Banana Carrot Almond Muffins

On a lazy afternoon, nothing seems like a better way to pass the time than baking a fresh batch of muffins. These muffins sneak in a bunch of secret healthy stuff like carrots and raw almonds, too, so you don't have to feel as guilty about eating something so incredibly delicious.

Banana Carrot Almond Muffins

1 cup mashed bananas (~3 very ripe bananas)

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup canola oil

2 eggs

2 cups sifted flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp ground ginger

1 cup finely grated carrots
¾ cup of chopped raw almonds 

Combine bananas, brown sugar, salad oil and eggs in mixer. Mix until the batter begins to resemble the most disgusting case of diarrhea you have seen.

yumz

Sift flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg together in large bowl.

Stir in banana mixture. Fold in carrots.

Spoon into muffin tray. Bake at 350 F for about 30 minute. Toothpick test it, then adjust time accordingly. When done, enjoy ASAP.

 

Do you want to know the story of how I became a 20-something Cat Freak?

This pretty much sums it up.

Resurrection of a Cat Freak

 Ok guys, I have literally died and fallen off the face of the interweb. Fortunately for you, I (finally got internet in my apartment) have risen from the dead, just like Zombie Jesus!

All Hail Thee Holy Undead

I would like to say that I have have gone on crazy adventures and done super awesome great things since writing to the interweb last, but like most people that spend more time with cats than humans, I have led a moderately boring life. I have a steady income now doing two jobs I really like, so at least that's something. I also got sick at one point. Now that I'm back and more powerful than ever before, I will use this great responsibility to rant about some things that have been on my mind this week:

1. Wild Fires: Is this the straw that broke the global-warming non-believer's back? Fires have been blazing not only all over north and central Florida, but have also been burning through other parts of the United States for over a week now. Can they deny the blatant consequences of climate change? Let us also remember that we are a species that has figured out how to walk on the moon, send robots to mars, make phones that have revolutionized communication and daily life, and we invented the internet. And we can't figure out how to stop these fires? Who's the bigger bitch now, us or Nature?
2. Cash Cab: I was watching this show yesterday, thinking about how awesome it was. Not only do they have some of the most interesting trivia ever, but it's a show that ANYONE from any walk of life can accidentally stumble on and win some major cash-o-la!! ..... Or is it? The fact is, Cash Cab trolls the streets of Manhatten and picks up people on their way to Waldorf Astoria or a party at MoMA. Not to mention that the averagely educated American would NOT make it past the first round of questions. With those two facts in mind, what is the purpose of a show like Cash Cab? To make middle to upper class individuals just slightly better off? I can't help thinking that the money these contestants earned will be blown on an expensive bar tab that very same night or maybe another louis vitton wallet for the collection. Not to say that Cash Cab is claiming to "make a difference"... I just think it's a pointless and embarrassing circulation of currency. Why do we have to have shows like that, throwing millions of dollars weekly at well off individuals? What if one season of Cash Cab was canceled, and instead that money was used to fund the construction and maintenance of a grade school in an impoverished African village?
3. The "great" factor bestowed recently on our president by many adoring fans for Obama's plan to remove troops from the Middle-East: Wow. What a surprise. Now that it's almost time for campaign season, you are finally trying to appeal to those who elected you in the first place. Getting 10 thousand troops of the 250000+ troops out (conveniently planned to happen in the month prior to elections) may placate many of the sheep, but not I. How does everyone else not immediately see this as a move to manipulate people into re-electing a crappy leader?
4. Boyfriends who work too much and on an opposite schedule than you: THEY SUCK!! QUITE YOUR JOB AND LET ME BE YOUR SUGAAAA MOMMMAAA!!!

COMING SOON: The first episode of "Cooking With Cat Freaks" featuring Shara Lunon! 

Bye Bye Gainesville

So now that I have officially become an alumni for the University of Florida, I have begun the process of moving back to Jacksonville. I can now live with my best friend (of 8 years but who's counting?!), take the "long-distance" out of my relationship status, eat dinner with my family, and go to the beach whenever I feel LIKE IT BITCHEZZZ!! I'm really excited to explore the urban mecca that is downtown Jacksonville (a whole 2,000 of it's 1,000,000+ residents claim residency in downtown!) and hang out in all the cute coffee shops in my new neighborhood on the river. This also means that I have a whole new smorgasbord of local music to go check out, so get ready to start hearing about it in future posts.
With that said, I am going to miss Gainesville so much :( It is this adorable little town all jammed packed full of culture and hippies and hipsters and crusties (side note, do you have crusties where YOU live? I recently discovered that this may be a central/north florida phenomenon only...) and cute places to hang out/eat/get tipsy and soooo many talented artists and musicians! Right before I began packing up to leave town, we had a birthday for our dear dear friend, Tristan. Here is some footage from the night, my homage to Gainesville, FL:

Stuff I like Right Now

1. Xray Eyeballs
I'm not all that great is "genre"-atizing music like so many people enjoy doing this days ("Glitch-folk" "Post-grunge" "Septic Metal"; Jesus christ people, how am I supposed to know what that means? Just tell me if it sucks or not?!?!)
Well I am here to say that Xray Eyeballs does not suck. My attempt to describe them is: they are a lo-fi pop band from Brooklyn, with a sort of 80's goth feel. Plus, this music video is awesome. Who doesn't love voodoo dolls, girls with tattoos in bubble baths, and excuses to puke blood?




