Fresh from the...

Supernatural 8x23 "Sacrifice"

2013-05-15T22:51:00.002-07:00

Another season in the can, people! Started off a bit shaky to me, but picked up near the end here. And, as season finales tend to go, a lot of crap went down tonight. Shizz happened, yo.

Don't trust the short bearded fellow.

Sam and Dean are working on the final demon tablet trial - to cure a demon. Since they royally botched doing that to Abaddon, they work up a plan to do it to Crowley instead. A plan which Crowley falls for rather easily, though I guess he wouldn't know about devil's trapped handcuffs as they were hidden in that bunker for decades. Anyway, they trap him in a church, get the angel tablet from him, and get ready to start working the cure mojo on him, but Castiel pops in to ask for help.

You see, he was still conferring with Metatron about the next phase in the angel trials. That is, to get a Cupid to give him their bow. Before they can do it, though, Naomi's cronies find them and zap Metatron up to Heaven. So, Cas goes to find Dean to ask for his help in getting the Cupid's bow. Dean would rather stay with Sam, but Sam assures him he can do this thing on his own, so Dean reluctantly heads off with Castiel. They also get Kevin to start taking a look at the angel tablet in the bunker. Not sure why they haven't let him stay in the bunker until now, though.

Up in Heaven, Naomi has Metatron in her questioning chamber of sorts to figure out his dealio. She's very suspicious of the fact that he's been missing for so long, yet seems to know everything that's been going on so easily. Hmm. Good point, Naomi, good point.

Sam, you look like crap. Hot crap, sure, but still crap.

Back at the church, Sam is administering his purified blood to Crowley every hour as per the curing a demon ritual. They get interrupted, however, by a very pissed off Abaddon, who is not so happy that Crowley is the king of Hell. She beats him up for a bit, tosses Sam around some, but in the end, Sam is able to douse her in holy fire and she smokes out of there. Too bad, I liked that actress playing her. After that, Crowley starts talking a little less Crowley-like. Is that blood starting to work after all?

Dean and Castiel track down a Cupid and get her to give him her bow, which is really her hand, which is gross, but that's how they roll on this show. Anyway, Kevin calls up Dean to tell him he doesn't see anything about the Nephilim or the cupid's bow on the tablet, and that's when Naomi pops down for a visit. She basically confirms what Kevin was saying - Metatron is up to something that does not involve closing the gates of Heaven, but rather casting all of the angels out of Heaven instead. Sending them to Earth to live mortal lives. Castiel is convinced that she's lying, but when she tells Dean that the final demon trial is meant to kill Sam, he leaves Cas unattended to go help his baby bro. Never a good idea to leave Cas on his own, Dean, have we not learned this by now?

Brotherly moment of the night.

Because what happens when he goes up to Heaven to see what's going on? Naomi's got a drill in her brain and Metatron is there to basically gloat and take away Castiel's grace. Naomi was right, he's gotten Cas to be his patsy in performing a spell, and the last thing he needed was an angel's grace. He sends Cas down to Earth, apparently human.

Dean finds Sam just as he's about to complete the demon curing ritual on Crowley, who has completely changed his tune from nefarious to genuinely upset about what he's done. Though Sam is prepared to sacrifice himself to close the gates of Hell, Dean manages to talk him out of it in a rather touching brotherly moment. His arms stop glowing from the purifying stuff, but then he collapses in agony. Something is wrong!

They run outside to find there's some kind of weird storm a-brewing. Kevin, in the bunker, sees a bunch of red lights appearing on a map. Cas, cast out of Heaven, wanders around, looking to the sky. And there, falling from the broiling clouds are white lights. Angels. Falling from Heaven.

And... season eight! Dun dun dun!

Random Thoughts:

- Interesting, though not entirely unexpected, way to end the season, with the angels falling. What will that mean going forward?

- What happens to Crowley now? Will he stay semi-cured? Can Dean finish curing him, thus saving Sam from completing the third trial? Will that leave Abaddon an opening to take over Hell?

- I didn't really talk about that opening scene with Sheriff Jody Mills because it's not entirely needed to get the plot, but basically she was the next one Crowley was going after, and I was going to be pissed if she actually was killed because it would've just been another strong female killed off on this show, but thankfully she was not killed. Jody lives on!

- Did everyone see the lights falling from the sky? Because that would be some weird news in the real world.

Quotes:

Dean: How about what you did to Penny Markle in the sixth grade, how about you lead with that?
Sam: That was you.
Dean: ... Carry on.

Kevin: Is this a joke?
Castiel: No, it's the word of God.

Castiel: There was one... female.
Dean: What?
Castiel: I don't think she was female.

Abaddon: Hello, boys.
Crowley: That's my line.

Dean: Talk first. Stab later.

Dean: You finish this trial, you're dead, Sam.
Sam: So?

SYTYCD S10 Detroit Auditions

2013-05-15T22:33:00.001-07:00

To haunt all of our nightmares.

For the second round of auditions, SYTYCD heads to Detroit for the first time. Joining Nigel and Mary on the judging panel is season four favorite tWitch, who gives us all a treat when he briefly performs halfway through the episode.

Jade Zuberi. Really great pop locker/animator. Very engrossing. He wanted to tell a story with his movement and I think he did. Straight to Vegas.

Amy Yakima. Extended jazz thing with her dad, oh jeez. She has a tendency to be a hair flailer, but a decent dancer nonetheless, uses the whole stage. Straight to Vegas.

Morgan Williams. Great lines. Good control for being so tall, not gangly at all. Straight to Vegas despite Nigel trying to psych out with a fake out suggestion of sending him to choreo.

Will "Sysko" Green. The jit, style of dance created in Detroit, not really sure how to describe it. Kind of haphazard to me. Mary requests him to do hip roll and has to go up on stage and sit in a chair for him. I confess that's where he became much more interesting to me, and where that picture of Nigel above came from. To choreography. Tries to freestyle in choreography and told to head home.

Tyrone Cobham. Tapper. Probably one of the best tappers we've seen on the show, right? The judges are very effusive about him. Honestly I think he could go far if he can do other stuff. Straight to Vegas.

Darryl "Smiles" Harrell. Krump. Part of a crew, maybe called Fade or Fame. To choreo. Too much for him, no Vegas.

DeFonte "Prince Charming" Thomas. The other featured dancer from the crew. He's pretty all over the place, mish mosh of styles. Exotic dancing kind of showing through. Choreo. To Vegas for this one, he looked like he was a pretty quick learner.

Well, that's all for now! Next week: Austin. More Los Angeles.

SYTYCD Season 10 Los Angeles Audtions

2013-05-14T21:19:00.002-07:00

Well, guys, welcome back to So You Think You Can Dance. Can you believe this show has been on 10 seasons already? That is insane in the membrane! I've watched it since the first season, and honestly sometimes feel a little laggy about it now because it's hard to seem fresh anymore, but nonetheless it's a pretty enjoyable show. Looks like so far they're keeping the audition rounds shorter, but that may just be for this week. Tonight featured Los Angeles. I'm not going super in depth here, just touching on the contestants that were highlighted...

Fik-Shun, despite having a stupid moniker (for some reason it really bothers me when they always give themselves these other names, tWitch being the exception of course), was really awesome. Great control, the way he was on the ground and pulled himself up and down. Very cool. Straight through to Vegas.

Malece Miller. Nothing special to me. Not strong enough in my opinion, though they gave her a lot of backstory and she had the funny deaf/not deaf joke. Ends up going through to Vegas. She has potential for growth, I guess?

Paul Karmiryan won So You Think You Can Dance in Armenia. Somehow I don't think he should then be able to try out for this show as well? Seems a bit hinky to me, but he gets through to Vegas anyway. Suckling at the mother teat? Sorry, I'm being super critical!

Elijah Laurant. Aka tutu head. Strong, though a bit weird. I just don't like when people are so concerned about being an artist and sharing their vision. Oh goodness. To Vegas he goes.

Taylor Ward. Former softballer turned dancer totally dislocates her knee when warming up. Looks really disgusting but pops it back in. Actually quite pretty dancing, though can tell the knee is a little wonky. To choreo and through to Vegas.

Morris Isby. B-Boy. Goes to choreo. Apparently used to be number 1 in the world or something, but doesn't make it through to Vegas.

Armen Way. Rapper and ballroom dancer? Seemed like he might be a joke based on intro package but actually good. Straight to Vegas.

The Great 1-8ers, Eric & Lorenzo Chapman. Pop & locking. They get the inspirational cut, started their own kids dancing program. They're so nice and lovely and stuff, but not good enough for choreography on this show, ha. I'm not sure if I should be happy they highlight these types of things because it does help local communities, but seems very pat-on-the-back-y.

Not sure I'm super pumped about any of these yet, but it's still early. What about you?

Supernatural 8x22 "Clip Show"

2013-05-08T22:42:00.005-07:00

A return to the classic Supernatural opening, sort of, this week, with a couple young people seemingly having a nice old time until something goes terribly wrong. Of course, it turns out that one of the young people in question is all the way back from season one's wendigo episode. That was only episode two of the entire series! Wow. Anyway, the dude ends up dead from like, bleeding eyes and a possibly exploding head. Dun dun dun!

