Fresh from the...

Underappreciated Gems: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

2012-02-15T10:22:00.000-08:00

I will be the first to admit that this show wasn't perfect. First and foremost, it should've just been called Terminator: The Connor Chronicles. Placing all of the emphasis on Sarah Connor and not also her son John was, in my opinion, a misstep. There were also some downright ridiculous plots (like that door shadow killer that was unceremoniously dropped) and boring side stories, but the overall arc of the show was really engaging.

I will warn you, however, that the second season finale of the show, which ended up being the series finale, ends on an epic cliffhanger that will drive you nuts. So I understand if you don't want to watch something you know won't have a satisfying ending.

All of that being said, you'd be missing out. Especially if you are a fan of the Terminator series in general. Though if you liked Terminator: Salvation, I'm not sure I trust your judgment one bit. You would think the acting combo of Christian Bale, Sam Worthington and Anton Yelchin would be promising, but you would be mistaken.

She can kick your ass.

Anyway, let's not get bogged down in that, we're supposed to be talking about good things! What was fun about T:SCC, as the fans came to call it, was that while it was obviously part of the Terminator mythology, it also diverged in new and interesting ways, particularly thanks to the addition of some new characters. Summer Glau starred as Cameron (nod to James Cameron!), the latest terminator incarnation sent back to protect John. They had a somewhat kinky relationship thanks to her being modeled after someone future John was in love with, which is cool because John is supposed to be the one to take out all of the machines, yet he probably has the closest emotional connection to them too. Complicated!

But my personal favorite new addition to it all came in the form of Derek Reese. Played by Brian Austin Green (or BAG for shortsies), Derek Reese came back from the future to help John. And if that name is sounding familiar, it should, because it turns out he's the brother of Kyle Reese, who you'll recall is John's father. One of my absolute favorite moments in the show, ever, was when Derek took John to see the kid versions of himself and Kyle playing baseball. John obviously never knew his dad, so it was a particularly touching moment. D'aww. But also, he lent an authoritative male presence, one who had seen the war with the machines firsthand.

Overall, the show had some great ideas. Perhaps not always executed as best as they could be, sure, but no show is perfect. If you like yourself some scifi drama and can handle a couple eh episodes in the first season, you'll definitely get swept up in the second season as it picks up the pace and starts getting more serialized. I am really holding myself back from talking about the ending, but if you've seen it and want to chat in the comments, please bring it up!

The show used to be available on Netflix Instant, but I'm afraid those days seem to be over for now. You can, however, watch some episodes on TheWB.com (I think they cycle through 5 episodes at a time), and of course there's always DVD.

Top Episodes:
1x01 "Pilot"
1x06 "Dungeons and Dragons"
1x09 "What He Beheld"
2x01 "Samson and Delilah"
2x06 "The Tower is Tall but the Fall is Short"
2x08 "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today"
2x21 "Born to Run"

And, one last random aside, I actually attended a fan event for this show before the second season started. We got to meet the stars, have them sign some stuff, and watch the season two opening episode. It consisted of a lot of waiting in line, and a rather disappointing bit where we got shunned outdoors and had to watch the live Q&A from outside, even though people behind us in line got to stay in, the bastards. No, I'm not bitter at all! Ah well, it was still a good time.

Pin It

Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream

2012-02-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

You guys. Something epic has happened.

I got an ice cream maker. Technically an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchenaid. Same difference.

The world will never be the same. Because I? I loooove ice cream. In fact, this is probably a disaster, because whenever I have ice cream in my freezer, that's all my brain seems to think about. There's ice cream in there! Don't you remember? You can EAT IT ALL UP!

It will be a lesson in self-restraint. Delicious self-restraint.

So what did I make for my first batch of homemade ice cream? This strawberry buttermilk stuff. It's pretty delish. I was actually quite skeptical whether it was going to start turning into ice cream while it was mixing up, but lo, I left the room, and when I came back some 12 minutes later, there it was. Ice cream! That I made myself!

Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream
(adapted slightly from Joy the Baker)

2 cups cream, half and half or milk

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

heaping 1/2 cup sliced and diced strawberries (optional 1 Tablespoon sugar)

Rinse strawberries under water and slice. Create a mixture of sliced and diced pieces. If the strawberries aren't very sweet, go ahead and mix them up with that optional tablespoon of sugar and let them soak until you're ready to use them later.

Pour 1 1/2 cups of cream or milk into a small sauce pan. Add the sugar and salt and heat the milk mixture over medium low heat. Keep an eye on it, stirring often so you don't get some burned milk on the bottom of your pan.

Measure out the remaining 1/2 cup of milk or cream. Stir the cornstarch into this 1/2 cup of milk, until smooth and no lumps remain. Keep stirring, it'll happen.

The milk on the stove should be hot and steaming. It doesn't need to boil, just steam. With the milk over a medium low flame, stir in the milk and cornstarch mixture. Stir the milk constantly until you begin to feel it thicken. It won't be suddenly all molasses-like, but will be thicker than regular milk. It should take only a couple minutes once the cornstarch is in there.

Once it's thickened, add in the buttermilk and vanilla. Stir to incorporate.

Pour through a strainer into a mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Stick it in the fridge for a couple of hours so that's it's cooled.

Once it's cooled, put it in your ice cream maker per manufacturer's directions. When you've let it go for about 10-15 minutes, dump in your strawberries. Why don't you do this before, you wonder? Because they will freeze to the edges of your mixing attachment! Truth.

Once it's done mixing in there, you're going to have to transfer it to a freezer-safe bowl. Either you can wait until it's frozen some more to eat it, or you can enjoy some soft-serve style straight from the ice cream maker, which is obviously what I did.

Yum! Though, I will say, the strawberry bits do get frozen in there, and are therefore not as good as if you just made a strawberry glaze to pour over the top. Live and learn.

*No step by step photos this time. I was making this at night, and the lighting was just not great.

Pin It

Supernatural 7x14 "Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie"

2012-02-10T22:45:00.000-08:00

Wow. Oh man. I have not laughed that much at an episode since probably French Mistake. Definitely one of my favorites of the season so far. Nearly every line leaving Dean's mouth was a winner; I haven't written down so many quotes in a long time. If you didn't laugh at least half the time, I'm not sure we can be friends.

Moving on to the actual plot! The Winchesters arrive in town after someone is seemingly killed by a giant octopus, which is decidedly not normal. They think, however, due to the weird bite on the guy's neck, that some vampire with an octopus fetish might have killed the guy. They decide to talk to the wife to see if there's any merit to this pretty wackadoo idea, and don't really get any leads on the subject until Sam talks to the daughter and finds out that she thought that a giant octomonster was hiding in her closet, and that's what killed her dad.

Behind you!

Still not a lot to go on, though, so it's helpful when we get our second death of the episode when a dude is literally impaled by a rogue unicorn. Yes, you read that right. A dude was running away from a unicorn, thought he got away by jumping over a metal fence thing, but I then yelled "Stabbed through the fence!" and wouldn't you know it? He got stabbed through the fence by the unicorn's horn! Of course, when Dean comes to investigate, it's not so clear that it was a unicorn horn quite yet, but he does find out that the dude's son had gone to a birthday party at a certain national pizza chain called Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie - where all your dreams are good! Where all your dreams are good?! Oh man. What a tagline. Why is that such a good clue? Because the daughter of the other guy had also just been there. To Plucky's!

Actually, it's just Sam that gets sent to Plucky's right now, even though he desperately does not want to go since, apparently, Dean used to drop him there as a kid while he went trolling for chicks. Sam talks to some of the employees and finds out that the kids draw their worst fears for the wall, and the two from the other kids earlier are missing from said wall. He also is approached by the janitor, who wants him to come meet him after hours. Oh poor janitor, we barely knew ye. Because he never does get to talk to Sam. Instead, he's tasked with cleaning up the ball pit, only to be hunted by something swimming inside the balls themselves! Blood! Mayhem! Death! Bye bye, shifty janitor with secret knowledge!

Just what seemed to kill him? A shark! In a ball pit?! What! Yeah, something is definitely afoot at Plucky's. Sam decides to try to shake down the employees by going all bad cop on them, which was sort of hilarious because he really just said nondescript things like "are you really?" and such. The manager and the uber-happy guy both seem to check out, but when he talks to the guy in the lion costume, the dude freaks out and bolts out of there. Dean chases him down, as he was hanging out inside the place as well to check for suspicious behavior. But this guy was no evil genius, he's just a dude whose brother used to run a meth lab and may or may not have gotten high and played in the ball pit with the dearly departed janitor. But! He does have some valuable intel. There is a sub-basement beneath Plucky's, and he and janitor dude used to hear strange noises coming out of it sometimes while they were having their after hours fun.

Sam's worst nightmare: check!

Also, while Sam was doing his "grilling" of suspects, Dean was getting to know one of the kids who had to constantly hang out at Plucky's because his mom works there. She's generally being kind of mean to him because she's so overworked, and they seem like a prime pair for the next fear monster, despite Dean getting the kid to understand a little better what his mom is going through. It's too late, because the kid's drawing of a giant robot with laser beam eyes has already been taken by the culprit.

So, Sam goes to try to head off a possible robot while Dean heads down to the basement to find out what's going on. It turns out, someone has been working some seriously shady hoodoo down there. Who? I think we can all agree that it's no surprise that it's the overly perky one. You just can't trust people who are constantly perky. It goes against nature to be that happy all the time. He and Dean get in a standoff, and he lets Dean know that he didn't go after the kid after all, but rather has turned his attentions to Sam, who he sensed had a thing about clowns.

Indeed, a couple nasty clowns have appeared and start tormenting Sam. They get into some nasty fisticuffs while Dean uses cunning and smarts to figure out what the bad guy's own fear is, which turns out to be that he blames his parents for his brother's death. He throws some stuff into the hoodoo fire, and the guy's dead drowned brother turns up to make him drown out himself, which makes the clowns, who were doing some serious damage to our dear Sam, disappear into a poof of glitter confetti. Done and dusted.

In the end, Dean gets one of the best laughs he's had in awhile when he sees Sam covered in blood and glitter, as do we all.

Random Thoughts:

- Seeing the flashbacks to season two. Aw. Sammy looked so young!

- Always dig when they alter the title card a little bit. Glitter card!

- When that unicorn started spouting a rainbow out of its butt, I literally said out loud "this show is crazy!" Of course, that was a reference to a past episode (Houses of the Holy) where Dean says unicorns shoot rainbows out of their ass. Which at the time was a sarcastic remark, but hey, we've come full circle.

- I kind of loved it when Dean could tell Sam was freaking out about the clowns at Plucky's and he said "Sammy" to try to calm him down.

- Was wishing that we'd gotten some kind of flashback scene to whatever happened to Sam at Plucky's when he was a kid!