2. The Cute Show
The Cute Show basically embodies everything that I believe in. It is a product of Vice TV, and the premise of the show is to go around and get footage of cute stuff! Then, adorable quirky music is added on top of the footage, and voila! And episode of The Cute Show!! They have many episodes about cats, of course, but also have baby pot-bellied pigs, baby walruses, puppies, bunnies, cupcakes, ice cream, and best of all, sloths!


This is one of my all time favorites, about a Japanese cat-fashion designer.






 
3. Slutever

  
Slutever, aka Karley Sciortino, is pretty much the coolest girl I stalk on the internet. I started reading her blog when she was squatting in London and have been hooked ever since. She talk about lots of super interesting things like crazy sex fetishes (she's training to be a pro-domme right now, the post about it is hilarious.), dating, gay boyfriends, and her super awesome life running around NY/America/London with artists and bands. You can soak in her words of wisdom here.

4. Mugsy The Cat
All around Bad-Ass. 

5. The Seldom Seem
 The Seldom Seem is a long distance project between photographer's Felix Werbowy and Boy Loyd. What happens is Felix sends a photo to Boy, Boy finds a photo from his collection, then they are posted on their tumblr.

I loved having pen-pals when I was a kid, and I think this is a really cool idea for a modern version of that. The excitement of the pen pal was what you didn't know about them, trying to piece together who they really are through what they wrote to you. With the advent of such joyous things as the internet and social networking sites, very little information is kept form each other these days. 
I don't think that internet friends you have never met are quite the same thing as a pen pal. Although they choose what information to present on the internet, there is inevitably much more information about them presented in front of you at any given moment. Not the same as a pen pal. A pen pal is a person you have never seen, you have never heard their voice, you don't know what high school their sister goes too, or whether or not "Pirate" is a language they speak. 
These two artists are conversing through their snapshots, not through skype or facebook chat. It is so beautiful to me that the internet can provide a pathway for people to communicate in a way that they stay removed from each other, reminiscent of a more "primitive" day and age. 

Irish Soda Bread

So if you logged on today expecting to see pictures of people you don't know holding their cats, well I'm sorry. I don't think I'm going to post those every week, because I realized when I'm not spending all day studying, I tend not to spend any time on facebook, either. 

In other words, I haven't found enough pictures of people with their cats because this past week. I've had more of a life and haven't been lurking the facebook world as much, so you really should be proud of me, not disappointed!! I promise I will post another edition of "People With Cats" again, but maybe not on a weekly basis.

Instead, I'm sure you will enjoy this recipe for Irish Soda Bread, passed down to me from my irish mother (who may or may not have adapted it from the joy of cooking, and not her own irish mother...). 

 Even though this bread is made from scratch, there is no yeast in it. The baking soda is what makes it rise! I recommend eating a slice of it toasted with some butter or cream cheese. And maybe a hot toddy, too, for good measure. yumz.

Irish Soda Bread

ingredients:

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon sugar

¼ cup chilled butter

½ to 1 cup raisins or currants

2 teaspoons caraway seeds (1 tsp caraway 1 tsp fennel seeds works well, too)

1 beaten egg

2/3 cup buttermilk

directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Sift together in a large bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar

Add butter and cut into the flour with a pastry blender (fork + elbow grease= perfect substitute), until the mixture has the consistency of course cornmeal, sort of like this:

Stir in: raisins/currant & caraway/fennel seeds (just skip this step if you don't want seeds in your bread)

Mix together: beaten egg & buttermilk

Then, add to dry ingredients and stir well

Knead briefly and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper

  Cut a bold cross or criss-cross pattern over the top and sides so the bread will not crack in baking (I did not make the incision bold enough, and the bread cracked!) 

Brush the top with milk (I used soy, cow milk would probably have given it a better sheen)

Bake 35 to 40 minutes.

Vegan Substitutions: Substitute just about any kind of vegetable based shortening for butter. Smart Balance makes baking sticks with vegetable oil, and those work quite nicely.  