Dean, I'm sorry for all the subtext.

Meanwhile, back at the bunker, Sam and Dean are in full research mode, trying to figure out what it could mean to cure a demon, per the third trial on the demon tablet. Castiel is moping around like a kicked puppy, begging forgiveness from Dean, the ever grudge-holder. Good luck with that unless you're about to kick the bucket.

They find something in the archives, though, that appears to be helpful. A video of an old exorcism from back in the '50s labeled "Weird!!!" Basically, this priest is doing an exorcism, but in a different way than normal. Namely, some different Latin and by also cutting his and and slamming his blood into the demon's mouth.

Not clear what exactly happened, but the point was he was trying to "cleanse" the demon or something, which we can take to mean "cure" in this case, I suppose. Later, he does a similar thing to another demon, only pumping him full of his own purified blood while doing the exorcism stuff, which apparently eventually gets the demon to be more empathetic again, then does the bloody hand face Latin, and voila, demon cured? Unclear on what happens to the person they were possessing though if they can just keep hanging out in the body.

Rather hilarious they needed popcorn for this.

Now that they have all of this info, they figure it's time to get themselves a demon to try it out on and finish the trials. Dean figures they should use one they already know the whereabouts of, so they dig up Abaddon from some episodes back and put humpty dumpty back together again. Well, except for her hands. Those, they cut off.

However, before they can get to the ritual, they get a phone call from Crowley, and here is where they act like FOOLS. FOOLISH FOOLS! They leave Abaddon alone in this warehouse, thinking she is down for the count because her hands are cut off and she has a devil's trap bullet in her head. Right. She is able to move her hands outside of her body and pulls the bullet out of her head. Dummies! Never leave demons alone!

They're about to be epic stupid. Sigh.

Anyway, their phone call with Crowley basically amounts to him telling them that people they've helped save in the past are turning up dead, and that they should check it out. They find another past save dead, and Crowley then tells him he's going to keep killing these people every 12 hours unless the boys decide to give him the demon tablet and quit doing the trials. Yeah, sure, that's gonna happen.

They say as much, so Crowley directs them to his next victim, none other than fan favorite Sarah from way back in season one. They think they've got it covered by putting up devil's traps and all other demon warding stuff, but when the time comes, she starts choking to death. Turns out, it was a spell. They search the room frantically for the hex bag that must be there, but alas, are unable to find it. Sarah is dead meat, which makes Sam feel really terrible, particularly when he finds out she's married and has a kid who's almost one year old. Ah, shizz. Another girl bites the dust. Never kiss Sam, kids, if you want to survive.

Crowley has some words that hit rather close to home for the boys - namely that the only reason the hunting they've done in their lives has had meaning was because of the people they saved, and when you take that away, what do they really have anymore? Sam is feeling rather defeated after all of this and thinks maybe they should just take the deal, but Dean says NO SIR, WE SHALL FIND A WAY! And maybe they will, when they're not being stupid and leaving super powerful demons alone to outsmart them. JEEZ.

Meanwhile! Castiel wants to make amends with Dean, so he decides to go to the local mini mart and basically get Dean's dream package - jerky, Busty Asian Beauties, beer, toilet paper... he even attempts to get him some pie, but we all know that Dean never actually gets his pie, so Cas is sadly thwarted in his good efforts. Metatron shows up before he throttles the kid at the convenience store for not having any pie and tells him that he's not so happy with what Heaven's become lately, and he thinks they should perform the trials to close the gates so the angels can figure their shit out.

The angel he wants to perform the trials? Castiel, of course, a fellow free thinker. The problem is, the first trial consists of Cas having to kill/pull out the heart of a Nephilim. You know, a child of an angel and a human. Apparently only one exists in the world. Cas doesn't want to do it, as it's not her fault, but when they follow her later, she gets rather uppity and tries to kill them, going all glowy eyed and strong-armed. So, he shoves his angel sword through her throat. Does that count as completing the first trial, because nothing really seemed to happen to him like it did to Sam after he completed his.

Random Thoughts:

- Are people outraged about Sarah's death? Is it the writers just playing into the whole thing about anyone whoever got it on with Sam in any way ends up dead? I just think it's sad that really the only girl that anyone ever liked with Sam on this show has now finally ended up dead. Also, her face looked crazy skinny. RANDOM!

- I got a laugh out of the call coming in from 666 being Crowley. One thing you can say about Crowley, he certainly has style.

- How did Crowley get the hex bag in their phone anyway? Hmm. Not sure about that.

- I mean. Boys. You really left Abaddon alone? Come on, son!

- Apart from Sarah, the people chosen to represent the past saves dying were kind of random. Maybe that was the point? Wonder if they actually chose those ones on purpose or if they had to scout around for which actors were available and did it that way?

Quotes:

Castiel: I like this bunker. It's orderly.

Sam: So, we have a dungeon.
Dean: Finally.

Castiel: Where's the pie?
Merchant: I think we're out.
Castiel. No, you don't understand. I need pie.

Sam: This is gonna be disgusting.
Dean: Uh huh.

Supernatural 8x21 "The Great Escapist"

2013-05-01T22:36:00.002-07:00

Ummm can we all agree that maybe that was one of the best episodes of the season so far? Maybe the best? Right? I started thinking that halfway through the episode, then remembered it was written by Ben Edlund, and was like oh well derrr de derr, obviously. I'm not sure I have disliked any of his episodes. Not to say that the episode isn't planned out before the specific writer gets his hands on it, but would any of the other writers come up with that story about the farty donkey? Come on.

Before I wax too effusive about his dialogue, because surely it is some of my favorite, I'll restrain myself and rather get down to the biznatch.

Look out Winchesters, I've got a gun on you! Unheard of! Uncanny!

So! Lest we forget, Kevin was taken away by Crowley a few episodes back. At the time we were maybe supposed to question whether he just lost it and ran away, but all of that questioning was dispelled post haste when we found him holed up, working on the tablet, with a fake Sam and Dean bringing him the half that Crowley took earlier on. It was fairly obvious that they weren't the real Sam and Dean, and Crowley must've thought Kevin was easily duped too. But, no. Kevin Tran ain't no dummy.

Meanwhile, however, the boys are back in the bunker, with not much of a clue what to do, and Sam appears to be getting worse rather than better. He thinks he'll start feeling better once they get back to working on said trials, and pretty much as soon as he says that, they get a video message from Kevin saying he must be dead and here's some info on the last trial. Dean is sure pissed about another innocent dying, but don't worry Dean, he's not really dead. Calm yourself. After Sam looks through the stuff, he notices this same symbol has been appearing throughout the notes, and he happens to remember that same symbol from a class he took back at Stanford. Now, this seems super convenient until we realize the trials are making him remember all sorts of minute details about his life. Anyway, basically, he thinks that the messenger of GAHHG, Metatron himself, is holed up on a mountain with some Native Americans. Or Indians, if you're Dean.

Yeah, like you're the first one to do that. Puh-lease!

While all of that is going on, we also catch up with Castiel, who's been in the wind ever since he got the angel tablet. He's been flitting from Biggerson's (or is it Big Gerson's?) around the country to mask his trail, and so far has been rather successful. But, they manage to catch him by killing a bunch of the people at one of his previous stops. Naomi is mad, duh, and wants to know where the angel tablet is. Cas isn't saying, and before she can do anything more than punch him around a bit, Crowley shows up with a special angel-killing gun, scaring her off. It turns out, Castiel didn't bury the tablet per se. Since touching the tablet dissolved his psychic link to the home office, why would he stop touching it? Exactly. He stuck it inside his body, which Crowley takes out. Ruh-roh.

In the mountains, Sam and Dean track down the elusive Metatron, who has been hiding out for centuries, not wanting to get involved in any of the demon and angel shenanigans after GAHHG flew the coop. But, when the Winchesters confront him with all of the death and despair, he decides to lend his help.

Crowley takes the angel tablet back to Kevin, who reveals that he's known for a while that the Sam and Dean visiting him weren't real, mostly because they were too nice. Ha! Crowley gets ready to smack him around, but suddenly he goes all white angel-ly and disappears. Metatron got him out of there because he's like, a super special angel who can re-write angel warding stuff or something. Anyway, Kevin doesn't even get to do the big reveal of the final trial thanks to Metatron stealing his thunder by blurting that it's to clean a demon, or basically turn a demon back human or something. Kevin's all who the hell is this, taking my moment?! Metatron could've gone all "I'm you're prophetic father, SON!" but refrained.

So, the brothers now have the final trial in their sights - cleanse a demon or whatever it was called. Alas, I did not write it down and am clearly too lazy to turn to the TV back on and rewind the thing. Sam already feels better now that he has a purpose. They're discussing this while driving when they happen upon a figure lying in the road... none other than Castiel. Reunited!

Random Thoughts:

- You guys! I had seen theories around about the trials purifying the demon blood out of Sam and thought how that would be awesome but probably unlikely given how awesome, and look! Look! It's happening! What!