- Plucky's definitely seemed like a riff on Chuck E. Cheese. Somehow I think "where a kid can be a kid" is a better slogan than "where all your dreams are good" haha!

- Did the janitor guy also play one of the clowns? I may be making this up.

- Hoodoo versus voodoo. What's the difference?

- Dean wanted a giant slinky, and in the end Sam got him one, because they earned it. Dean's gift to Sam? A clown doll. I mean, he is over his fear of them, having had to face them head on, right? Clown, meet asphalt. Guess some things are not meant to be gotten over.

Quotes:

"If it bleeds, you can kill it."

"Hey, you spawn a monster baby, see how quick you wanna dive back in the pool." - Dean

"So what are we looking for? Octovamp? Vamptopus?" - Dean

"Mom. Dad. Nanny. That is a love triangle right out of Casa Erotica. Of course in those, the jealous wife tends to channel her feelings more productively." - Dean

Sam: Wait, now unicorns are evil?
Dean: Yeah, obviously.

Sam: They think the ball washer did it.
Dean: The what?
Sam: The ball washer.
Dean: The what?
Sam: The ball--

"Shark week, man. How do you not watch that? Whole week of sharks." - Dean

"Yeah, guy in his thirties hanging out at Plucky's by himself, that's normal. Not pervy at all." - Dean

"I'm sorry, you look like you got attacked by some PCP crazed strippers." - Dean

Supernatural 7x13 "The Slice Girls"

2012-02-03T22:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a while! Last we checked in with the brothers Winchester, Dean went through a little trip through time while Sam teamed up with Jody Mills. Now that they're both back in present day, however, it's back to what should be a normal case, since they've currently got bupkis on the leviathans. Dean is less than impassioned about their newest case in rainy Seattle, and jumps at the opportunity to drown his sorrows in his patented drinky drinks while Sam does some research.

Just what is Sam doing research on while Dean has himself the first one night stand he's had in a while? (At least, that's what I'm assuming, I could be wrong!) See, some dudes are being killed in a pretty dramatic and specific way - someone is cutting off their hands and feet, and also carving a symbol into their chests. Since their usual fount of information, namely Bobby, is now with the dearly departed, they are forced to do more research themselves, and call upon a local professor to get his help in identifying the symbol.

Meanwhile, however, Dean has realized that he had forgotten the flask of Bobby's he's taken to carrying around with his aforementioned one night stand, Lydia. When he goes to retrieve it, he notices she's got a baby. Wait a minute, she didn't have a baby the night before, did she? Indeed, she did not. We as an audience got to see the child in question gestated at a record pace. Dean also starts to cotton on that something is not quite right with this kid when he overhears the supposed toddler actually say "Who's that man?" Uh, what? Dean goes full on stalker and soon sees a now child-aged girl leaving the house, and follows them to some abandoned warehouse. Hmm, what could they be doing?

But daddy, you can't shoot me and my dagger.

The boys find out from the professor that the symbol they keep seeing is something to do with the Greek goddess Harmonia, who created the Amazons. You know, the all powerful women who don't need men... except to procreate. And then they kill them. They also find out that the children these Amazons produce happen to grow at an exponential rate until they reach a certain age, which would explain Lydia's kid. Which means, uh oh, since Dean slept with Lydia just the other night, that girl he saw? Emma? Yep, she's probably his.

Now that they know all of this, though, they're no closer in figuring out what to do about it. Do the Amazons die like regular humans, or do they have to kill them in some special way? They try to go through Bobby's stuff to figure it out, but end up in a bit of a tiff. At least until a wayward breeze seems to dislodge a particular piece of paper. The breeze could be Bobby's spirit, but Sam is quick to poo poo that idea because that's what they'd like it to be. They did apparently burn his body, which is usually good enough to get rid of a spirit. But what about that flask Dean's carrying around, hmm? Just a thought.

Anyway, nonetheless, the paper that was dislodged appears to be important since it's in Greek, so Sam takes it to the professor while Dean hangs back at the motel with strict orders not to go anywhere. Why they didn't both go, I can't quite fathom. Because the plot needed it? Okay!

So while Sam finds out from the professor that the mother Amazons don't kill the fathers, but rather the children themselves, Dean gets a visit from his very own Amazonian offspring, Emma. She's come to him with stories of wanting to get away and try to live a normal life, pleading with him to help her, but it turns out to all be a ruse to get his defenses down so she can kill him good and proper. Luckily, Dean is not dumb enough to trust her and gets his own gun out. But he's having a hard time pulling the trigger. You know, since it's his daughter and all. But, he doesn't have to do it after all, because Sam shows up and is able to shoot her even though she tries to turn on the puppy dog eyes on him. Sorry Emma, only Sam gets to wield the puppy dog eyes.

In the end we get our patented brother-car-chat, this time with Sam basically upset with Dean because his head is clearly not in the game lately. Which is, you know, true. Sam just wants him to stay alive, and the way he said it was so sad because it really made me think that perhaps Dean is the only thing keeping him sane at the moment, and when are we going to get more of that stuff, hmm? I've heard it's coming, and it's about damn time.

Random Thoughts:

- The girl who played teenage Emma, Alexia Fast, really did look like she could be Sarah Canning's daughter. Or, you know, sister. Nice casting! Sidenote: Alexia also apparently played Missy Bender back in season 1!

- Was the breeze really Bobby's spirit? The "THEN" segment really seemed to want us to think so. I hate the heavy-handed previews, they make things so obvious sometimes. Honestly I'd prefer if it wasn't his spirit. Am I alone?

- This was the first sex scene we've had in a while on the show! When was the last one, anyway? Like season four? That's the last time my best sex scenes list has anyway.

- Raise your hand if you want more Sam hallucination stuff! Me me me!

Quotes:

"Some guy with a foot fetish run amok..." - Dean

"'Didn't mention anything human' usually seals the deal for me." - Sam

"Nice decor. Very early Slaughterhouse." - Dean

Dean: News flash, pal, you're just as screwed up as I am. You're just... bigger.
Sam: What?
Dean: I don't know.

Here's a little interview Jared and Jensen did about tonight's episode for those who haven't seen it yet:

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2012-01-30T08:26:00.000-08:00

If you hadn't figure out by now, chocolate chip cookies are kind of my go to cookie whenever I just need one rightthisveryminute. I've tried many recipes, which you can find in the archives, with varying results. The chewy molasses ones are pretty good. And so are these ones, based on the Otis Spunkmeyer recipe. But the molasses ones can be time consuming, and there's still something not soft enough about the "Otis Spunkmeyer" recipe for my taste.

Enter, these cookies. And, wow. I think I just found my favorite easy chocolate chip recipe ever. I just said ever, people, this is a momentous occasion. Side note: I always want to spell occasion with two s's instead of two c's. What's wrong with me?

In any case, these cookies are great. They are exactly as soft and chewy as advertised. I hate a crisp cookie, though I know some people dig that. No, I like something very soft, almost doughy. And these fit the bill perfectly. I had a very hard time not just eating all of them at once. Seriously, try these. I don't think you'd regret it.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(via Apple a Day)

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.

In your mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add in egg and vanilla and blend until well mixed.

Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Place tablespoon sized drops of dough on your cookie sheet, bake for 8-10 minutes until barely golden brown around the edges. These will not get brown, so don't overcook them.

Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. For me this made about 2 dozen.

-- I didn't take photos of the process this time around, because it's basically the same as most every other chocolate chip cookie recipe, so you can see those photos around the site if you really have never made a chocolate chip cookie before.

Pin It

Chuck 5x13 "...vs. the Goodbye"

2012-01-27T22:47:00.000-08:00

It may have been predictable, but any long time fan of Chuck should've been very satisfied with tonight's series finale. That's right, Nerd Herder-turned-Intersect-turned-Spy Chuck Bartowski went on his final mission tonight after five action/comedy/drama seasons, paying respect to its beginnings in a big way.

Pilot flashback! Just one of the many scenes paid homage to
in the finale tonight.

The finale picks up two weeks after where the last one left off, with Sarah hot on the trail of Quinn. So hot on his trail is she that she's infiltrated the plane he's on, where he's buying the first in a three part series of keys needed to turn the Intersect he just got into one that won't damage a brain and erase memories. He manages to get away with the glasses and the key, and Sarah goes flying through the sky unconscious for awhile before she comes to and pulls her parachute. You know, so she can make a sexy, coming out of the ocean debut later.

Meanwhile, Chuck is in depresso mode about the situation, despite the rest of his peeps telling him he can win Sarah back if he just reminds her of why she fell in love with him in the first place. He eventually agrees to try this plan, only they don't know where to find her in the first place. Luckily, it turns out she's coming straight to the Buy More to see Chuck anyway, in the first of many mirror scenes to the pilot. They're both even wearing basically the same outfits!

She's not there for any kind of romantic rendezvous, though, but rather to get access to Castle so get information on the next person who has the second part of the key, former Ring member Renny something-or-other. She wants to head off on the mission solo, but Chuck and Morgan manage to convince her that they should come along. Where's Casey during all of this? Re-signing up with General Beckman and being tasked with the same mission to find and kill Quinn.

Woo her with a tango, Mr. Carmichael.

This takes them all to Berlin, where the meet is supposed to take place. And along the way, little reminders of their lives together start popping up all over the place. El Compadre, where they had their first date. Having to do a tango amidst Russians. Even a German Wienerlicious, in which Sarah unconsciously remembers where the supplies should go. Before Chuck can get her to try to remember more, however, Quinn shows up and gets the second key, and manages to escape again because Chuck wouldn't shoot him. That's just not how Chuck does things, guys.

Casey comes in and takes them all back to Castle, and while at first he's going to leave them behind to complete the mission on his own, he gets a talking to from Morgan, who reminds him that he's changed for the better, not worse, thanks to his time in Burbank. It's time to reunite the whole team, because it turns out the last part of the key is in none other than General Beckman's possession, and she happens to be at the "Pacific Concert Hall," aka the Disney Concert Hall they couldn't get the rights to use the name to, I'm sure. Quinn gets the key from her, which was on her insignia all this time, and reveals that he's set up a bomb under her chair. A bomb under the chair? Why, where have I seen this before? Oh yes! The pilot! Immediately I thought to myself: porn virus to save the day. But, you know, that's still a little ways down the line yet.

Anyway! The bomb is not the only thing weighing on Chuck's mind, however, because Ellie tells him that if he manages to get the Intersect back, they can use this key thing to upload new stuff into it, and would then be able to give Sarah back all of her old memories. So, basically, he's got to stop the bomb and get the glasses, both of which he needs Quinn for, even though Sarah is intent on killing him.

