Catherine

Zach + Jude

We're shooting Zach and Jude's wedding at Pitzer College in October so met up with them a few weeks ago to see the campus and snap some practice pics. They met at Pitzer so it seemed the perfect place for their I do's. Should be a super-fun wedding!

-Catherine

Vegan Cinnamon Bun Cookies

My sister Laurie is an AMAZING baker. AND though she's not vegan, she is one of my only relatives that doesn't looks at me cross-eyed for being one myself . Sooo... as a vegan sympathizer, she used her baking powers for good and sent me this batch of Cinnamon Bun Cookies for my birthday.

Despite traveling 3000 miles, the cookies arrived without being broken into a zillion pieces. Frankly, I would have eaten them anyway, but I just love seeing the ribbon of cinnamon swirling around like that. Ahhh. Along with the cookies she included the recipe too... so I guess she expects me to make them for myself from now on. Jeeez.

Vegan Cinnamon Bun Cookies:

Requires chilling dough in fridge for 3 hours.

Filling:
1/2 cup organic sugar
2 tbsp. ground cinnamon

For the Dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup vegan butter at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
Equivalent of 2 eggs (using egg replacer like Ener-G)
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Filling:
Combine sugar and 2 tbsp cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

Dough:
Whisk flour, baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

In a new bowl, cream butter and brown sugar with a mixer until smooth. Add the egg replacer and vanilla; mix until Incorporated. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients, blending until just Incorporated; do not over mix.

Trace a 16" x 9" rectangle on a sheet of parchment or wax paper. Using your hands, pat the dough into the rectangle shape.

Sprinkle filling mixture evenly over the dough.

Beginning on the long side and using the paper to help you, roll the dough into a log. (do not roll paper into the log... duh.) Wrap the log in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours. (At this point I'd probably just eat all the raw dough, but that's just me.)

While your waiting for the big chill, go for a nice hike or bike ride.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Remove dough from fridge and remove plastic wrap. Slice the chilled dough into 1/4" thick slices and arrange on the cookie sheets spacing about 1" apart. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cookies cool on the sheets for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack.

Enjoy!

Catherine

Life Gave Me Lemons

So, we went on a picnic Saturday night in honor of my birthday. What with it being summer and all, I thought it would be fun to make some simple, fresh treats to eat. Aside from home made Sangria (thanks Deanna!) and a Mediterranean spread from our local middle eastern market, I made a crazy good Herbs-de-Provence roasted onion and tomato to slather of french bread and sliced up some sweet summer watermelon for dessert. The secret ingredient to FANTASTIC watermelon is to add a big ol' squeeze of fresh lemon juice on top. The two flavors are perfect together.

Don't let me fool you... we also had vegan cupcakes, lemon shortbread cookies and cinnamon pinwheel cookies too, but I was too busy eating them to take any photos!

-Catherine

Gina + Paul 6.20.09

Deanna and I had a blast photographing Gina and Paul's (99.9% Vegan) Fullerton Arboretum wedding. We're still going through HUNDREDS of images, but here are a few to wet yer whistle. We knew this wedding was for us when we found out that the happy couple were going to have a wedding trophy. Freakin' sweet.

The Final Count Down

On a beautiful early summer night in May, Mount St. Mary’s College held a graduation reception for their ’09 Weekend College graduates. The weekend program is designed for working adults to complete their undergraduate degrees while still maintaining full time jobs and family lives too. As a graduate of this program (Class of ’03, whoo-hoo!), I know how difficult it was to maintain all these aspects of my life at once. The grad reception was such a fantastic ending to long years of late night studying and sleepless nights.
Not only do grads and their families mingle with professors, councilors and fellow students, but each grad has the opportunity to give a short speech (like the Oscars without the annoying “get off the stage” music). I’m such a sucker for this kind of stuff and had to hold back tears as some students recounted their challenges, sacrifices and triumphs.
Anyway. I’m on the college alumni board so I offered up my mad-photography skills to shoot the event and give the grads the images at no cost. In these tough economic times, I challenged the students to find ways to give back to the school that gave so much to them. If one can’t afford to donate money, what about donating a skill, or one’s time? We’ve all got to find creative ways to be generous, even if our bank accounts can’t take the heat, so I used my photography super-powers for good. Here are a few snaps from the event.

-Catherine '03