- Is it a coincidence that the messenger angel's name is METAtron when he started talking about how the greatest power of humans is their ability to tell stories and come up with all sorts of worlds, become mini GAHHGs themselves? While on a TV show created by humans! It's so meta!

- I love delirious Sam, he's so unintentionally hilarious.

- Kevin brought back the other half of the demon tablet with him, but did he leave the angel tablet with Crowley? I mean, I guess Crowley can't decipher it without him, but still.

- Can we have more random childhood stories, please? I think we all love them, yeah? Farty donkey ones, especially.

Quotes:

Crowley: I was born to direct.

Dean: You really think this Metatron is hanging out in the mountains with a bunch of Indians?
Sam: Yeah! Yeah, I do. ... You're not... you're not really supposed to say Indians...
Dean: ... You are delirious.

Sam: Ohhh you rode a farty donkey!

Crowley: I am the daringest devil you've ever met, love.

Sam: You really haven't heard of us? What kind of angel are you? We're the freakin' Winchesters.

A Girl's Adventure into "Serious" Board Games

2013-04-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

I learned something recently. It turns out that when I said I liked board games, I had a very narrow view of actual board games. Apparently, what I was really saying was that I liked party games. You know, Catch Phrase, Cranium, Apples to Apples. Little did I know there was a whole other world of games in existence, ones that sound hokey but are actually a lot of fun, ones that challenge you to figure out who among your fellow game players are working against you, and ones that are so complicated the first time you play them, somehow hours have gone by and they're still not over.

It's a brave new world. One where you go to organized game gatherings and have guys spit in your eye (true story).

Some highlights from my foray, in no particular order...

Love Letter

The first time you see this game, you're going to think it looks kinda dumb, possibly cornball. There's a whole story about how the princess is distraught over her mother's betrayal of the kingdom, and the only way to make her feel better is by delivering love letters to her. Through the game play, you're basically figuring out who delivers your letter via points, and if you win, you've won her favor for that day, in the form of a little red block. This game is actually a lot of fun, you're basically trying to have the card with the highest point value at the end of each round. What makes it so entertaining is that while there aren't that many cards, no round is the same. There's some guesswork, some strategy and some mind gaming too. Plus, it's super portable and cheap, most uncommon!

The Castles of Burgundy

What a sad, boring box this game has. A shame, really, because I like this one a lot. I haven't played Settlers of Catan, but I have played the Rivals version, and was sort of reminded of that when playing this game. Basically you're trying to build up a city around a central castle, whether that be with buildings, pastures for animals, silver mining areas, rivers or other special yellow sections, perhaps you could term them industry? Mostly they just give you bonuses for your other sections. You have silver, workers, and goods to help you, as some of the game is based on the chance of dice rolling. You have to use your brain a lot in this one, as it requires a lot of forethought and planning based on what comes available in each round and your strategy to get the most points, which are earned in a variety of ways. I will say, this game could get slightly dry after a while, but there are different boards to choose from to mix things up.

Galaxy Trucker

Technically I haven't played the full anniversary version of this game, as pictured, but moreso the base game, but I'll get there, because this one is a lot of fun. It satisfies the puzzle-lover and space-lover inside of me, because basically you're figuring out how to build the best spaceship possible with a limited number of pieces that can only connect in certain ways - guns, engines, crew areas, cargo holds, the like. After you build your ship, a series of cards come into play, whether picking up cargo from planets, or getting blasted with meteors, or being attacked by pirates. You're trying to survive and end up with the most money. It's actually really simple, and moves pretty quick. You have to use your brain but not to the extent where you're pre-planning every minute detail. The ships get bigger and more complicated with each round as well, to keep things interesting.

Ticket to Ride

The version pictured here is the Nordic Countries one, which I've played, but I've also done the app, which is the USA. Anyway, same basic concept for both. I got a little too obsessed with the app version when I first downloaded it, actually, because the games would move so quickly. It sounds kind of lame, because all you're doing is connecting trains across the country (or countries) to complete routes you've picked up. The more routes you complete, the more points you get. The longer those routes are, the more points you get. Depending on who you're playing with and whether you like to be vindictive and only concerned about winning winning winning!, you can block each other. Again, pretty simple, even though it seems slightly complicated if it's the first non-party game you've ever played. What, am I talking about myself? Psh.

The Resistance: Avalon

Whereas the other games you can play with a smaller number of players, this one benefits from having at least six. I haven't played the original Resistance game, but I gather it's a similar concept, though this has the whole Merlin theme going on. This one is entirely about mind games, and reverse mind games if you've played with the same people a number of times. You're basically either a good guy or a bad guy, and you're trying to figure out who everyone else is with very little information. It requires some deceptiveness and cleverness, and can honestly get kind of stressful if everyone's accusing you of being a bad guy when you're not. I can only handle this one in small amounts anymore. If I had to choose a game like this, I would actually probably rather play this other one that's similar but with more to do, which is called Shadow Hunters. Similar theme of bad versus good and you don't know who is who, but there's a bit more to it, and some neutral players thrown in as well. But Avalon would be good in a party setting, particularly for people who like to argue.

Merchants and Marauders

This game is probably one of the coolest looking ones you'll find. A pretty board, boats, lots of little cards with missions and captains and all sorts of things, treasure chests and money, your own individual game board thing to keep track of your stuff. Pretty much, you look at it and you want to play it. And generally, the game doesn't disappoint. Based on what captain you get and his abilities, you can be a merchant or a marauder. Merchants generally go around collecting goods and selling them. Marauders tend to attack either other players or the non-player characters that are floating around as well. Let's just be honest, this game is pretty complicated. Definitely the most complicated of the ones I've listed here. You basically go from port to port, collecting missions and rumors or doing stuff with the goods, all with the end goal of getting victory points, which can be done in a variety of ways that I'm not going to go into detail explaining, because hell, you can look at the rules for that. It's a pretty fun game that can go really quickly or really slowly depending somewhat on what cards come up and somewhat on what the other players decide to do. But if you like pirates at all, you'll probably enjoy it.

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Supernatural 8x20 "Pac-Man Fever"

2013-04-24T22:25:00.003-07:00

Welcome back from the mini hiatus, peeps. Only a few more episodes to go until season eight is over, if you can believe it. I suspect we'll get two more seasons and go full decade style, though sometimes I wonder if it's worth it to keep doing these posts. They take time, man!

I suspect Dean hugs are pretty great.

Anyway, this episode featured the return of new guest star favorite Felicia Day as Charlie. The opening was interesting, actually, because you're sort of like wait, are we in the past? Is this another time travel thing? But no, spoiler alert, it's not. Also different from the norm in that it wasn't some rando getting killed but rather featured Dean.

Back in the Men of Letters bunker, the boys are trying to figure out where Kevin is, without much luck. Sam is looking like shit, the second trial having taken more out of him than he expected. So much so that he can barely stand up straight and certainly can't shoot straight. Which means that when they get an email from Charlie saying she's got a case for them, Dean is in no mood to let him come along on the case. I'm sure we all know just about how long that lasts. Charlie, however, does tag along to investigate the weirdness (basically some people's insides have been jelly-fied, with a weird blue hand print left on them, and no one knows why, etc), and we have some similar upside down FBI badge shenanigans that always seem to plague Dean whenever he's with a hunting newbie.

Sam shows up despite being told to stay behind, which turns out to be rather helpful later on. Working together, they figure out that the thing that's been killing the poor hapless people is something related to a djinn, which means they know how to kill it, but they aren't quite sure who it is since they can pass for people.

Charlie decides to take a leave of absence at this point while the boys do some more research, but they are rather concerned about her, because she's been acting a bit fishy since she arrived. Good thing they've been paying attention, too, because she ends up getting captured by the djinn-abe in question. They split up to try to find her, and Dean discovers that she's been in town to visit her mother, who's been in a coma in the nearby hospital for 16 years. Sam, meanwhile, is able to track down the djinn-abe, and therefore Charlie, only to find that the djinn has already dosed Charlie with the blue voodoo. And even after killing the djinn and giving Charlie the antidote, she's not waking up.

Since it's not a regular djinn, the antidote doesn't apparently work the same. So, Dean ends up having to drink some African dream root to go inside Charlie's head to help her get out. Inside, she's battling super vampires, video game style, but every time she beats the level, she just gets sent back to the beginning. As we learned with Dean's foray into djinn land, the only way you can get out is if you stop the dream. In this case, stop fighting. It ends up being a somewhat sappy moment involving Charlie having to let go of her mom and such to get out.

On the outside, Sam has to fight off another djinn, and despite his weakened state, he is able to do so rather easily since said djinn is just a teenager without much skill. He still looks like crap, though.

In the end, Charlie decides she has to say goodbye to her mom for real, while Dean decides to give Sam a hug and hunker down to find Kevin and get this trial business done with already.

Random Thoughts:

- Pretty enjoyable episode overall, always fun to get geeky references in Charlie episodes. Found out more background information about her, though I'm not sure everyone was especially clamoring for that? Sure.