While Casey and Morgan hang back to work on stalling the bomb's imminent explosion (it is set to explode when the music stops), Sarah and Chuck go after Quinn. Quinn is in evil league of evil mode, almost cackling at the bomb's upcoming explosion. But what's this? The music has not stopped! Lo, the saviors of the day once more... the one, the only... Jeffster! Yes, it was obvious that was going to happen too, but who cares? They rocked some A-Ha 'Take on Me', man. And they rocked it good.

Quinn reveals that he doesn't know how to turn off the bomb, and at that point Sarah shoots him. Bad guy: down. They've got the glasses back, but they won't be able to get into the locked bomb case without the use of the Intersect, which means that, since it only has one upload left, they won't be able to use it to save Sarah's memories. Well, obviously. Because Chuck had to get the Intersect back again, it's the only thing that makes sense. Don't take that for sarcasm either, I mean it. Anything else would've been a letdown.

Chuck uses the Intersect to get inside the case, but even then isn't sure what to do. That's when Sarah suggests the aforementioned Irene Dimova porn virus that they used in the pilot, another indication that her sub or unconscious memory can still be accessed. They use the virus, the bomb is diffused, the day is saved once more.

Except, of course, that Sarah still doesn't have her memories back, and doesn't want to stick around to try and get them. Chuck lets her go, despite all of us knowing that Morgan's earlier prediction that he just needs to kiss her already is true. But, he doesn't. Instead, we take some time to give everyone their finale wrap ups.

Big Mike is happy to find that the Buy More is getting some new owners, who apparently also own Subway. Naturally.

Jeff and Lester are contacted by a German music producer who wants to make them famous, to women and men, in the motherland, and they set off.

Ellie and Devon received offers to go to a hospital in Chicago, and they decide to go ahead and do it.

Morgan and Alex decide to move in together, and Casey gives them the keys to his place. He's got a new mission: track down Verbanski and have his way with her.

Kiss the girl!

That just leaves Chuck. What's he going to do without Sarah? Obviously that's not how it's going to end for him. He's got to go find her, and where else would she be but at the very place she herself once assured him that everything was going to be okay: at the beach. She asks Chuck to tell them their story, and we get to see a series of flashbacks to some classic moments, and even though by the end Sarah doesn't remember all of them, and Chuck would probably be prepared to let her go if that's what she really needed, she tells him to kiss her.

And that, as they say, is that.

Well, that's it everyone. Were you happy with the finale? Are you sad to see the show go, or are you relieved that it ended? I'm honestly kind of relieved that they didn't draw it out too much longer. Better to go out with a bang than a whimper.

Farewell Nerd Herders, Buy Morians, it's been a fun ride.

Song Choices:

Rivers and Roads - The Head and the Heart
Cruel and Beautiful World - Grouplove
Gold on the Ceiling - The Black Keys
Goshen - Beirut

Quotes:

"You're right. I can do this. I took down the Ring, Folcrum. I'm a very impressive spy for hire." - Chuck

"Unleash the perverts." - Lester

Devon: Grandma, what did we say about baby Clara seeing firearms?
Mama B: It's a no no.

Quinn: What's happening?
Chuck: One word. Jeffster.

"I'm a Casey. I don't run, I stalk my prey." - Casey

Sarah: Chuck.
Chuck: Yeah?
Sarah: Kiss me.

Chuck 5x12 "...vs. Sarah"

2012-01-27T21:28:00.000-08:00

Full disclosure: I'm writing the recap for this episode before I've watched the finale one, as it felt very non-finale-y. Therefore, executive decision: write the recaps separately.

She don't remember nothin'.

Last week, we were left with the rather disturbing ending scene of new nefarious bad guy Quinn having erased Sarah's memories of the last five years and trying to convince her that she was on a mission to kill Chuck. At first, when she mistrusted Quinn and nearly killed him, it seemed like maybe she wouldn't be sent on the mission at all, but Quinn had some video of her from back in the day that convinced her it was true. Uh oh.

Sarah went back into the Bartowski household with Quinn whispering in her ear, telling her what to do. Namely, she had to pretend that she was still the same old Sarah while trying to find the Intersect glasses that Chuck had hidden somewhere in the apartment. Question: Why would Chuck keep those in the apartment and not in Castle? That just seems silly. At any rate, Chuck senses that something is up, but tries to push it aside. He also makes the command decision that they'll do one last mission: sneak into DARPA, where they build cool stuff like invisibility cloaks, where the Intersect is hidden. Once inside, they'll destroy it once and for all.

So, Sarah's mission is to secretly upload that pristine Intersect into these glasses she's found, only Chuck finds the glasses in her stuff before they go. It's a good thing, too, because when she turns on them inside the Intersect room, he manages to switch the glasses she uploaded the Intersect onto with some fakes. Side note: when Sarah is taking out all of those guards to get into the Intersect room, it's pretty much a shot for shot reenactment of Bryce doing the same thing from the pilot. Homage!

Quinn is pissed when he finds out, and Sarah says she'll get the real ones back from Chuck - by using Ellie as ransom/bait. Chuck and the guys have called on the help of the CIA by this point, but Chuck is convinced he can get through to Sarah, and takes her to the obvious place he would take her - their dream home.

Chuck gets very emotional with her, trying to convince her of the truth, how they fell in love for real, but she's still not believing him, and starts to beat the crap out of him. Then she sees the carving of their names in the wall, and starts to wonder. No time for that, however, because Quinn shows up and takes the glasses. And tells her Chuck was telling the truth. He then goes to shoot Sarah, but Chuck dives in front of her and takes a bullet in the back!

OMG! Haha, not really. He had a vest on. The CIA is arriving outside, so Chuck tells her to get out of there. And she does. All hope seems to be lost for the former Nerd Herder, but thanks to his now good friend Casey, it might not be. Casey goes to see Sarah, giving her the video log record of her mission, wherein she divulges that she did indeed fall in love with Chuck. Why she would include that in a mission log is beyond me, but whatevs.

Sarah goes to see Chuck, who is mister hopeful when she tells him she believes everything about them. The only problem? She doesn't feel it. So they say goodbye. Chuck to wallow, no doubt, while Sarah goes to find the man who stole five years of her life - the nefariously evil Quinn.

Until the finale...

Song Choice:

Your Hands - Ghost Society

Quotes:

"A cloak of invisibility. Yes! ... You're a wizard, Harry." - Morgan

Alas, there were not many good quotes in this pretty dramatic episode, so that's the only one I have!

7Up Biscuits

2012-01-23T11:32:00.000-08:00

Omg. You guys, I wrote up an entire new post, and had to delete it. Because suddenly, when it was posted, the layout on here went completely insane, and it didn't seem to matter what I did to try to fix it. But, realizing that it only happened after I posted the new post, I decided to delete said post and see if it would fix it. And it did. What. The. Hell.

I copied the HTML code of the post, but then of course accidentally copied something else before I could paste it back into a new post, so now it's all lost. Lost lost lost. I put my head in my hands and struggled not to weep.

Ugh. But. Guess what. All is not lost, because it had already loaded in my Google Reader, so here it is... again. I hope it doesn't mess it up again.

I have two recent obsessions. Firstly: instagram. I absolutely love the way it can make an ordinary photo look extraordinary with just a filter and a blur.

Take these biscuits, for example. Simple enough photo. Add a filter and some blur and bam! They just look so much more delicious.

My second recent obsession is Pinterest. If you don't know about this site, you should. Although it can become a massive time suck very easily. But it's great because you can pin things you find cool, whether they be recipes like this, or cool DIY projects, so you can come back to them later without having to send yourself an email with the web address. Wonderous!

Pinterest is exactly where I found this particular recipe for biscuits. Made with 7Up, of all things! Pop! Soda! Soda pop!

Whatever you may call it, these biscuits are, yes, made with 7Up. The recipe list is simple. And they taste sort of like biscuits you might get at Kentucky Fried Chicken or Popeye's. Basically, a chicken place biscuit. You can kind of taste the 7Up, you can kind of taste the sour cream. The butter on the bottom gives it that chicken place kinda feel.

My only beef is that they are too, maybe, springy? Not doughy enough? They grew on me over time, but I confess I'd prefer a crescent roll to these. Crescent rolls are deliciousnesssssss.

7Up Biscuits

2 cups Bisquick mix
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup 7Up
1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 450F.

Cut sour cream into the biscuit mix, then add in the 7Up. The dough will be VERY VERY VERY sticky.

Sprinkle additional biscuit mix onto a cutting board or table and pat out the dough as best you can. Use a biscuit cutter or knife to cut into 9 equal pieces.

Melt butter in a square pan and place the cut biscuits into the pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes until tops are golden brown.

In photos:

Bisquick and sour cream cut up together. I used a pastry cutter. You can use a fork if you don't have one.

Mix in the 7Up. Marvel at how incredibly, stupidly sticky the dough is. Honestly, I don't know that I'll ever make these again just because they were so extremely sticky I could hardly deal with it. Just giving a full disclosure, you know?

While you're getting your hands sticky, you can stick your pan with the butter inside the oven to melt it. No getting another bowl messy! Always a win!

I used a small biscuit cutter to make these. But, if you're paying close attention, you can see the bottom right one is about 2 times larger than the others, and not very flat on top. I was fed up with the stickiness by the end and just plopped it in there without making it uniform.

When they come out, they should look something like this. Now you can really tell that one on the bottom right is not like the others! I do wonder if maybe it would've been a good idea to cover one side with butter and then flip each biscuit over so both sides had butter, but whatever. Still tasted fine.

Pin It

Chuck 5x11 "...vs. the Bullet Train"

2012-01-20T21:29:00.000-08:00

I feel like I haven't said this in awhile: that was a great episode of Chuck! Honestly I've felt a bit lackluster about the last couple of seasons, but tonight things gelled in ways they haven't gelled in awhile. All of the various subplots intersected together with the main plot fabulously. Also, Ben Browder had a brief guest appearance, and if you don't know, I was a huge Farscape fan, so this was doubly exciting. Too bad he did not have a larger role, but oh well!

Standing and staring is our specialty at Carmichael Industries.

Okay let's get down to recapping business, shall we? If you don't recall, as of the last episode, Chuck was taken by new nefarious dude Quinn, and Sarah had to download the bad Intersect to try to save him. We pick up right where it left off, with Quinn loading Chuck onto a bullet train in Japan (why Japan? this was never explained), and Sarah and Casey in hot pursuit thanks to her new Intersect abilities. While they are after Chuck, Devon, Ellie and Alex are trying to see if they can figure out what the Intersect did to Morgan's brain so they can help Sarah when they get back. There's some kind of suppression device they can use to stop the effects, but not until they're back. Also, Lester and Jeff still remember that something weird is going on in the Buy More, but they don't particularly recall what exactly it is.