Soy yogurt or vegan sour cream can substitute for buttermilk.  
The egg can be replaced with a vegan egg substitute. A friend recently introduced me to this.  It's this powder that you mix with a few teaspoons of water to replace eggs in baking, cooking, etc. etc.

You can skip the milk on top, or use soy like I did.  It is only for looks, though, so not really necessary either way. 

People With Cats

Sorry it's a day late, I took a last minute trip to tally last night to see the illustrious Elizabeth Miller and also see The Books play. It will be on Sunday next week, I swear!

Jay Leno and his kitty!!

3/26/11

So, like two weeks ago, I went down to my favorite neighborhood bar, The Laboratory (A cafe of science!) to hear Rachel Goodrich play. She's a singer from Miami who plays a ukelele (although she played a guitar when I saw her. boo.) and kazoo and she's super adorbz. But alas, I have been bogged down in the world of research papers, pop quizzes, and graduation plans. So I am just now getting to writing about the night. My b. While we're on the subject of "my b", I also want to apologize for the quality of camera recording, it has a crack in the lense that has turned into eighteen cracks :(
These are two of the songs Rachel and her band played that night:

The opening acts were really good too! The first lady was named Jacqueline Suskin, and she's touring right now promoting her new book. It's called "The Collected" and it's a book of poetry based on found photographs that she has collected around Florida. Here is an excerpt from the book:

you can watch her read more excerpts here, here, here, and here. You can follow this link to her website, where you can find information on how to purchase her book!
The other performer was this fabulous man by the name of Liam Barnes. He has an adorable giggle and plays an accordian which is pretty impressive. He did cover songs, and happened to include one by one of my favorite singers/Womyn ever, Dolly Parton!! Oh yes, mmhhhmm.

So good, right?

People With Cats

So, you have probably come to the conclusion at this point that I like cats. Another thing I really like to do is aimlessly lurk every far reaching corner of facebook, secretly looking in on everyone's lives who has left their pages on public view. FYI: This does NOT make me a creep, it makes you weird for leaving your fb page open for the world to see. You wanted this to happen.
But I digress. This past week, I had a stroke of genius, and decided to combine my two favorite interests: People and Cats!! From here on out, I will posting pictures of people with their cats every sunday that I found on facebook. I think it's super adorable to see people with their kitties, so in love with each other. I hope you do too! Here it is, the first installation of: People With Cats

Joel Zimmerman (Deadmau5) and his kitty =^.^=

If you see yourself on here, and don't want to be, just e-mail me at cfitzp25@ufl.edu and I'll take your picture off. If you would like to send me a picture of you with your cat, e-mail at the same address.

Last Night

 I had a dream that I was chillin with Danny Devito. Real talk, it was amazing. Also, this was the first dream I've remembered in a very long time, which obviously means it's some sort of sign.

An American Saga

I personally watched a lot of Simpsons growing up, as did you. Yes, you. In the past decade, the style of humor that made The Simpsons a classic for me and my peers started to decline. It just wasn't the same. I don't watch a lot of the newer episodes, but I have to say, this is thee best episode I have seen in a looong time. So many marijuana references (cheech and chong guest star) and cat jokes, all woven into a classic tale  from The Bard.

Another great thing about this episode is one of my favorite characters is featured prominently in it: The Crazy Cat Lady!!!

<3 <3 My Hero <3 <3

Personally, all of my favorite Simpsons Episodes have a psychedelic animation sequence. Here are some links to others:

Weekend At Burnsies 
Homer is prescribed medical marijuana after sustaining serious eye injuries from a once friendly flock of crows



El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer
Homer eats mexican chili peppers which make him trip balls. He then goes on a spiritual journey through a metaphorical desert with a fox (whose voice is Johnny Cash) as a spirit guide. 

Epilogue

I only have six weeks left until I graduate from college, I feel as if this should be the end of one book and the beginning of another, but it feels more like I'm sitting in the middle of the chapter. This isn't an end or a beginning, just part of the story.

Magnolia Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have been promising to start posting recipes for a while now, and I figure this is the perfect one to start out with. The Magnolia Bakery is infamous for their desserts, and if you look around a little, the recipes tend to get leaked onto blogs (just like this one!!) and other sites. This is a really basic recipe for chocolate chip cookies that turn out gooey and heavenly every time, and you WILL end up eating 7 in one sitting without realizing it.
The only change I made was replacing a teaspoon of vanilla extract for a teaspoon of cinnamon, because everyone knows a cookie isn't really a cookie without cinnamon. DUH! A side note on caster sugar: it sounds fancy and like you have to go out to some specialty store to find, but if you put plain white sugar in a blender or food processor and pulse for a few seconds, you will have just made your own caster sugar!
So here ya go:

 

 Magnolia Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies: 

M. Night Shyamalan Style (with a twist!)

Ingredients:

  3 cups all-purpose unbleached flour (bleached is fine too... if you enjoy ingesting poisons)

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp fine grain salt (not kosher/sea salt)

1 & 1/3 cup unsalted butter (2 and 2/3 sticks)
1 cup caster sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, the baking soda, and the salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugars until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Add the egg, vanilla, and cinnamon and mix well.  Add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in the chocolate chips.  