- What exactly are these trials doing to Sam? In the preview for next week's he said something like they're changing him. Changing him how? Hmm.

- Charlie read all of the Carver Edlund books and seemed to gain a new respect for the brothers through them. She also called them her boys at the end, so I mean, she's definitely kind of representative of the fandom in a less gross way than Becky.

- Do you ever wonder where your djinn would send you - for either your happy place or your fear place? I really have no idea!

Quotes:

Dean, saying what many of us have been thinking about Sam's hair: I'm telling you, give me five minutes with some clippers...

Dean: That's why we don't have nice things, Sam.

Charlie, to Sam: Sorry you have zero luck with the ladies.

Charlie: Son of a pantsuit.

Dean: Don't quote me to me.

Sam, later Charlie: I hate that thing. And I want one.

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

2013-04-23T09:38:00.001-07:00

You know, I'm surprised I don't make biscuits more often. I love bread, I love butter, I love bread and butter. Hand-sized bits of buttery bread? Come on. I mean, look at them!

Oh wait. I remember. The kneading! The using of my own hands in with the dough! The way it sticks to my fingers like glue, near impossible to get off! The way I forgot the trick of getting my hands wet first to try to prevent said stickiness! Okay, enough exclamation points. The point is, obvs, that I don't like sticky dough all over my hands. Does anyone? I mean, all up in your nails and stuff? Please to the no.

That said, every now and then? Totally worth it. These biscuits are especially flaky, so if you love a flaky biscuit, get on it. They're not fancy with random weird ingredients or anything, just your basic buttermilk biscuit to start a morning. Why not?

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
(via A Cozy Kitchen)

Dry:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 scant teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces, or 3/4 cups) unsalted butter, cold

Wet:
1/2 cup buttermilk, cold and shaken
1 large egg, cold

Egg Wash:
1 large egg
1 Tablespoon milk or water

Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside for now.

In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. (If you're using powdered buttermilk, add in 2 tablespoons of the powder here.) Grate your butter into the flour mixture, then transfer the bowl to the freezer while you get the wet ingredients ready, about 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk (or water if you're using powdered buttermilk) and egg. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the egg wash egg and milk or water. Put both in the fridge.

Take your dry ingredients out of the freezer and gently break up the butter and combine with the flour using your hands, until it looks like small peas of butter. Add in the buttermilk wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Lightly knead the dough until it forms one mass. Sprinkle your counter or whatever you use (I use a cutting board) with some flour and dump your dough onto it. If it's still super sticky, you can knead some more flour into it until you can press it down to about 3/4 inch thickness. Cut out the biscuits using a 2-inch cutter. Make sure you press hard and don't turn your cutter to get them out. Recombine and press down the dough scraps to get some more biscuits, about 8 in all. Put them on your baking sheet about 1-2 inches apart.

If you haven't been doing this too quickly, put them in the freezer for about 5 minutes to get the butter cold again. After that, brush the tops of your biscuits with your egg wash (don't let it go down the sides of the biscuits if you can help it, they don't rise as well if that happens). Bake for 15-17 minutes, until medium golden brown. Serve warm with butter or jam or whatever you like!

In Photos:

Mix the dry ingredients together. My butter started to get a bit warm so it's not super shredded in this photo.

Mix up your egg and buttermilk. (This is egg and water, as I used powdered buttermilk in with the dry ingredients!)

Wait a minute, there are lots of missing photos here! Sorry, my hands got covered in sticky dough! Combine the dry with the wet and mix, then knead and put on your flowered work surface.

Press that out to 3/4 inch thickness and cut some biscuits (2 inch work best).

Stick those on your parchment-covered sheet. As you can see, I use salt and pepper shakers to keep that parchment down until I have stuff on there. Work with what you've got!

Brush the tops with your egg wash, then bake in your 400F oven for 15-17 minutes. Yours may rise more than mine did, as my egg wash went down the sides of some of these, and that prevents some rising action.

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Supernatural 8x19 "Taxi Driver"

2013-04-03T22:27:00.002-07:00

Well, I must say, I was really not spoiled much at all for this episode, and apparently did not pay attention during the guest star names either, so whoa! Surprise for me! After last week's run of the mill episode, we return back to the season arc in full force, and with only a few episodes left to go, no wonder.

Things never end well when a crossroad is involved.

Kevin, ye olde dirty prophet, has started to believe he's hearing Crowley speak to him. Whether this is true or just in his mind, one cannot be sure. Nonetheless, it turns out he has also figured out what the second demon tablet trial is, so we've got a mission for this episode. Turns out, trial in question involves taking an innocent soul from Hell and releasing it to Heaven. Wait a minute. We can just travel to Hell now all willy nilly?

Apparently so, as it turns out! There are so rogue reapers about, who are basically ferrying souls in and out of Hell. The purpose, not sure, other than to help fit the plot of the episode. The boys go in search of one of these reapers, find one toot suite and get him to agree to take Sam down under. And the soul he's going to rescue? Why, it's Bobby! Wait, Bobby's in Hell? But he's a good guy. Yeah, it turns out apparently souls can be bargained with, and Crowley decided he wanted Bobby in Hell. O-kay. Dean, of course, thinks he should go too, but Sam is having none of that talk, so he heads off with the reaper to... Purgatory! Wait a minute, I thought we were going to Hell? Well, no, Sam now has to find the secret back door entrance to Hell within Purgatory.

It's hard knock life for vamps named Benny.

Meanwhile, topside, Dean is trying to reassure a distraught Kevin that despite the general badness of their lives, they must keep on living them. Kev really doesn't look so good, though Dean tries to give him some food other than hot dogs. But Dean, burgers and fries aren't much better. Neither are eggs and ham or whatever that was. Just saying. Anyway, while Kevin is having a sulk, Dean gets a visit from none other than Naomi. She tries to tell Dean that she's on their side, but Dean is rather reluctant to believe such nonsense as he's pretty sure she commanded Cas to kill him. Naomi tries to sweet talk him, but for the time being, it doesn't seem to work, though she does give Dean a tip about the reaper helping them. You know, that Crowley killed him, so he won't be able to bring Sam back.

Sam manages to find the entrance to Hell, and even manages to find Bobby incredibly, incredibly easily once in there. They only have to fight a few demons in order to get out of there and back up to Purgatory, only the reaper isn't there waiting to take them back to Earth like he said he would be, but as we know, he dead, yo. He dead. So now they're stuck in Purgatory, and Sam gets berated for not looking for Dean there during his lost year, much to probably all viewers' delight.

"Oh no. My hand!"

Back topside, Dean is understandably distraught knowing his brother is stuck in Purgatory. As soon as Purgatory got involved, you had to know we'd be seeing Benny again, and of course we do, because he's the only one Dean knows that can get into Purgatory, and also knows where the exit back to Earth is. It's all very melodramatic between them as they say their farewells, even though Dean thinks Benny will come back out with Sam. Dude, I think we all figured out that wasn't going to happen by this point. So, Dean has to cut off his head.

Down in Purgatory, Benny helps Sam and Bobby get to the portal. Sam does some mumbo jumbo to get Bobby's soul into his arm like Dean did for Benny, but when he goes to do it for Benny, he refuses. He has to go distract a pack of vamps who have found them, but also he wasn't fitting in on Earth anyway, and when Sam has to tell Dean he thinks he would've stayed, I think I agree with him.

Dean and Bobby make it back out and Sam speaks some, perhaps, Latin to release his soul. Only Crowley shows up, wanting to take it back down to Hell with him again. Things don't look so promising, but then Naomi shows up and scares off Crowley, then sends Bobby's soul up to Heaven, clearly trying to get on the good side of the Winchesters so that they'll find Cas for her. We all know she just wants that tablet.

Sam's like bzzzah who the heck is that? No time for explanations now, kid, just finish that trial ritual. He speaks some other stuff and gets the glowy hand of pain again, though he tries to say he's okay, telling himself that as much as he's telling Dean now, yeah.

They go back to find Kevin, only he's flown the coop. Whether because he had another hallucination of Crowley telling him he'd killed his mother, or because Crowley has actually found him and spirited him away, not sure, though the windows from when Crowley exploded them were perfectly fine, so it would seem we're on the side of hallucination. So, he's hidden the tablet somewhere unknown, and is now somewhere unknown himself. Gulp.

Random Thoughts:

- What did you think of the return of Bobby? I was just happy he wasn't magically brought to life again, though they certainly left that door open enough, despite his soul going to Heaven and having no body to return to on Earth.

- It seemed super easy to get into Hell and Purgatory. Like, why did we go through all of the previous seasons if it was so easy? And how quickly Sam found Bobby once he was in there was ridiculous. One corridor of cells and he's like the third one he looks in? Come on, son.

- Has this rule always existed that souls meant for Heaven could get sent to Hell instead simply because Crowley desired it? Then how did the Winchesters end up in Heaven apparently so many times previously, as was mentioned back in season five? Can Crowley only do that now that he's ruling Hell?

- Is Kevin actually hearing Crowley or is he losing it? Does it matter? What could the final trial be? What if closing the gates to Hell closes the gates to Heaven at the same time? I know there are two tablets, but that would be interesting.