Back in Japan, the gang manages to lock Quinn up and Sarah finally tells Chuck that she has the faulty Intersect. Their plan is to just hang on the train until it gets to its destination, but of course we know how these sorts of plans go. Quinn has sent some people (including the aforementioned Ben Browder!) to pick up Alex and hold her hostage. He makes Casey be his lackey in the meantime, getting Chuck and Sarah back to see him face to face. He wants them to break into a secure facility and steal the pristine Intersect so that he can have it. But Sarah does some flashing and takes him out - only she throws him out the window, even though she tried to make herself stop. It turns out her brain is already starting to deteriorate. The more she flashes, the worse it gets.

Because Quinn had to keep calling his minions every half hour in order to keep Alex alive, Casey has to recruit Morgan and Devon to get her back before the time runs out. They, however, get caught by the minions in question, and locked up with Alex. Luckily, however, it just so happens that Lester and Jeff saw the whole kidnapping thing happen from the start. They find the dropped bluetooth device Casey is still on, and he tells them the schpiel - they're spies, etc. - and they end up saving the day in Burbank.

Back on the train, however, things aren't looking good for Sarah. Ellie and Chuck confab about it, and decide he has to figure out a way to build a suppression device there on the train. He manages to get a laptop and the necessary supplies and starts downloading the software, but the internet goes down thanks to Quinn, who of course, despite being thrown out of a bullet train window, survived and pulled himself back inside. That's what villains do, duh.

Quinn and Chuck get their fight on while Sarah hangs back with a blindfold over her eyes - any new flash could cause her memory to completely go. But Quinn manages to get away. Sarah feels/sees him go past, and goes after him. He locks them both in one of the luggage cars and starts a decoupling procedure. Sarah tries to get out, but he tranqs her, and whisks her away to points unknown.

Now it would've made sense to stop the episode there, but we still have one act left. Sarah comes to with Quinn, who wants to get the bad Intersect out of her, then use her to get him the good one. She refuses, but he's got some psychedelic cards to show her that make her brain go completely screwy. She manages to activate her homing beacon for the others, but they don't make it there in time. She wakes up in her old apartment, having no memory of the last three years, with Quinn showing up claiming to be her handler with instructions to kill one Chuck Bartowski.

Dun dun dun! Next week is the two hour series finale, if you can believe it. The amazing thing is not so much that the show is ending, but that it managed to get five seasons in the first place. Long live the Buy More!

Song Choices:

Days are Forgotten - Kasabian
She Tows the Line - Crooked Fingers

Quotes:

"It was stuffy in here, you know, so I thought I'd open the window, and then I thought maybe I'd escape." - Chuck

"The newly unimpaired you is a master of the obvious." - Lester

Lester: We need a plan.
Jeff: It should be keen and clever, utilizing our unique talents.
Lester: Do we have any of those?
Jeff: I think you are uniquely wasteful and destructive.
Lester: Let's build on that.

"We have something better than a Buy More, we have a train full of Japanese people." - Chuck

"I will not have my last words to Alex be a demand for pizza combos!" - Morgan

"Wow. Casey rolls strong, like raring for the apocalypse strong." - Devon

"You're outgunned, outmanned, and out...side. And it's a lovely day." - Lester

Jeff: Behold the flames of destiny!
Lester: What he said.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Banana Bread

2012-01-18T10:32:00.000-08:00

I hear tell that some people like sandwiches made with peanut butter and bananas. To me, that just sounds, you know, gross. Grossy gross gross. But then, I am not a huge fan of bananas by themselves. Mixed up in things, sure. Eating a banana straight up? Egads.

Even so, the idea of mixing bananas with peanut butter and Reese's peanut butter cups all in a bread form? Somehow that makes sense. Don't try to figure that out, brains are just weird that way.

I had high hopes for this bread, and I suspect they were not entirely met because I put in a touch too much peanut butter in the batter. Peanut butter in the batter - say that ten times fast. Butter batter, batter butter, butter batter butter batter butter butter batter.

Ahem. Back to the bread. I also suspect this would've been better had I actually been able to find those itty bitty mini Reese's in the local Von's (that's the Safeway equivalent for those not in SoCal), but as the local Von's has an extremely limited candy selection, it was not meant to be. Nonetheless, it is a bread that has grown on me over time. I'm not sure if this is a fact about banana breads in general, but they seem to be better after you let them sit. Am I making this up? It's possible I am, but I swear maybe I've heard that before? Whatevs!

The point is - if you are one of those Elvis types who likes peanut butter and banana sandwiches, you'll probably like this bread. Get to it.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Banana Bread
(via Cookies & Cups)

3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz bag of Reese’s Mini cups (or approx 20 chopped up small cups)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease your loaf pan with butter or shortening.

In a medium bowl whisk together your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.

In a large bowl stir together your bananas, peanut butter, oil, egg and sugars.

Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Batter will be lumpy. Embrace the lumpiness.

Fold in your Reese’s Mini cups (or chopped up small cups) and spread batter into prepared pan.

Bake for approx 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then loosen the edges of the pan with a knife and remove from loaf pan, transferring bread to a cooling rack.

In photos:

Since I could not find the mini Reese's at the local grocery store, I got some regular small cups and just cut them up. I used about 20.

Full confession time: not all 3 of my bananas were super ripe. I had one in the freezer from ages ago, plus two newish ones. I stuck the two newish ones in a paper bag with an apple to get them to soften up some.

Bananas, egg, oil, sugars and peanut butter mixin' it up. I think I put in a touch too much peanut butter. I was going the guesstimate route, as I hate having to clean out a measuring cup with peanut butter gunk on it.

Mix in your dry ingredients. Dough-y!

Fold in your Reese's.

Put it in your loaf pan. I think mine is 9x5inches. This would be better in an 8x4, but it's okay.

Bake it up!

Let it sit for a few, then run a knife around the edges. Plop it out and let it cool some more.

Whoops, mine went droopy in the middle! Didn't cook it quite long enough, but I hate nothing more than a dry bread, so I'd prefer a little droop than that!

Pin It

Chuck 5x10 "...vs. Bo"

2012-01-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

With a show whose main premise was based around the Intersect, it should come as no surprise that it is still coming into play here at the end. Even though Sarah has decided she wants to leave the spy world with Chuck and the others, to create their own anti-cyber terrorism business, it turns out they have one last mission thanks to something that Morgan did while he had the Intersect. Apparently, there was another pair of glasses roaming around, and he had gotten hold of them while on the run from some people, and stashed them somewhere.

Rainbows?

Because Morgan's memory of those days was fried, they have to do some digging into where they could be, which ends up leading them to Vail, Colorado, and an apparent tryst that Morgan had with Bo Derek. Yep, that Bo Derek. Who is not, apparently, just an actress, but also a spy working for someone named Nicholas Quinn. Quinn wanted the glasses for himself, but Morgan had been able to escape with them and hid them somewhere. Only problem was, he couldn't remember where.

But, he knows that he would hide it somewhere familiar to him, and with the clue of Emerald and Gold, he figures out that he hid them in the manager's vault in the Vail Buy More. The team heads to there to retrieve them, only to find Quinn's team ready to take them out. They manage to take down the other team and keep the glasses in their possession, but Quinn gets away. You guys should've just let Casey go after him like he wanted to, seriously.

Because when they get back to town, Quinn comes and kidnaps Chuck in order to get the glasses back. Sarah and Casey come to do an exchange, but Chuck is nowhere to be found, Quinn's men say he will still be needed. Not seeing any other way out of the situation, Sarah does the only thing she can think of - put on the glasses herself. She goes Intersect-y and takes out the remaining men, but it's left up in the air where Chuck is.

Meanwhile, to throw Jeff and Lester off the scent of their secret spy lives, they try to make it seem like they had a wild time in Vegas, and give them a tranquilizer that will make their last 24 hours a haze. That doesn't deter the newly smart Jeff, however, from deciding it must all be a set up. They continue to follow the team throughout the episode, getting caught another time, then following them again. When they happen to be there when all of the shooting goes down in the Vail Buy More, though, they decide they would rather forget all of this after all. All's well there, then!

But next week, things get twisted when the Intersect starts to turn against Sarah. Will they be able to get it out of her in time? Only two episodes left!

Choice Songs:

The Weight - The Band
Don't Stop (Color on the Walls) - Foster the People

Quotes:

Morgan: Why would she...
Chuck: Nooo! Things never turn out well when you say one last mission!
Sarah: Is this just because of some stupid movie?
Chuck and Morgan: Yes!
Casey: Never say one last mission.
Chuck: Never.

Sarah: Hey Chuck, how's it going with Bo? Have you had any sneak peeks of your childhood crush's boobies?
Chuck: What? No. Shut up.

Morgan: You're no longer a perfect ten!

Chuck: You didn't hit her in the face, did ya? I'm kidding, I'm kidding... but it is Bo Derek.

Supernatural 7x12 "Time After Time"

2012-01-13T23:46:00.000-08:00

First of all, congratulations to Supernatural for winning not one, but two, People's Choice Awards this week for Best Network TV Drama, and Best TV Scifi/Fantasy! It's a shame that they were not there to accept the awards in person, but I'm not going to go into a rant about how genre shows always are treated like second class citizens in the TV awards world. Enough other people have already gone down that road this week! Now onto tonight's episode!

And what a zippy episode it was, right? Things moved at a very quick pace throughout... maybe even a little too quick? Well, let's not quibble.

Sam and Dean find themselves hunting some kind of something that has left some dead, shriveled up bodies throughout the years. They're not entirely sure what they're dealing with, but figure out it's been the same guy killing these people since at least the 1940s - a Mr. Snyder (played by guest star Jason Dohring). They track him down only to find him snacking on another person, so Dean goes into a full on sprint at the guy - and gets engulfed in a red light. And sent back to 1944. Whoops. You should be more careful, Dean.

Rock those fedoras, gentlemen.

Luckily for him, after a run in with the local authorities, Dean meets a fellow hunter, the famous Eliot Ness (guest star Nicholas Lea). Ness also happens to be chasing after the very same monster. Time to team up, but first let's get Dean some time appropriate attire, because any chance to see Jensen rock a fedora and a suit is just not a chance to be wasted.

Meanwhile, back in the here and now, Sam is freaking out about what has happened to Dean. But he has some help too, in the form of Sheriff Jody Mills, onetime possible paramour of our late Bobby Singer. Since she turned the boys on to the monster in the first place, she wants to help. Sam has her go pick up Bobby's stuff, and they get to researching - and are able to find that the monster in question isn't even a monster, but rather a god. Kronos, the god of time. They find a way to summon him, but in order to get Dean back too, Kronos would have to be holding onto him. They'd have to know exactly what day and what time to call him back from. Needle. Haystack. Same. Difference.

Back in the '40s, Dean and Ness have also discovered that it's Kronos. They do have one advantage over Sam and Jody, however, in that they have a helper, a sort of female Bobby, who finds a way to kill him. Some ancient stick with some blood, you know, the usual. Of course, killing Kronos would mean Dean gets stuck in the '40s permanently, and unless he wants more randy older women coming on to him, then he's got to find another way. Being the movie geek he is, he remembers Back to the Future Part 3, and decides to get Sam a message through time.