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls on to ungreased cookie sheets, leaving several inches between for expansion.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Mr. Trent

     Photo: Eddie Roqueta

So I'm sure you all are wondering how someone so ends up a cat freak at the ripe young age of 21. Isn't that normally saved for the old crotchety bachelorettes of 62 that have given up on men-kind and instead turned to the fuzzy comfort of the feline? Not at all! "She must have one really awesome cat" you all thought "I'd sure like to meet that cat, if she's so obsessed, it must be the world's coolest cat." And indeed, it is the truth. I would like to introduce you to Mr. Trent (he's getting knighted by Queenie Windsor next week, then you may address him as Sir Trent.) As you can he is thee most beautiful cat man has ever laid eyes on, and he's also got the swaggest moves in town. This is him as a kitten:

daawww!! When he was really little I got to catsit this bad-ass cat name Bowser for a few months. He took Trent under his philosophical wing and trained him in the ways of being a chill ass fat lazy lover cat. I am forever grateful for the great seer Bowser, and his supa-fly sexy owner Samanthia.

So anyways, Mr. Trent is a mackeral tabby, which means he has these crazy swirly thingies as markings that are pretty. And they make little hearts on his rump right in the same spot as a My Little Pony! Instead of meowing (the language of plebes) Mr. Trent prefers to make little chirping noises that kind of sound like a baby veloso raptor. He's very friendly with every house in a two-block radius where I assume (and have also been told by some) that he gets extra meals every day. He once stole a watch out of my neighbors hands then got stuck of my roof. I'll leave you with a montage to his everlasting glory.

  Photo: Shara Lunon

    Photo: Eddie Roqueta

    Photo: Shara Lunon

2/26/11

So I heard some glorious music this past weekend at my friends house party...

Gabriel (from Totally Nebular and solo work as Tree Hopping, both super good. He's also my neighbor =^.^=) and Jio (His friend who I sometimes see skateboarding next door. Yeah I'm a creeper.)

Apparently these two have been "jamming out" together recently, and didn't have any set plans music-wise, but both are obvs super talented and pulled it off really well! It had a really upbeat, galactica-spacey, pop-punk vibe, and I mean that in the best of ways.

This next band, Resin Hits, was moshing-in-a-beer-puddle-in-a-living-room kind of music, so that is what we all proceeded to do.

I DEMAND MORE!!

This is a little bit of a freestyle sesh/war that went up later/drunker in the night. Great job on keeping the camera straight, Shara.

The best part of this video is definitely Jason (blonde hair, floppy hat)

Way in the past, but too grand not to talk about: Shara's Birthday

So yeah, my biffle/roomate Shara turned 21 this past september. It was a paint party/house show/bonfire&drumcircle. Basically all the normal party choices in gainesville smashed into one giant hermaphic super-party! Here is some footage from the evening.

My boyfriend Frank took this video when the party was just starting. He is quite talented at shooting videos with a story. Epic tales of adventure.



He shot this one later in the night:



Some of our friends played music later in the night. This is another biffle of mine, Xochiquetzal, who plays super awesome folk music and sings songs about love and nature and hating the government.



This is my friend Tristan and his friend David, who are the head of music projects Ostral and Levek, respectively:



Lovely night with lots of lovely people :)

Meow!

Hello everyone! Welcome fellow cat freaks! My name is Colleen, and unfortunately, cats will not be the only thing I am blogging about. Although they sure are cute.

I've decided to start a blog for several reasons.
Reason 1: Everyone else is doing it.
Reason 2: to share recipes! I am an avid fan of food-related blogs and pretty much everything that can fall under the label "food". I make cupcakes, indian food, soup, breads, tex-mex, scones, vegan deelites, fried chicken, mediterranean, raw food, nom nom nom... I might also be sharing some arts/crafts/DIY projects (I have long term plans to build a rabbit hutch... stay tuned!!)
Reason 3: to post adorable pictures and videos of animals. Joking. (.....or am I?)
Reason 4: to write about local (Gainesville, FL atm)/not local art and music, which is probably why everyone ever starts a blog, but I like to talk about it as much as the next person. Some of my favorites at the moment are beach house, mum, neil young (really just the album "harvest").
Reason 5: To document and glamorize my grand misadventures!!

Anywho, I'm off to enjoy couch time with my lovely roomate, Shara. Toodles*