- The next episode looks kind of silly. Shouldn't we be in full on end of season arc mode now?

Quotes:

Reaper: Gate crashing a Winchester into Hell seriously blows.

Dean: That's my pie.

Sam: The rabbit hole. This is nuts.

Sam: You knew somehow, right?
Bobby: Took a chance. 50-50.

Caramel Apple Bread

2013-04-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

I know apple season is pretty much over. Spring is springing and everyone is getting excited about strawberries. But what happens when you have a couple leftover lonely apples wasting away in your fridge? You don't particularly want to eat them just straight up, so you know what you can do? Bake them! Yes!

I had two such apples wasting away, and when I saw this really delicious looking caramel apple bread online, knew I had to use them for it. It was a good decision, apart from the fact that I was sort of an idiot and forgot to do a crucial step when making this bread.

Don't be like me.

What did I forget? I forgot to layer the crumb mixture in with the batter. In fact, I stuck the bread in the oven without any crumb mixture at all for at least five minutes before I realized I was making a colossal mistake! By that point I couldn't really go back in and re-layer the thing, so I just made half the crumb mixture and stuck it all on top. Not as good as it would have been, I suspect, but still pretty dang good.

Caramel Apple Bread
(via The Domestic Rebel)

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp lemon or lime juice
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups coarsely chopped apples
Caramel sundae sauce

For Crumb Mixture:
1 tsp cinnamon
4 Tbsp flour
4 Tbsp brown sugar
4 Tbsp cold butter

Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray your loaf pan with cooking spray. You don't want the bread to stick!

In a large bowl, cream together your softened butter and sugar until creamy. In a separate bowl, dissolve the baking soda into the lemon juice. It will foam up; don't worry, that's normal. Once dissolved, mix in that mixture, the vanilla and the eggs to the butter/sugar combo. I recommend adding in the eggs one at a time and beating well between each.

Mix in the salt and flour until a thick batter is formed. Stir in the chopped apples (they can be skinless if you want, but I just left mine with the peel).

In a small bowl, combine the crumb ingredients. You can use your fingers or a fork or a pastry cutter, or even a small food processor if you're really lazy.

Now, place a layer of your batter in your bread pan. Sprinkle some of the crumb mixture on top, then drizzle some caramel. Add another layer of batter, then the crumbs and caramel. You can do this just twice or you can do it four times, depending on how much you want the crumb/caramel stuff mixed in. Basically you just want to end up with the crumb/caramel stuff on top at least.

Bake in the center of your oven for 45-60 minutes. When you insert a tester or toothpick in the center and it comes out mostly clean (remember, there's some caramel in there), it's done, so take it out of the oven! Let it cool in the pan for 20 minutes or so, then place on a wire rack to cool completely before cutting into it.

Enjoy by itself, or slather in butter. Yum!

In photos:

Beat together your butter and sugar.

Separately, dissolve your baking soda in the lemon juice. After that's dissolved, add it, the vanilla, and your eggs (recommended you do this one at a time with the eggs), and beat until incorporated.

Mix in the flour and salt until a thick batter is formed. Yep, it's pretty dang thick.

Fold in your chopped apples. I used Gala, but if you want more tartness, use Granny Smith.

Layer your batter alternately with your crumb mixture and a drizzle of caramel sauce. So, layer of batter, layer of crumb & drizzle, layer of batter, layer of crumb & drizzle. You want to end up with crumb on top.

See? Crumb and drizzle on top. The best part.

Bake for 45-60 minutes at 375F until a toothpick/tester comes out mostly clean. This is a little overdone, which is my fault.

Let it cool in the pan for 20 minutes or so, then place on a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, cut into that baby and enjoy! You can add more caramel on top too, if you like.

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Supernatural 8x18 "Freaks and Geeks"

2013-03-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

Oh man, sorry guys. I know this recap is late, and perhaps not as good as normal. But I have an excuse. Family time at Disneyland! Jealous? I think you are. Except maybe not, because going there over Spring Break time was a totes bad idea. So many, many people. SO MANY. When I got home, I barely was able to keep my eyes open through the episode, so apologies in advance for any delusional bits, and the shortened nature of the recap.

Deception! Murder!

This episode featured the return of Krissy. Who's Krissy, you wonder? You know, the girl from last season's Adventures in Babysitting with the dad and whatnot? Anyway, she's teamed up with some other teenagers and is now hunting down vamps that killed their families. Oh, right, yeah, her dad died from one such attack as well. She ended up with these kids under the protection/misguidance of Victor, another hunter. At first when the brothers find them and see their set up, it seems like maybe this isn't such a terrible idea. They seem to be happy with each other, care about each other, somewhat act like sort of a real family.


The kids are not all right.

Basically it's like a foster home for kids with supernaturally killed families who want vengeance. But something seems fishy with Victor to the Winchesters, and when something seems fishy, it usually is. It turns out that Victor has been using the kids to basically sort of amass a teen hunter army. You know, preparing the next generation. Doesn't sound completely horrible except that he's been tricking the kids into thinking they are killing the vampires that killed their families when really they've been hunting and killing newborn vampires who don't know anything and can be saved if they haven't fed yet.

Victor was working with a vampire to infect newbies to train the kids, basically. I think said vampire was the one who killed all of their families, but honestly I was fully asleep during that bit and currently cannot re-watch the episode. But the point is, he was bad, Krissy found out, wanted to kill him, but because Dean had told her some words of wisdom about not killing everyone unless they're actually bad, and just generally being careful about who you kill, she didn't end up killing him even when she had a gun on him. Instead, he apparently offed himself? Wow, I was really asleep. Sorry guys.

Pretty much a standalone episode after last week's arc-fest. I suspect I would've enjoyed it more had I been more alert. Oh well.

Random Thought:

- The beginning bit between Sam and Dean, checking in on each other, was interesting to me. The way Sam asked with this knowing look basically about how Dean felt about Cas beating the shit out of him... that look was interesting. Some people are going to have a field day with that look.

Quotes:

Sam: What happened?
Dean: Teenagers, that's what.

Dean: I'm proud of you.
Krissy: Shut up before I punch you.

Krissy: You're all right for an old guy.
Dean: I'm really not that old.
Krissy: You keep telling yourself that.

Chocolate Potato Cake

2013-03-22T11:14:00.001-07:00

I feel like I should preface this cake by saying it's a little bit weird. So, there. You've been forewarned. It's a little bit weird, but according to reliable sources, aka a boy, once you start eating it, you kind of can't stop. So that's something.

I went in search of some kind of traditional Irish dessert for St. Patrick's Day, and found there were not that many. Or, not that many that sounded very good. Then I came across this cake, which is made with potatoes, which is very Irish indeed. (SIDE NOTE: Did you know that corned beef and cabbage is actually more of an American Irish tradition than an Irish-Irish one? KNOWLEDGE!) Anyway, I decided to give it a go. Chocolate potato cake? Sure!

Now I must note two things:

This cake did not turn out looking at all like the picture to the corresponding online recipe.
The bake time on said online recipe was WAY bloated. Like, the edges of mine were a little too done and it hadn't even baked the entire time suggested. I adjusted the time below (a whole half hour shorter!), but this may also have to do with non-stick versus plain metal pans, so just keep an eye on it once you pass the hour mark.

Without further ado...

Chocolate Potato Cake
(via European Cuisines)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/3 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs, separated
9 Tablespoons grated semi-sweet chocolate (approx 3 standard squares baking chocolate)
5 Tablespoons ground almonds
1 cup cold, mashed potatoes
2 1/2 cups cake flour (all-purpose is fine if you don't have cake)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup milk

You'll need a Bundt pan for this, or a tube pan. If it's non-stick, just spray some SPRAY in there to be sure. If it's not, you'll need to coat the pan with some butter, then use 1 1/2 Tbsp flour mixed with 1 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder and flour the inside of the pan. Set that aside.

Now, if you're using real potatoes, you're going to have to boil them and mash them. Two medium-sized ones should do it. I boiled mine in their jackets for about 40 minutes, starting them in the water cold first. After that, peel, then mash per your choice. You want them smooth, no chunks. So if you have a ricer or a sieve, good on you. I used my mixer with the whisk setting. Worked fine. Otherwise, I suppose you an use a boxed mashed potato. But that's just sad. Once these have COMPLETELY cooled, get started on the rest. I mean, no warmness in there. None.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Grate your chocolate on a fine grater, or just use a food processor. Whichever you prefer. If you also have whole almonds to grind, do that now too and set those aside.

Sift the flour with the cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a large bowl, set aside.

Cream softened butter with sugar until light and fluffy, usually takes 1-2 minutes or so. Add in your egg yolks one at a time, beating in between each addition. Keep the whites aside for now.

Stir in the grated chocolate and ground almonds. Add in the potato and stir again.

Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk, beating gently until smooth after each addition.

In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until it starts to form soft peaks. Fold these into your batter.