In the message, Dean tells Sam about the girl that Kronos has been seeing, Lila. Sam and Jody find that Lila is still alive today, and she happens to have been there the night that Dean and Ness come for Kronos. All of the clocks stopped at 11:34pm. Well, guess you have your needle in a haystack time! Better fetch Dean before he gets choked to death by the lord of time!

Which, of course, they do. Ness also manages to throw the special twig of doom into the time vortex as well, so Sam is able to kill Kronos before he can do more damage. But Kronos won't just die with a whimper. Smiling through bloody teeth, he tells the boys he sees their future, and it's covered in black goo. That can't be good.

Random Thoughts:

- Dean doing the math to figure out what year he was in was hilarious.

- Though of course seeing Dean in the past was great, I have to say one of my favorite scenes was a quiet one between Sam and Jody, when Jody finds the bottle with the note from Rufus. It's just a small moment in remembrance of Bobby, but I love those kinds of small moments.

- Another Back to the Future reference - Dean sending Sam a message through the years! You know how I love me some BTTF. Though I did think it was kind of odd for Dean to assume that Sam would sleep while he had gone missing, therefore being able to find the message in the first place. Minor quibble, to be sure. But then it wouldn't have really mattered when Sam found it, since he knew the right time to summon Dean from... ah time travel, you get so twisty and crazy.

- Did the ending feel a bit abrupt to anyone else? I felt like there should've been one more of the famous wrap up scenes at the end after the commercial break.

- What in the... the preview for next week!

Quotes:

"Don't give me that dirty diaper look, I ain't callin' ya." - Dean

Sam: I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I hope you're watching cartoon smut, because reading Dick Roman crap over and over again is just self punishment.
Dean: It's called anime, and it's an art form.

"You gonna look up more anime, or are you strictly into Dick now?" - Sam

Sam: Wait a minute, what's our plan?
Dean: Don't die.

"Sweet merciful awesome." - Dean

Underappreciated Gems: 10 Things I Hate About You

2012-01-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

Instead of featuring another underappreciated one-hour drama, this time around I'm going with a half hour comedy. Which one? Probably one you didn't watch. Duh.

10 Things I Hate About You

Adapting movies into TV shows doesn't really happen very often. Unlike revamping old TV shows into new ones, which has been happening a lot recently, and almost never goes well (yeah, yeah, there are a few exceptions to the rule like Battlestar Galactica, but for every one of those you have a Charlie's Angels, Bionic Woman and Knight Rider). ANYway. Back to 10 Things I Hate About You, a show which I was very skeptical about at first, but which quickly won me over.

Most of the high school cast.

The basic set up is the same. You've got Kat and Bianca Stratford, two sisters who couldn't be more different, personality-wise, with their overprotective dad (who is even played by the same actor from the movie!). Add in Bianca's dorky and smitten best friend Cameron, and the rebellious Patrick Verona as the love interest for Kat, and I could just as well be talking about the movie right now. And I happen to love the movie. But the show also managed to be fresh while treading the same basic story, and really started to shine when it started to go down its own path.

Joey, you are so hilariously dumb.

One of the best examples of exactly this is in how the show dealt with the character of Joey Donner (played by Chris Zylka). In the movie he was basically this repulsive person we were happy to see ultimately get his comeuppance. But in the show he was still a wannabe model, but in a completely lovable dumb puppy way. You actually find yourself wanting him and Bianca together instead of wanting her to get over him and get together with Cameron. You have to wonder whether this was an intentional change from the beginning, or whether it developed based on the chemistry of the actors together.

Kat, you know you want him.

Of course, most of the show's success (creatively!) was due to this great chemistry between all of the actors. They are all pretty superb, with wonderful comic timing. I won't just keep raving and raving because I think you get it by now! By far the most upsetting thing about the show is that it was so unceremoniously canceled. It was left on something of a tiny cliffhanger, with so much potential for more in the future... it's just sad, really.

The good news is that you can marathon the show either on DVD or Netflix Instant, and there's always the original movie to turn to as well. But seriously, if you liked the movie and haven't given the show a chance, you should. It's legitimately funny.

Top Episodes:
Dance Little Sister (1x08)
Fight for Your Right (1x09)
Great Expectations (1x13)
Just One Kiss (1x17)

Pin It

new design!

2012-01-07T18:15:00.001-08:00

You may notice something a little different here if you've visited before. Kinda obvious, you know?

Yep - I redesigned the blog! I figured after about a year with the old design, it was time to change things up. Make it more streamlined and not so cluttered with text. Hopefully you like it better. I know I do!

As you can see, I've got new little icons to the right over there with links to the facebook page for the site as well as my twitter feed, pinterest boards and the RSS feed to the blog.

Please inform me if you see anything out of whack (for example, I know that it doesn't look 100% right on an iPad right now, but it looks great in Firefox; I'll work on fixing that later). And let me know in the comments if you like the new look! :)

Happy 2012!

Supernatural 7x11 "Adventures in Babysitting"

2012-01-06T22:31:00.000-08:00

Look at that! We're back from hiatus! It didn't actually feel that long to me this time around. But just in case you're a little rusty on where things left off, you can check out the last recap - or I can just tell you. Bobby died. Yes, it's true. He really died.

Which leaves the boys in something of a fog for a bit, that is until they get, or rather Dean gets, obsessed with figuring out just what the number be scrawled on Sam's hand means. 45489. It's not a locker, a zip code, or a bank number. They just can't figure it out. Which makes sense, since it's missing a number. Only they don't know that, so they send it off to Frank, who we met some episodes back. The conspiracy theorist type who helped changed their identities, remember? Yep. They haven't heard from him in a while, and Dean wants to check in on him, but then Sam gets a call on Bobby's line from a girl looking for help from Bobby. Not wanting to leave a young girl high and dry, Sam goes off to help her while Dean goes off to find Frank.

Sam does not look amused, Sally.

Well, we all know how it goes when the boys split up. Someone ends up tied up. This time around it's Sam, but not until he first meets the young girl in question - Krissy, whose father went missing a couple days previously. She puts on the act like she's the innocent daughter, but I could tell she knew more than she was letting on. Sam finds the dad's secret map of clues and heads off to find him, but ends up falling into practically the same trap he did, getting caught by a tag team of Vetala. They're some kind of venomy snake women.

Meanwhile, Dean has tracked down Frank, and after convincing each other that neither of them are leviathans, they get to work. Frank tells Dean that he figured out Bobby probably wasn't able to write down all of the numbers, and after running some kind of number thingamajig, comes up with coordinates that lead them to a field in Wisconsin. They check out the field, but right now it's pretty empty. Which would be harmless enough, except there's surveillance everywhere, and some people surveying the area, clearly getting ready to build something. What? We don't know, and we don't find out yet, because that's when Dean finds out that Sam's in trouble.

Krissy calls up Dean after not hearing from Sam for a couple days, and he goes off to find him. Only this time around, Krissy fesses up that she knows what's what, and wants to go with Dean to find Sam and her dad. Dean tries to leave her behind, but she's a crafty one. Once they arrive at whatever abandoned warehouse they're hiding out in, Dean handcuffs Krissy inside the car and goes in alone.

At first it looks like it's going to be Dean to the rescue, but then Krissy runs in and gets caught by Sally, the sexy vetala. Guess those handcuffs were not foolproof (bobby pins are so versatile!). Dean gets a bit deer in the headlights when they threaten Krissy, and in the end it's Krissy herself who ends up stabbing and killing Sally, with Sam taking out the other one while Dean distracts her. They'll live to fight another day.

Except that Dean apparently seems to convince Krissy and her dad that they should give up the hunting life and go for a normal one. Maybe she could go to even, say, Stanford, like a certain ginormo little brother did.

Alas, it is too late for the brothers Winchester to get out of the hunting life now. Particularly when they've got their sights set on Dick Roman. Just what he's up to, we'll find out later. Probably not next week, though, as it looks to be a time travel episode.

Random Thoughts:

- Did you know that Meghan Ory, the girl who played Sally the sexy vetala, also guest starred in Dark Angel with Jensen Ackles? She was Rachel Berrisford in The Berrisford Agenda episode, one of the best episodes of that series ever, actually. I knew she looked familiar!

- Madison McLaughlin, who played Krissy, really knocked it out of the park, I thought.

- Frank basically tells Dean to fake it til you make it. To live week to week, putting a smile on his face, masking the pain beneath. Dean attempts to do just that at the end of the episode, but he's not the most successful. Dean, Dean. You're really not good at masking your emotions, dude. It never ends well. Just saying.

- We had not just one but two songs in the episode tonight! What! That's crazy. Crazy awesome.

- Every time Frank said Dean looked like crap, I couldn't help but think - not really. Maybe it's just too hard to make Jensen look crappy? Probably.

- The previously made a big deal about Lucifer still being around in Sam's head. We going to see more of that manifest?

- The disappearing beer. Speculation seems to be either Cas or ghost Bobby. Honestly at the time I just thought it was Dean losing track of his beer because he's kind of an alcoholic, but who knows.

Quotes:

Frank: Oh yeah. Dick Roman's not a leviathan. Gwyneth Paltrow's not a leviathan.
Dean: Really?
Frank: Trust me.

"Costume. What?" - Dean

Krissy: Bad actress, huh?
Dean: I take it back.

Pin It

Chuck 5x09 "...vs. the Kept Man"

2012-01-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

After my super late review last week, this week things are back on schedule. And with only a few episodes of the series left, ever, that's probably a good thing.

Two main plots were served up in tonight's episode - the first being Gertrude/Casey heavy. Yep, Gertrude is back, with a vengeance. She's got some romantic plans for Casey, but Casey being Casey, he's less than enthused by the prospect. Gertrude goes to other measures to try to get him to go on a vacation with her, hiring Carmichael Industries for a spy mission in Miami. They have to help with an arms dealer with a dude named Falcone, but it turns out that they were just a decoy team of spies, and Verbanski had her own team ready in the wings for when Falcone tried to turn the tables on them.

More babies? Not yet.

Casey feels slighted by the whole ordeal and ignores Verbanski when she tries to tell him that it's all part of a larger plan, which included the dude telling her where some other dude, St. Germaine, is hiding, because of some yada yada. I truly could care less. The point is, she ends up going in with just her team, and gets caught. St. Germaine calls up Casey for some ransom, and it's team Carmichael to the rescue. Fights, booms, bangs, etc.

While all of this was going on, Sarah was worried that she might be pregnant. Chuck is completely oblivious to her many obvious signs, but when they do the test, it turns out she's not anyway, so whatevs, dude. You're in the clear. But that gets them to thinking about the future and whatnot. Can spies have kids? Do they want that? Stop spiraling, people, it's not happening quite yet.

And in my favorite plot of the night, we had Jeff and Lester (or really just Jeff) catching on to all of the spy shenanigans going on right under their very noses. He puts together that Casey and Sarah are probably CIA, that Chuck is some kind of asset, and that they must have a fourth member on their team. Morgan gets wind of the whole thing and calls in Devon to act as a diversion, pretending he's the fourth spy.

He lures them down into the basement of the Buy More and acts as though he's been hiding some workout equipment down there, and that they've all been chasing a ghost of sorts. But Jeff's brain, no longer all gassed out, is able to put some things together, and smashes right through the fake wall in the room straight into Castle. Morgan tranqs both him and Lester before they can ask any questions, but they've already seen it. So now pretty much everyone is going to know their "secret"?

Choice Song:

Jackpot - The Albertans

Quotes:

Chuck: What can we, Carmichael Industries, offer our clients that other firms can't? Go.
Sarah: Discount electronics?

"I'm not a kept man. I'm a spy, dammit." - Casey

"It's so oddly comfortable running in heels." - Lester

"Let the statuesque man work out in peace." - Big Mike

Chuck 5x08 "...vs. the Baby"

2012-01-03T19:41:00.000-08:00

Full disclosure: I completely forgot Chuck was even on this past week. It's a bizarre decision, really, because of the holidays. I was out of town, a lot of other people were out of town. Anyway, I finally checked my DVR tonight and was like "whoops!"

So, since most everyone will probably not care about a full recap, I'll just do a quickie. First of all, it's a big relief to find out pretty much right off the bat that the baby mentioned in last week's preview is not, in fact, Sarah's kid. Because that would've been terrible. Instead, the baby girl in question was a CIA "package" Sarah's previous handler, Kieran Ryker (guest star Tim DeKay), had her retrieve in Hungary after her family was killed. Of course, he turned out to have nefarious plans for the kid, namely in taking over her family fortune. Sarah outsmarted him, though, and sent the baby to the care of her mother. Since the CIA didn't know about her existence, they, and therefore Ryker, would not be able to track the girl down.

Thank god this kid was not Sarah's.

Back in the present, though, it turns out that Shaw somehow found out that the girl was still alive, and sent this information to Ryker. Sarah sets up a meet with Ryker to find out if he knows where the girl is, but it turns out he doesn't, so all seems well and good. But, you know, all is NOT well and good, because Ryker puts a bug in her hair, so that when she finally opens up to Chuck about what happened with the baby, he finds out exactly where she is. Dun dun dun.

Sarah manages to get a signal to her mom to go to some coordinates, and she, Chuck and Casey take out Ryker and his team when they converge on her mom's house. All's well. Sarah is able to finally reunite with her mom after so many years of not being able to have any contact, sappy sappy etc. etc.

Meanwhile, Morgan was trying to win back over Alex, who was not very receptive to the idea. Enter Ellie and Awesome to grease the wheels. When Alex sees how cute Morgan is with the now four-five-ish year old Molly, she decides that he's not so bad after all. Guys being cute with kids. Does it every time.

Random note: I'm not sure if you know this already, but there is a widely used sound effect scream called the Wilhelm scream. It's been used in many different movies and TV shows, and I totally heard it in tonight's episode when Ryker pushed the fake waiter off that balcony.

Song Choice:

Fun ft. Janelle Monae - We Are Young

Pin It

Chuck 5x07 "...vs. the Santa Suit"

2011-12-23T21:21:00.000-08:00

I was digging this episode up until that last minute when there's some kind of wacky baby story introduced. Really? I believe my response was "what?" laced with disdain.

Chuck steals a Santa suit, making all the children cry.

But hey, before that, it was actually a good episode! As Christmas looms, Ellie realizes that she is fully unprepared for the party she's hosting in a mere six hours. But hey, she's got a crack spy team on her side, so it should all be fixed up in a jiffy, right? Ha, please. Not while the Omen virus is currently wreaking havoc all over the place, sending everyone to the Buy More to look for answers, which no one has.

The only person who seemingly knows what the plan is for the Omen virus is currently locked in prison, apparently. But thanks to their Omen buddy, said prisoner breaks out of jail. Okay let's stop being coy about it - it's Shaw, which anyone who had seen the previews from last week would've figured out already, despite the crafty camera angles trying to keep it a secret until he arrives in Castle, to knock out Sarah with his Intersect skills. Wait a minute. Um, why have they let him keep the Intersect in his brain? I'm pretty sure they know how to get that out. They got it out of Morgan's brain, after all. That is just sloppy.

But, nonetheless, he still has it, and we find out he was using Decker as a sort of pawn, having gained some valuable blackmail intel on him thanks to that wily Intersect. It turns out there's another piece to the Omen virus that he needs, and he's going to use Sarah as a hostage to get Chuck to get it for him - something called, I believe, a Macau device. The device is currently hidden somewhere in Decker's old office at the CIA, so the crew gets Beckman to help them out. She and Chuck infiltrate and get the device (and also doing a classic "pretend to be kissing when we're caught in a compromising position!" moment).

Meanwhile, they've been having Jeff and Lester try to work out just what exactly the purpose of the Omen virus is in the first place. Where does the information go, etc. They find out, after many a coffee and Subway sandwich, that the device is only trying to get information from government computers. It's designed to send it all to one place, but it's not currently sending it anywhere. Chuck figures that this is what the Macau device is for - to gather all of the information. And why would Shaw want to gather all that info? Because he wants to upgrade his Intersect while also taking down the CIA mainframe, so that they have to start coming to him for their information.

Of course, Shaw would have Sarah believe that he's doing all of this to either A) try to get back with her or B) try to get back at her. I wonder what it could be. Yeah, he wants to make her watch while he kills Chuck. Of course, being a nefarious muahaha villain nowadays, he doesn't really remember that Chuck is rather smart and good at thinking on his feet, and this situation is no exception. He uses the Macau to reverse the Intersect upload so that it actually takes it out of Shaw's brain instead of updating it - by using the Omen virus itself. I totally called that, by the way. Kinda obvious, but whatever.

Chuck and Shaw then proceed to get fighty with it, and we see that Chuck has indeed been learning a great deal of new moves. He puts them to good use, but it's not quite enough. In the end, Ellie comes to the rescue, hitting Shaw over the head and knocking him out before he can shoot Chuck. Ellie is really stepping up to the plate lately!

In the end, the gang is able to have their Christmas shindig. Casey is able to tell Alex how he feels about her (and also put in a good word for Morgan), and Beckman joins the fun as well. But, of course, now we come to that aforementioned ridiculousness. Beckman tells Sarah that Shaw wants to talk to her. And he reminds her of a baby. We're led to believe that the baby is hers, but I'm thinking that's just a bait and switch kind of thing. But, who the heck knows. It's just so soap opera to have a SECRET BABY OMG!

Anyway, that about wraps it up. I bid you all farewell on this Christmas Eve Eve. Happy Holidays!

Choice Song:

The Kickdrums - Love Can Drive Your Mind Wild

Quotes:

"That plan's kinda vague." - Casey

"My wife has been kidnapped, and I am officially ruining Christmas for the children of Burbank." - Chuck

Chuck: Stan Lee is a spy? That is so weird.
Beckman: Los Angeles spies...

Jeff: Water can only dilute this feeling.
Lester: Plus, fish have sex in it.

My Favorite New Shows of 2011

2011-12-22T08:59:00.000-08:00

It's the end of the year which, of course, means I must do some kind of best of list! Lists are what make the world go round! You can't say you don't love a good list, though you may be able to say that you don't necessarily like what's on my list below.

Because this is an entirely subjective list. Your favorite show? It just may be that I haven't seen it. I am but one person, after all, and I can't spend all my time watching TV. I'm not saying I don't spend a, um, decent amount of time doing that, BUT! Still, I haven't seen everything, so the list below is just of my personal favorite shows that debuted in 2011. That's right, the shows had to have debuted in 2011. Maybe I only just started watching Merlin and Breaking Bad this year, but alas, they have been on for some time now, so I can't include them.

In no particular order other than how they popped into my head...

Falling Skies

Honestly, I had no idea how much I was going to really enjoy this show. It does the family-friendly scifi epic right (as in, Terra Nova could take some notes). Sure, there are some cheesy moments, and they haven't entirely figured out what to do with the youngest son, but the action is usually pretty gripping, and the mysteries set up and solved and expanded in timely and interesting ways. If you like some alien scifi, you should like this show.

Revenge

Revenge is probably the most addictive soapy show on television right now. The first few episodes were very takedown-of-the-week, but thankfully they started to divert from that formula and embraced the serialized soapy nature of the show. And the success the show is having is just proof that audiences will tune in for serialized shows - if they're good. Revenge is. If you haven't watched it, you really should get caught up over the holidays so you can join in the fun in real time when it comes back.

Game of Thrones

To be honest, really the only reason I'm including this on here is because I am such a fan of the book series. While the show definitely does the books justice, for the most part, I do think it has a tendency to get a little too serious with itself. I'm also not sure they've found the right balance between all of the characters yet, but perhaps as it goes on, it will. I did think it was kind of ridiculous how people got all crazed about the major character death being some huge surprise when it was in the book, and completely propels everything that happens in the rest of the series. But I won't go on a rant. If you like smart fantasy, you'll probably like this.

New Girl

At first, this show seemed like it could get overly cutesy-twee-quirky. Certainly that is half of the appeal of Zooey Deschanel in the first place, but you don't want to overdo it. Luckily, they seem to have found the balance. I have found myself laughing so many times in nearly every episode, you don't even know. Schmidt? Genius. The scene with Zooey and Justin Long, where they were doing the old-timey voices while getting it on? OMG. I was laughing so much. I do think the show probably appeals to girls more than guys, but regardless it's a lot of fun.

Hart of Dixie

Um, what? What is this show doing on here? It fully has a recipe for disaster, and by the pilot alone it lived up to that disaster. But then the show started to clue into that dynamic of Everwood gone by that I love, and now I am hooked. Sure, it's pretty cheesy and sometimes over the top (particularly the character of Lemon... come on, tone her down), but it has a heart and some nice chemistry between the actors going for it. Just forget that Rachel Bilson is supposed to be some kind of wunderkind surgeon and you'll be okay. And, seriously, Zoe and Wade forever. Come on.

Once Upon a Time

To be fair, this show absolutely pissed me off so much with its mid-season finale. And it has taken a while to find any kind of groove. But I like the set-up enough and find the mysteries intriguing enough that I will keep watching for the foreseeable future. But that does not mean I forgive them for killing off the only character that I really liked so soon. Bring him back, I say! Bring. Him. Back! (And his hipster wardrobe!)