Spoon into your prepared pan and tap once on the counter to settle. Bake for 1 1/4 hours, then check whether the center is done by sticking a toothpick or tester in the middle. If it does not come out clean, bake for another 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest in the pan for at least 20 minutes before removing from the plan and cooling on a rack.

You can then either leave it as is, frost with frosting, or dust with powdered sugar. Up. To. You!

In photos:

Start with boiling some potatoes. If yours are these size, you really only need two.

Grind up your almonds. This photo represents more than you'll need for the recipe.

Grate your chocolate however you prefer. I used a food processor, as you can see, and used 3 cubes of baking chocolate. I suspect you could also just use cocoa instead if you want your cake to be more evenly chocolate-y.

Once your potatoes have finished boiling, peel and mash or rice or sieve them however you would like. I used my mixer.

As you can see, the whisk attachment worked quite well to "mash" them.

Take a cup and set them aside. I mushed this down onto the plate so as to cool down faster. You don't want any warmth in your potato for the cake.

Sift together your flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt, and set aside for now.

Beat your granulated sugar with your softened butter until light and fluffy.

Add in your egg yolks one at at time, beating after each addition.

Add in the grated almonds and chocolate.

Next, mix in the potato, assuming it's cool.

Alternate the flour mixture and the milk and mix, mix, mix. This will probably try to gloop up the sides while you're mixing. I used my arm to cover it, like a pro. Yeah, right.

In a separate bowl, you will have whipped up your egg whites until forming soft peaks. Then fold those into your batter like so.

Distribute evenly in your prepared bundt pan and bake for 1 1/4 hours. Test the center for done-ness, and if it's not done, by golly, bake it some more. Check every 10 minutes or so.

After you've let it cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes, invert onto a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way. Yours will hopefully be not quite as dark as this one.

I could've dusted with powdered sugar or made a chocolate frosting to make this prettier, but we decided to opt for eating it as it was. The outside crust part was kind of hard, but the inside was really moist, which I was concerned about since it seemed like I was over-baking it. If your chocolate is more finely grated, it will probably look a more uniform chocolate color rather than sort of like a mini chocolate chip cake like so. Very changeable depending on your own style, apparently!

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Supernatural 8x17 "Goodbye Stranger"

2013-03-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome back from Hellatus, my Supernatural brethren! Honestly it felt like it flew by to me, though I'm sure some of you were chomping like a hell hound to get a new episode. And what a new episode it was! Probably one of the best of this season, yes? Yes.

Team Free Will. Oh wait, wrong season.

It started off with Castiel in a fake out we were supposed to believe was real (yeah right) where he was killing Dean. Turns out, Naomi had him killing a bunch of fake Deans to get him reprogrammed or whatever so that he would be okay with killing the real Dean. Ruh roh!

Meanwhile, real Dean and his little big bro Sam cotton on to a new case. Sam coughs up some more blood, which Dean ends up seeing in the wastebasket, so he has certain SUSPICIOUS SUSPICIONS about his brother's well being. No time to dilly dally on that, however, off to figure out what's going on with some person who has some weird stuff going on!

Basically, this woman was possessed by a demon and started going around digging up bits of the town she was in, then, I think, she killed herself, or was killed? I think I was only half paying attention during this part, sorry not sorry. In any event, she dead, yo. The Winchesters go to interview the last woman who saw her, and find out she was looking for a map of the town from back in ancient times. Some kind of important orchard. Before they can find out more, the place is bombarded with demons. The demons almost look like they're going to get a hand up on the boys, but then wham bam, Cas shows up and kills two of them, leaving the last one to interrogate.

Meg and her Clarence. Ah, Meg. Farewell to ye.

Here's where the boys start to get ultra suspicious of Cas, because he is being ultra fishy, like duh. He won't tell them what he's really been doing, other than the offing of demons. He says he's been searching for the other missing half of the demon tablet, but in actual fact he's been searching for the angel tablet. But Naomi makes him not tell the boys. Anyway, they do find out that the demons have a hostage who knows the whereabouts of all of Lucifer's crypts, where he tells them there is some special parchment.

They go to find the hostage in question, and it turns out to be none other than our favorite demon Meg! Meg, who actually mentions stuff that occurred back in season two, which is kind of amazing given this show's track record sometimes. Anyway, she spills the beans about the angel tablet to the Winchesters, which of course upsets Naomi, but whatevs man, they gotsta find it before Crowley and his demon wranglers do, because Crowley has found out about Meg's rescue and etc. Off to the special super secret crypt!

Just had to include one of Jensen looking hot, you know?

Dean forces Sam to stay outside with Meg and keep a lookout, much to Sam's chagrin. But Dean lays down the law about the whole blood in the wastebasket thing, and how Castiel said the first trial did something to him that even he couldn't fix, and Sam's been kinda not super fighting power Sam like usual. Begrudgingly, he stays outside with Meg. And they actually have a heart to heart of sorts, which, you know what? I liked it. I wasn't always a fan of this version of Meg, but I guess she grew on me.

Meanwhile, inside the crypt, they find the angel tablet, and things go nutso. Because Naomi basically orders Castiel to kill Dean and bring the tablet up to Heaven, despite it being perfectly obvious to me that he could basically just reach over and touch it and foop up there without actually having to kill him, but okay I guess little details don't matter. ANYway, basically Cas just starts beating the crap out of Dean under the influence of Naomi, and it's all seeming extremely so very much like when Sam was possessed by Lucifer and beating the crap out of Dean too, and the only way to get through to him was basically say he was there and they were family and wow, is Cas as important to Dean as Sam? Hrmm.

Cas ends up fighting the power and also ends up touching the angel tablet, which seems to get rid of the sort of sire bond Naomi had over him. While you would think this would make things hunky dory with Dean-o, no. Cas has to protect the tablet from Naomi. And Crowley. And Dean himself. Cas, so untrustful!

But while all of that was going on, Crowley showed up. He ends up fighting Meg, and while the Winchesters flee, kills her. Dang. Meg appears to be dead for good this time, right? You never know with that one, but she was stabbed with one of the angel knives, so she'll never get to have her sexy times with Castiel after all. Sad face.

So, basically, Cas now has both Naomi and Crowley after him, not to mention the Winchesters are probably sort of going to be looking too. Oh boy. What does that angel tablet do?

Random Thoughts:

- Good GAHHG, the Dean/Cas shippers are going to have a field day with this episode aren't they? Dean's love saved Cas from going full dark side, omggggggg! I'm sorry, I'm not a fan of that. There, I said it.

- In the Impala end of episode heart to heart! You know, I feel like we haven't had one of these in a while, but it's quite possible we have and I'm just loopy and not remembering. Or it's happened so often that I just kind of shrug and go yeah whatever. Okay! Ramble city ahoy matey!

- I loved the use of Goodbye Stranger at the end of the episode. I was totally bobbing along to it.

- If you know certain things about who has been signed on for next season, much of what happened in tonight's episode may make you wonder a lot about what's going to happen to a certain character the rest of the season. I'm trying to be spoiler-free right now so as not to annoy spoilerphobes, but if you know who I mean and want to talk about it, hit up the comments, please and thank you.

- Are there any other tablets out there besides the demon and angel ones? What was the purpose of making them in the first place? Will we see one or more of them in use by the end of the season?

Quotes:

Sam: Does any of this sound right to you?
Dean: I like the part about killing demons, that sounds right.

Castiel: You know, I can hear you both, I am a celestial being.

Meg: Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?

Meg: You really do know how to make a girl's nethers quiver, don't you?
Castiel: I am aware of how to do that.

Crowley: What's that old expression? If you want something done.... blah blah blah.

Crowley: Tart stole my move.

Sam: You realize you kinda just quoted Lord of the Rings, right?
Dean: Come on man, but it's the Rudy Hobbit, Rudy Hobbit always gets a pass.

WINNER! Supernatural: Fresh Meat

2013-03-11T09:54:00.004-07:00

And the winner of the Supernatural tie-in novel Fresh Meat is...

Brittany!

(aka @starlightdemon on Twitter)

Congratulations!

Brittany - please email me at freshfromjen (at) gmail.com to claim your prize!

Thanks to all who entered! Stick around and I'm sure I'll have more giveaways and contests in the future.

King of the Nerds Season 1 Finale - ARG!

2013-03-08T10:02:00.001-08:00

Oh, Nerd contestants, how you let me down with your final votes. You let me down bad.

Who's the nerdiest of them all? Not the one who won!

I know these are real people, and I shouldn't disparage anyone when I only know them from a reality competition (although, you're kind of inviting people to judge you if you're on a TV show, just saying), but the fact that Celeste won this show over Genevieve is, quite frankly, a travesty. The fact that Celeste was in the finale at all is even more of a travesty.

Sorry Celeste, but you're not really a nerd.

There, I said it. I'm not really a nerd, either, even though I have nerd tendencies, so don't jump down my throat about that statement.

Any of the other three would've been acceptable, though we can all admit Danielle was riding the bitter train to bitter town with a case of bitteritis so extreme that I'm not sure anyone would've voted for her to win. But Ivan? I felt your tears, bro. You really should've been in the final two. At least the final three. Not that it wasn't cool to see three girls as the final three in a nerd competition, because honestly when you say that it seems really weird. But I digress.