Being Human (US)

Honestly, the original UK version of this show is arguably better. I was seriously concerned this one was not going to be able to live up to the original in any way, but it turns out I was happily wrong. I do think one of the characters was miscast, but perhaps this particular person will get better over time? One can hope. What I liked about this version was that it used some of the same storylines from the original, but it tweaked them in interesting ways, and moved at a faster pace. It will be interesting to see how it continues to follow, or not follow, the original. By far one of the better series Scifi, excuse me, Syfy, has put out recently. Sorry, Alphas, but I find you extra boring.

Honorable Mentions: Grimm, Suits, Fairly Legal, 2 Broke Girls

Did I miss your favorite? Any shows you think I should be watching that I'm not? What are your favorites? Let me know in the comments!

Pin It

Chuck 5x06 "...vs. the Curse"

2011-12-16T23:01:00.000-08:00

In case you've forgotten, as of the last episode, Chuck and company are in possession of a device called The Omen - a computer virus that will basically wipe out everything, apparently. They were going to be framed for stealing it by Decker, but Verbanski killed him. Nonetheless, the CIA is now holding them responsible and are sending people to take them in. Uh oh!

Luckily, Beckman is able to give them a coded message to get the heck out of there before they're caught, which they do. Chuck gets to mope around about how he's worried he's the next in line to inherit a Bartowski curse. That is, leaving one's family in order to protect them from your crazy spy life. And even though at this point he and Sarah really should go into hiding at least for a little bit, their plans are about to be thwarted once more. When do plans ever really go well, anyway?

Awesome shirtless? Yes, please!

You see, Ellie and Awesome had planned to have a swanky night out together for the first time in a while. Ellie used Chuck's open table account to reserve a table, so they have been mistaken as the Bartowskis. At first there's a fun little bit where they think they're both pretending to be spies to spice up their mini vacay, but soon enough they've been taken by Robin Cunnings (played by guest star Rebecca Romijn), who wants to use them as leverage against Chuck to get him to turn over The Omen device to her.

Robin and company pretend for Ellie and Awesome that they're really just waiting for Chuck to get there, but Ellie is no dummy. She can tell that they're going to be used as some kind of leverage and manages to knock out a dude so she and Devon can escape. Of course, Chuck has already agreed to bring The Omen device to save them, behind the backs of Sarah, Beckman and Casey, even though they would've totally agreed to do that too.

When Chuck shows up, he ends up getting tied up until he'll confess where he's hidden the device. Meanwhile, the escaped Ellie and Devon are devising a plan to save him, since his plan to save them sort of backfired a little bit. But the Woodcombs are not the Bartowskis, and Devon gets himself caught. Chuck gives up the location of The Omen in order to spare Devon some torture, and Robin unleashes it on the world.

With that done, she decides that she doesn't need Captain Awesome anymore. Come on, Robin, couldn't you use him for his handsomeness and amazing body alone? Have some imagination! Nonetheless, before she can do anything to his pretty face, Sarah and the others come to the rescue, even though Sarah is pissed at Chuck for leaving her. They manage to capture Robin, but don't find out much about why she was tasked with unleashing The Omen, or who told her to do it. All they know is that it's already started to cause havoc all over the world, apparently unlocking a door to some bad guy's cell in the process. Dun dun dun!

While all of this was going on, Morgan and Alex were reconnecting a little bit. Morgan was sent back to his and Casey's place to wipe out his computers, only Alex was there. Yada yada, some sort of useless bit about an apparent box of personal affects that he and Chuck both made that has never before been mentioned, and was clearly only used to make some jokes about pants. Anyway, these two will likely reconcile soon.

Choice Song:

Theophilus London - All Around the World

Memphis - I Want the Lights on After Dark

Quotes:

"Did you just compliment me? And insult me?" - Morgan

"There's one thing I can't live without. My pants." - Chuck, actually talking about his P.A.N.T.S.

"This is where we come on our darkest hours. Iran Contra. Nicaragua. The Clinton years." - Casey

Homemade Hot Cocoa with Homemade Marshmallows

2011-12-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

Amidst these wintry holiday times, nothing is better than a cup of hot chocolate and some marshmallows. Hot chocolate/cocoa/whatever you like to call it is really not complete without marshmallows in my opinion.

Side note: did you know that hot cocoa and hot chocolate are apparently two different things? When you see hot cocoa on a menu, it means it comes from a mix, like the one I'll be showing you below. When you see hot chocolate, however, it means that chocolate bits are melted on a stove. At least, that's what it is supposed to mean. Whether restaurants actually follow this, I must assume largely unknown, rule is another question.

Back to the task at hand! If you're feeling fancy, you can make your own hot cocoa mix AND your own homemade marshmallows! What! Yes, it's true. This is a great idea for a little gift, as well. Because let me tell you something, homemade marshmallows are about eleventy-billion times better than store bought. Just the facts, Jack.

Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa
2 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cornstarch
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste
Hot water

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl and incorporate evenly (easiest with a whisk). Fill about half your cup with the mix and add in hot water to the rest, stirring to combine. The rest can be sealed in an airtight container in your pantry for future use.

Homemade Marshmallows
(via Smitten Kitchen)

~1 cup powdered sugar
3 1/2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 cup cold water, divided
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
2 large egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla

Oil bottom and sides of a 9x13 pan, and dust it with powdered sugar.

In your mixing bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water and let soften up.

In a medium-sized heavy saucepan, cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water, and salt over low heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved (use a non-stick or wooden spoon). Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, for about 12 minutes. If you have a candy or digital thermometer, it should be at 240F. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until the gelatin has dissolved.

Beat the mixture on high speed until white, thick and nearly tripled in volume. If you're using a standing mixer, make sure you use the whisk-type attachment. It needs to get some air beaten in there. This should take approximately 6 minutes with a standing mixture, but can take longer if you're using a handheld one.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat the whites and vanilla into the sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan. Sift 1/4 cup powdered sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours.

Run a thin knife around edge of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. You're going to have to use your hands to loosen it and get it out, because it will stick. With a large knife, or pizza cutter, cut the marshmallows into roughly one-inch cubes. Sift remaining powdered sugar into your pan and roll the marshmallows through it, on all six sides, before shaking off the excess and storing them.

They can keep for 1 week at room temperature, but it's totally fine to put them in the fridge too.

In photos:

That's all them there hot cocoa mix ingredients ready to get mixed up.

Well hey, now it looks like cocoa mix! What in the world are we doing here? Oh right, making hot cocoa mix.

Now that your mix is ready, start working on the marshmallows. First you need to prepare your pan with some oil and powdered sugar.

Add 3 1/2 packets of gelatin to 1/2 cup cold water to get it softened up while you do the next thing.

Which is mixing together sugar, corn syrup, salt and another 1/2 cup cold water.

Now you've got to let this start to boil for awhile. Twelve minutes is about right. If you have a thermometer and want to be precise, it should be at 240F. But I don't have one, and it turned out fine.

Mix that in with the gelatin. The gelatin may have started to get a tad hard, but don't worry, the heat from the sugar stuff will dissolve it, just keep mixing.

While you start the sugar stuff to mixing, in a separate bowl, get your egg whites all fluffified. And don't take slightly blurry photos like me. Whoops.

Oh my goodness! Look what has happened to the stuff in the mixing bowl! This is after about six minutes. I initially had the paddle attachment instead of the whisk, and nothing was happening. Then I switched in the whisk and whoosh! The thing starts tripling in size and turning white! Amazing!

After you add in your egg whites and vanilla (I did not bother taking a photo as it looks basically the same), pour it into the prepared pan from earlier.

Sprinkle some more powdered sugar on there. Sugar sugar sugar, this is all about sugar!

Put it in the fridge for at least three hours to let it set up. When that's done, take a knife and go around the edges. You can try just turning it over onto the cutting board, but it's likely not going to just plop out. Use your hands and pull it away from the bottom! Hands! Use them! Once you've got it on the cutting board, you can use a knife, or use a pizza cutter and start cutting them into squares.

Roll around the marshmallows in some more powdered sugar and voila! Ready to consume! These will stay fresh for a week out and about, but you can stick them back in the fridge for longer.

Now that you've got your marshmallows ready, heat up some water and get to mixing up some hot cocoa! Generally you can fill up your cup about 1/3-1/2 of the way with hot cocoa mix, depending on how you like it. Stir stir stir.

Plop in some of your marshmallows and - voila! Fancy. Ignore that little sugar bit on that one marshmallow and pretend it looks fabulous and amazing. Because it will at least taste that way. The marshmallows really are quite delicious and make the hot cocoa all the better.

Happy Holidays!

Pin It

Chuck 5x05 "...vs. the Hack Off"

2011-12-09T19:58:00.001-08:00

Confession time: my favorite part of this episode was the cameo by Danny Pudi as a fake Nerd Herder with a double sneak attack cameo from Yvette Nicole Brown as another Buy More employee. Gotta love it. And seriously, a PSA for any of you who don't watch Community - you should. It's awesomesauce.

Danny Pudi "joins" the Nerd Herd

Okay! Moving on. As of the last episode, both Casey and Lester were arrested - Casey for killing a bunch of dudes, and Lester for attempting to poison Jeff. Now they're both in the same prison. While Lester could get out easily by just promising Jeff he won't poison him, Casey isn't quite so lucky. The only way he's getting out is through Chuck and Sarah. They want to break him out, but he doesn't want to be a fugitive. Enter another option - Decker. Yep, the nefarious Decker has a proposition for them - they get this superpowered virus called The Omen, and he'll get Casey out of jail.

But without Casey there to help, Chuck and Sarah need some other backup, which comes in the form of Verbanski, who doesn't want to see Casey rot in prison any more than the rest of the gang. They track down the creator of the virus, Colin Davis, to a naked cult commune. He's got the virus on a chip that he swallows before they can get it away from him.

After getting the chip out of Colin, the next phase of the plan is getting some sort of device that the chip goes in that is at Colin's old workplace, I guess. Honestly, I was barely paying attention to the spy stuff, which is becoming a bit common lately. When they said this special virus could take out all the computers in the world, or some such, I was like "oh here we go, another doomsday device!" It's always some crazy, never-before-seen device that will RUIN. EVERYTHING! Dun dun dun.

Anyway! In what was my second favorite part of the episode, Chuck had to go in as a hacker to a place called The Collective, where he got to demonstrate his awesome computer hacking skills that we don't get to see enough of, and only seem to be around when the plot is convenient for them. He busts out his chardonnay and goes to town in a hack off. While another hacker races to beat him to cracking the Federal Reserve, Chuck is secretly breaking into the system of the building itself to get Verbanski and Sarah into the mainframe room and steal the doohickey that goes with the virus thingamajig. Because you can't have your thingamajig without your doohickey.