The only real reason that Celeste ended up winning was because she had this whole silly sob story/journey arc about finding her inner confidence and overcoming self doubt and all the other nerds drank the Kool-Aid. All of that, despite Genevieve's well-written and well-pointed speech and her continual domination throughout the competition. She won three nerd offs! Everyone kept putting her in because they saw her as a threat. And Celeste? NEVER was voted into a nerd off. Not once. Why? Precisely because they didn't view her as a threat. She probably would've been eliminated if she had been in one, too. And she wins? What in the world!

This was a bit of a rant, and I apologize. Sort of.

But hey, if you want to ameliorate these wrongs and make them right, guess what? They're currently casting for season two. You can also watch the previous contestants' audition tapes. I happen to know some of my friends would probably rock this show, so go forth and enter!

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Cheddar Cheese Bread

2013-03-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

You may not know this, since I tend to post recipes that are of the dessert variety on here, but I love me some cheese. Cheese plus bread = basically my heaven.

Well, let's be honest, my heaven would probably also include some cookies. And some macaroni and cheese (cheese again!), and some tator tots, and some ice cream, and some... okay okay. But you kind of see a theme, I guess. Carbs and dairy! Yes!

This is why gluten free and dairy free diets scare me. SCARY.

One thing I want to tell you about this recipe right now: use sharp cheddar! The sharper, the better. You may think, man, sharp cheddar is too intense, I can't take it! But in a bread like this, it's perfection. DO IT! I command thee! I mean, you don't have to, but you'll guaranteed regret it if you don't. Just sayin'.

Cheddar Cheese Bread
(via Shutterbean)

Makes 2 5x9 inch loaves

3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp butter, softened
5 ounces sharp orange cheddar cheese, coarsely shredded
1 3/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 400F. Grease two 5x9 inch loaf pans. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Then, using your fingers, mix in 2 Tbsp butter into the flour mix until well incorporated. This will take a few minutes and some work, and it should come out looking kind of like sand. Add in the cheese and toss to coat. Add in the buttermilk and stir until the dough just comes together. Divide evenly between the pans and smooth the tops.

Cut a shallow cross all the way across the tops of the loaves. Thinly slice the remaining 1 Tbsp of butter and place the slices into the cuts in each loaf. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is browned and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

In photos:

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda in a large bowl, then add in the butter, mixing in with your fingers. I didn't take a photo of the flour just by itself because, I guess, boring!

Add in the 5 ounces of shredded sharp cheddar cheese (seriously, use sharp!), mixing to coat.

Mix in the buttermilk until just combined.

Distribute between your two bread pans evenly. If you're like me, yours don't match. No big.

Slice the bread length and width-wise all the way, then stick in your sliced up Tbsp of butter and put those in the slices in the center area, like so. If you're like me, you'll take a slightly blurry photo and not notice until too late. Sorry!

Bake those up in the center rack of your 400F oven for 25-30 minutes, until the top is slightly browned, and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let them rest in the pans for at least 30 minutes before you cut into them, no matter how hard it seems.

Once cooled, take out of the pan and get ready to slice 'er up!

Yum! And you can totally freeze the second loaf, too, if you don't want two loaves for yourself at once!

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Closed: GIVEAWAY! Supernatural: Fresh Meat

2013-03-04T08:24:00.000-08:00

As you may have seen, I was lucky enough to interview the author of the newest Supernatural tie-in novel from Titan Books, Alice Henderson. But that's not all! Not only can you read the interview and get some inside scoop, you can also enter here for a chance to win a copy of the book itself. Details on how to enter are below.

Synopsis: A rash of strange deaths in the Tahoe National Forest bring Sam, Dean and Bobby to the Sierra Nevada mountains to hunt a monster with a taste for human flesh. Soon walking corpses, bodies with missing organs, and attacks by a mysterious flying creature lead the trio to a cunning and deadly foe which can assume a human form and will do anything to survive. When a blizzard strikes the area, and not knowing who they can trust, they must battle not only the monster, but also the elements to survive.

Set in between "Shut Up, Dr. Phil" and "Slash Fiction" in season seven.

How to Enter:

You can enter in up to three ways. That's right, if you do all three, that increases your chances of winning. But you don't have to, you can do one or two or however many you want. The choice, as they say, is yours.

1) Leave a comment right here on this entry

2) Follow me on Twitter and RT the link

3) Like my Facebook page and leave a comment there

The contest will close on Friday March 8, 2013 at 11:59 pm PST. Winner will be chosen at random and announced by the following Monday, if not sooner.

Winner announced: HERE.

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Interview with Alice Henderson

2013-03-01T06:59:00.000-08:00

I have a special treat for everyone today! The folks at Titan were kind enough to hook me up with an interview with the author of the new Supernatural tie-in novel Fresh Meat, Alice Henderson! Check out the interview below, and come back on Monday if you'd like a chance to win the book in question. That's right, I'll be hosting a giveaway! Get excited.

Here's the synopsis in case you haven't read it yet:

A rash of strange deaths in the Tahoe National Forest bring Sam, Dean and Bobby to the Sierra Nevada mountains to hunt a monster with a taste for human flesh. Soon walking corpses, bodies with missing organs, and attacks by a mysterious flying creature lead the trio to a cunning and deadly foe which can assume a human form and will do anything to survive. When a blizzard strikes the area, and not knowing who they can trust, they must battle not only the monster, but also the elements to survive.

Without further ado, my interview with Alice Henderson...

Were you a fan of Supernatural before writing this book? If so, do you have any particular favorite episodes that you used for inspiration (or just that you love in general!)?

AH: I love the show, and was a fan of Supernatural before writing the book. With so many fantastic episodes to choose from, picking favorites is a little hard. Weekend At Bobby's was such a great glimpse into the chaotic life of Bobby and all the misadventures he is having behind the scenes. Scarecrow was very spooky, and the plot of Hook Man gripping. Ghostfacers and The Real Ghostbusters had that wonderful mix of humor and frights. Monster Movie truly captured the feeling of an older era of black and white thrillers. I love stories with time travel, so Frontierland is another favorite.

How did you get into writing a tie-in novel for Supernatural? Do you think you'll do another in the future?

AH: I had written some tie-in novels for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and really enjoyed the whole process. I mentioned to my agent that if the opportunity arose, I'd love to write one for Supernatural. He talked to the publisher, and I got the green light.

When you began writing this book, had season seven already began? Did you know the overall arc of the season, and did you try to fit your story into that arc? Is that sort of thing difficult, since you're basically just sandwiched in between two episodes?

AH: Season Seven had already begun, yes, and I did know the overall arc. I really wanted to use Bobby, so I set the book earlier in Season 7. I actually really enjoyed writing an adventure between two episodes. While the main arc of the Season 7 story is being played out on the show, I get to tell the story of an entirely new adventure of the Winchesters, set in that same timeframe. I just had to keep in mind what hadn't happened yet, and what had.

Were you given free reign in terms of the story, or did you have set parameters as to what you could cover? Did they give you a specific idea for a monster of the week or did you come up with that on your own?

AH: The licensor and publisher asked me to submit a few ideas, and we decided on one to develop. I had a wonderful amount of creative freedom. I came up with the plot and the monster. Understandably, they wanted to leave the main plot elements of the season up to the show to reveal, so I only tangentially touched on story elements such as Castiel being MIA and the leviathans out there plotting to take over the world. So in essence, I got to write a monster-of-the-week adventure for them.

When writing a tie-in novel, do you focus more on creating new characters or focusing on, in this case, Sam and Dean, like the show? Do you find it easy to write in their voices? Did you have any concerns going into writing the novel about fan reception?

AH: When I write a tie-in novel, I strive to keep it faithful to the show. In this case, therefore, Sam, Dean, and Bobby get the main focus, with characters of my own creation filling out other key roles in the plot. In order to capture an accurate feel of their voices, I watch episodes on DVD a lot while writing the novel. It keeps the characters fresh in my mind, and I have a great time figuring out how Bobby might say a line, or Sam or Dean. I am very grateful to have some really fantastic reception by fans of Supernatural and Buffy. They are both shows that fans are very passionate about, and I really wanted to get it right, to write an adventure that fans would enjoy reading.

How does writing a book of original fiction differ from writing a tie-in novel such as this one and the ones you wrote for Buffy? Do you enjoy writing tie-ins as much as your own stuff? What are the advantages and drawbacks?

AH: I enjoy writing both original and tie-in novels. The process is quite different for each, however. With a tie-in, of course, I'm creating an adventure in a known universe, and I strive to make it sound authentic to the characters and that world. A tie-in is such a joy to write, because I get to write new situations for beloved characters and go on a journey with them. With my original fiction, the world is something I create from scratch, so that has a very different feel to it. With original work, I deal with an editor, and with tie-in work, I deal with getting approval not just from an editor, but from the licensor, as well. In the case of Supernatural, this was Warner Bros., and they were an absolute pleasure to work with.