When they meet up with Decker later to give him all the technological mumbo jumbo, though, it turns out he was framing them. He had it on tape that Chuck had the Omen virus, and when he showed that to the FBI, Chuck would become the most wanted man in America. Luckily for Chuck and Sarah, however, they still had Verbanski with them. She did some slight of hand and got the thingy back while also placing a bomb on Decker. Boom goes the bomb, and bye bye goes Decker. Guess he's not the villain of the season after all!

But now Chuck and Sarah must figure out what's going on with the virus and blah de blah. Some sort of potentially life-threatening situation, I'm sure. Verbanski, having just realized she has true feelings for Casey, of course now has to make herself scarce for a while after killing Decker, so they can't get together. For now, anyway. Since Decker won't be getting Casey out of prison now, Morgan steps up to help him escape.

Meanwhile, Morgan and Jeff were determined to get Lester back in the right headspace, since he was clearly having it way too easy in prison (he managed to wire in cable and internet for the prisoners, after all). They hired someone to make it look like they were replacing him, and bada bing - Lester promised to not poison Jeff again. What would the Buy More be without it's Jeffster, after all?

Choice Songs:

Teddybears - Get Fresh With You

Blitzen Trapper - Love the Way You Walk Away

Quotes:

Lester: Okay, I admit it, I tried to poison you to keep you subordinate. What is the big deal?
Jeff: I could've died.
Lester: But you didn't!

"I'm gonna look like a Hin-Jew Michelangelo by the time I get out of here." - Lester

"We used to call this routine: The Routine." - Morgan

Morgan: You'd shoot me?
Verbanski: I'd beat you over the head with it.

"Imagine David Beckham. Lester is a shorter, feminine version of his wife." - Morgan

...Oven: Cream Biscuits

2011-12-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

Did you know - it's getting cold outside. Which means my apartment is crazy cold inside. Luckily I live in Los Angeles, so my cold here is, you know, skewed, compared to the rest of the country.

As in, there is no way I could survive on a space heater alone if I were living somewhere else. I just don't trust those gas wall heaters that we have going on down here. If you've ever lived in an apartment in LA, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. They're shifty. Not to be trusted. Or maybe I just grew up with central heat and don't get it.

Something I do get? Biscuits. Biscuits are great, but especially so when it's cold out and you want some buttery and flakey goodness.

These particular biscuits require cream. So you know I only made them because I had leftover cream from some other recipe hanging around, begging to be used before stinking up my fridge. Nobody likes a stinky fridge.

The best part about biscuits? You can freeze them before you bake them, so you can have fresh biscuits any old time. Brilliant.

Cream Biscuits
(via Smitten Kitchen)

3 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the surface
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt butter and set aside. Sift two cups flour, the baking powder, salt and sugar into a large bowl. Fold in 1 1/4 cups cream. If the dough is not soft or easily handled, fold in the remaining 1/4 cup cream, little by little.

Turn dough onto a floured surface, mound it into a ball and, using your hands, press it to a thickness of about 3/4 inch. Cut into rounds, about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Gather the dough scraps and continue to make rounds. Brush the top of each round with melted butter and arrange on the baking sheet. Bake until golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Serve immediately, or flash freeze for future use. (They can be baked straight from the freezer, you just need to add some more baking time, usually around 3 to 5 minutes.)

In photos:

Sifting flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

After adding in the cream and kneading it.

I used a larger biscuit cutter than I meant to, so I didn't get as many. I also froze a couple before this step, which is brushing on the butter.

Mine did not brown a whole lot, but I didn't want to overcook.

Slice, butter, enjoy! You can also use jam, of course. But I accidentally broke my jam jar trying to get it open, sending glass shards and rogue jam everywhere. It's true. I don't know my own strength, apparently.

Supernatural 7x10 "Death's Door"

2011-12-02T22:06:00.001-08:00

Oh man. I think I need to take a second to process. Though I've always liked Bobby, I've never really been one wringing my hands, fearing he might die. But tonight I suddenly didn't want him to. And that is entirely courtesy of a great performance from Jim Beaver. I could probably wax on about it all, but instead I'm going to get into the recap.

In case you don't recall, the last episode left Bobby with a hole in his noggin courtesy of head Leviathan Dick. We pick up right where it left off, with the boys rushing him to the nearest trauma center. While the doctors go to work and the boys go to fretting, Bobby is in his noggin, working through the good, the bad and the bloody memories of his life.

These initial memories include a scene from the last episode with Sam and Dean, a flirty bedroom scene with his wife Karen before she got possessed, and working on a hunt with Rufus. Soon enough, a Reaper appears and tells Bobby that it's his time to go. But Bobby knows he has something to tell the boys - something he found out in Dick's office last episode - before he would feel okay doing so. That something turns out to be a number, though I honestly have not a clue what the number means. Are we supposed to know? Is that a mystery the boys will have to solve? Guess we'll find out.

Luckily for Bobby, he's a hunter, so he's able to get dream-vision Rufus on his side in figuring out how to not cross over to the other side in a kind of convenient memory where Rufus just happened to have told him that he went through something similar. Perhaps it's not altogether too convenient, maybe it was just Bobby's unconscious latching on to it. Wow I thought about that too much. Anyway, Rufus informs Bobby that the way out is through - he has to go through his worst memories to get back to life.

Not sure what that might be, he goes to the first one that comes to mind. The night when he apparently told Karen that he didn't want to have kids, which broke her heart. We find out that she was possessed three days later, which was not enough time for them to get through that and for Bobby to realize he would actually make a great dad. Alas, it was not meant to be. But this memory was not the one he needed to get back.

Back in the real world, the doctors are fairly grim about Bobby's chances of pulling through. A representative of some kind even has the nerve to ask Dean about the possibility of organ donation. Dean being Dean, he punches a glass directory in anger. Distraught, he heads outside to find Dick smugly waiting in his town car. Dean gives him a verbal lashing, but anything more than that is out of the question for now with so many onlookers. Of course, while Dean is not ready at all to accept the fact that Bobby might die, Sam tries to ease him into the idea. Not so successfully. You'd think he'd learn by now.

Back in Bobby's head, he's decided that since he doesn't know what memory will take him out, he's got to work some mojo on the Reaper to give himself some more time. Because that time is definitely running out. Stuff has started disappearing in this world-between-worlds, and it's because Bobby either needs to cross over or he'll get stuck in between and become an angry spirit someday. While he temporarily traps the Reaper, though, he also manages to figure out what memory is the right one.

It's one from his childhood. We saw a brief scene earlier with his parents - the meek mom and abusive dad that was hinted at not so long ago. But this time we get to see the whole thing. When Bobby's dad starts to abuse his mom, our time Bobby tells him the what for, that he was afraid to have his own kids because he didn't want to turn out like him, but he ended up adopting two boys anyway, and they turned out to be heroes. Awww. We also find out that apparently little Bobby shot his dad in the head, in the same spot that Bobby was just shot in the head! That was a cool bit of symmetry.

Idjits. Weep.

Back in the real world, the doctors think that Bobby's brain has stopped swelling enough that they can operate, so they tell Sam and Dean now would be the time to go in and see him. Of course, this just happens to be when Bobby manages to wake himself up enough to scrawl the important number on Sam's palm and call the boys idjits before flatlining. Bobby!

In his brain, he spends one last good memory with the boys before the Reaper comes calling again. Time to make a choice. Go? Or stay? And.... fade to black! Damn it, I knew it!

What do you think? Is Bobby going to the great white yonder, or will he miraculously pull through? Honestly this felt like a love story goodbye to him, so I would kind of be surprised if he lived. But who knows. I DO know, however, that the preview for the January 6th return (yes, we're on hellatus!) looked pretty awesome.

Random Thoughts:

- I said to myself "his life is flashing before his eyes" and then someone said it out loud on the show and it made me feel smart and cool like a dork.

- The scene with Bobby playing catch with little Dean - awesome. I especially liked the follow up phone call he had with John. Aww.

- Idjits is Bobby's way of saying I love you, and it made me want to weep.

- Chuck Norris vs. Jet Li ... who would win in your book?

- That entire bickering segment with Dean and Sam at the end before they disappeared warmed my heart so much.

- What in the world does the number mean? I think it was 454895? Did Bobby get to write the whole number on Sam's hand or did I add an extra 5 on the end in my head?

- Did you guys see the video Jared and Jensen did thanking everyone for voting in the People's Choice Awards? No? GO WATCH IT.

Quotes:

"What, you were expecting Farrah Fawcett?" - Karen
"No, she always calls first." - Bobby

"Mother Mary, I've got a messed up fruitcake." - Bobby

"You got the only case of genetic bullet in the brain I've ever seen." - Reaper

"Idjits..." - Bobby :(

Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats

2011-11-30T08:33:00.001-08:00

I had meant to post this a while ago. You know, when I actually made them. But then there was this thing called Thanksgiving that happened, and I plum forgot. How very rude of me! Or, maybe I didn't forget, but with the plethora of Thanksgiving-style recipes going on around the web, I thought these would get lost.

And they shouldn't. Because look!

Right? Rice Krispies, marshmallows, browned butter, salt. Where can you go wrong? You really can't. Unless you burn your butter instead of brown it, which is just a sad state of affairs if so.

But, yes. Rice Krispie Treats are good all the year round. Why?

Because they are super duper easy peasy. These are just slightly more fancy than your regular rice krispie treat recipe you find on the box. I will say that I'm not sure I would make these in the same small pan again. I like my treats a little thinner. Mostly because I have a tiny mouth, so it's nearly impossible for me to fully bite into these.

But hey, if you have a big mouth? Go to it!

Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats
(via Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter
1 10-ounce bag marshmallows
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
6 cups Rice Krispies cereal (about half a 12-ounce box)

Butter (or coat with non-stick spray) an 8-inch square cake pan. If you want thinner treats, use a larger pan.

In a large pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. It will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden, and finally start to brown and smell deliciously nutty. Stir frequently and don't take your eyes off the pot. There's a small window between brown and burnt, and you don't want burnt.

As soon as the butter takes on a nutty brownish color, turn that heat off and stir in the marshmallows. They should be able to melt just from the butter's heat, but if not, you can turn the stove back on to low to get it all melty and smooth.

Remove the pot from the stove and stir in the salt and cereal together. Quickly spread into prepared pan. Pat down with a non-stick spoon/spatula/whatever you like. Or you can also do some oiled wax paper if you want, but that requires using a whole other thing, so... you know I don't bother!

Let cool, cut into squares and devour!

In Photos:

Browned butter and marshmallows getting ready to melt. No photos of the butter browning as you cannot see it in a black pan and you don't want it to burn while trying to get a good photo!

Oooh melty.

Add in the rice krispies and salt.

Press into the prepared pan. It goes right to the top!

After they've cooled, cut 'em up and enjoy!

Pin It