What's next for you, writing wise? Anything Supernatural fans should be on the lookout for? Any other shows you'd like to write a tie-in novel for?

AH: Right now I'm working on a few projects. I'm writing some horror comic scripts, and am in the plotting stages for a sequel to my horror novel Voracious. Other tie-ins? I would love to write another Supernatural novel, or one for Grimm.

For more information on Alice and her novels, visit her at www.alicehenderson.com.

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Supernatural 8x16 "Remember the Titans"

2013-02-27T22:32:00.005-08:00

The last time we had an episode with gods in it, things did not go so well. As in, the episode was not so much with the being good. While I can't say this episode wowed me, it certainly wasn't terrible. Just kinda there. Can I be totally honest? I was kinda falling asleep again. I mean, this is sort of my curse lately in general, the falling asleep while watching things, but man. It needs to stop!

Signature smolder.

To business. Sam and Dean are holed up in the batcave, waiting for Kevin to finish translating the tablet. Not sure why they don't bring him there as well, but then again, if Dean was hounding him all the time, as he surely would be, he would probably take longer to get things done. In any event, Dean is chomping at the bit to get out and do something. Sam just so happens to find them a case where a dude was found on the side of the road, dead, then a few minutes later stood up and walked off into the woods. Not weird at all!

The dude who saw that happen is sure that the guy in question must be a zombie, but when the boys go to investigate, and find the guy dead again, they know something else is up. Particularly when they test the guy, who re-alivens while they're there, with silver and holy water and such to make sure he's not a demon or a shifter or any other number of things. So what the heck is he, if he keeps dying every day, and doesn't remember anything before some years ago when some people found him atop a mountain in Europe?

Things become clearer when a woman shows up with her young son in tow. She knew the dude, Shane, back when he was first found. They got friendly, hubba hubba, and oh my, nine months later, her son Oliver showed up. Of course, she never told Shane because he kept weirdly dying and coming back to life, so she took off. But now Oliver has started to do the same thing. The boys figure it must be some kind of curse.

Archery is so hot right now.

And boy is it. It turns out, Shane is none other than the Titan Prometheus, cursed to die every day by Zeus after he gave humans fire, blah blah. He's not supposed to be able to get off that mountain, though, so how did he? Oh yes, a hot woman shows up and looks annoyed when he doesn't recognize her, fights a bit, vanishes into the ether, and wields some kind of special god knife. She's Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Or, maybe, hunters? Yeah, sure.

They decide the only way to try to break the curse is to summon up Zeus himself and ask him to do it. Or force him to. Per usual, things don't quite go to plan. Zeus is a sneaky son of a bitch and uses the kid against the mom, who ends up letting him out of the devil's trap of sorts they've got him in, so he can basically just wreak almighty havoc. Artemis shows up to watch it go down too, presumably because she's mad at Prometheus for not remembering her. Way to be mature, girl.

Sam uses some reverse psychology on her to get her to go against dear old dad, Zeus, and she whips out her signature bow and arrow to put a stop to his punishment of Prometheus and the kid. Only she accidentally ends up shooting Prometheus for reals dead this time. But he manages to also push her arrow back into Zeus too. I'm not sure if that means Zeus is also dead, because he disappeared whereas Prometheus stayed a body for them to burn. Hmm. In the end, the kid's curse is broken, though his dad is now dead.

Meanwhile, Sam is still bleeding from the mouth and hiding it from Dean. By the end of the episode, though, he's wondering if maybe he was naive in thinking he can beat the trials and come out okay. Dean plays it off, but in the end he does his version of praying to Cas, asking him to keep an eye out for Sam. Getting some major deja vu for some of this stuff.

The show's on a mini hiatus now until March 20th, though you'll be happy to know that it was already picked up for season nine. Unless you think it should end, then I suppose you're rolling your eyes. I have a feeling, personally, it's going to go for the magic ten number like Smallville, because why just go nine when you can go the round ten? Also, one last aside, on Friday I'll be posting an interview with the author of the newest Supernatural tie-in novel, so check back in then to see it!

Random Thoughts:

- I thought Artemis was supposed to be the celibate one of the Greek gods? Am I wrong? Granted, I am basing this information on fictional books I've read, so it's entirely possible I am completely wrong.

- How would one get Prometheus off the mountain, and why would it scramble his brain? Not that it matters, but it was kind of glossed over, his whole amnesia thing. Just seemed sort of convenient to make it harder for them to figure out what he was.

- Did Zeus actually die? Or did he just kind of poof away for awhile? Can he actually die by something coated with his own lightning, or would that save him in some way? Do we really care?

- Where's Cas been? Perhaps we'll find out when the show comes back since it looks like he's going to be in that episode.

- How will Sam survive the trials? Will you feel betrayed if he dies again? Honestly, too many deaths and it just gets ridiculous.

Quotes:

Dean: What's taking him so long? It's a book. Read it.

Dean: Damn straight I wanted to shoot some zombies.

Dean: What are you like, Kenny?

Sam: What do we know that has Jason Bourne fighting skills, dies a lot, and has a history with violent women?
Dean: I don't know. You?

Underappreciated Gems: Farscape

2013-02-25T11:12:00.001-08:00

Cast photo before Zhaan left the show. Sob.

I had some internal debate about whether this show should actually qualify as an underappreciated show or not. It did last four seasons and got a miniseries wrap up at the end. But, if you didn't see it when it was on, you probably have this notion that it's too weird and you wouldn't like it.

Guess what! It IS weird. And you probably WILL like it, precisely because of its weirdness. It's a wacky space opera with puppets and lots of prosthetic makeup that has the complex and hilarious human John Crichton at its center. You know, to give us an outsiders view of the weird, and the goal of him finding his way back home.

John and Aeryn are made of epic love stories.

I will fully admit this, however... the first season is really hit and miss. Like, don't watch half of those episodes unless you've become a die hard fan of the show, and even then there are some you should skip.

I found this rather awesome list that someone put together that lists which episodes are amazing, which ones you need to watch to keep up with the overall story, and which ones you should just skip altogether.

Check out the Complete Skip It Watch It Guide to see the list! I've also included a list of my personal favorite episodes at the bottom of this post too, in case you're curious.

Fourth season cast, lots o' ladies!

I think what really sold me on this show, which I too thought was weird at first, is that it does such a great job of mixing the comedy with the drama. Apparently this is my TV show catnip, because I love me some fantasy/scifi dramedies like nobody's business. So if you're a fan of, say, Supernatural (which you prooooobably are if you read this blog much), then you know what? You'll probably like Farscape too. It was on SyFy back when it was SciFi, paired up with another of my favorite, sadly undervalued shows, The Invisible Man.

The entire show used to be available on Netflix Instant, so maybe it will be again soon, but some of them are also on Hulu. But, I do have to warn you, if you watch it until the end, and you genuinely like the show and care about the characters, you're gonna be straight pissed at the cliffhanger. BUT GUESS WHAT! Do not despair! They made a miniseries to wrap up the series properly. Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars.

If you're really hardcore, the entire series box set is also available on DVD and BluRay. The one quibble I have with the series set is that it didn't come with a booklet with all of the episode titles. You know what I did? I ended up making my own booklet with episode synopses and little symbols that indicate deleted scenes and commentaries. That's how much of a geek I am sometimes! If anyone wants it for their own personal use, let me know and I'll be happy to provide it for you!

Now, without further ado...

My Favorite Episodes!

Premiere (1x01)
A Human Reaction (1x16)
Nerve (1x19)
The Hidden Memory (1x20)
Crackers Don't Matter (2x04)
Out of Their Minds (2x09)
Look at the Princess Pt 1, 2 and 3 (2x11-13)
Into the Lion's Den Pt 1 and 2 (2x20-21)
Die Me, Dichotomy (2x22)
Green Eyed Monster (3x08)
Unrealized Reality (4x11)
Kansas (4x12)
Terra Firma (4x13)
Bad Timing (4x22)

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Supernatural 8x15 "Man's Best Friend with Benefits"

2013-02-20T22:29:00.001-08:00

Can I be perfectly honest? Is this a safe place? I may or may not have started to fall asleep during this episode, and I may or may not have not cared. Overall, honestly, kind of a throwaway episode apart from a couple bits touching on the arc of the season. I don't think you can say I'm wrong about that, but feel free if you want to do so in the comments.

Brood and stare and brood and stare.

Anyway, this episode is all about Dean's least favorite, or at least among his least favorite, things: witches. They get a call from some guy they've run into in the past, heretofore never mentioned as far as I'm aware, named James, who needs their help. I guess he was part of some case in the past, saved their lives, blah blah. In any event, it turns out that he didn't actually call them for help after all, it was rather a girl/dog named Portia.

Now if you haven't seen the episode, you're probably thinking bzzzzaaawhatnow? Turns out, after James' brush with the supernatural, he decided he wanted to take up witchcraft for himself. Portia is now his familiar, which is basically a fancy way of saying kind of super intense companion. That can also turn into an animal, in this case, a dog. Since James has been acting weird, she decided to call up the Winchesters for help.

Just how weird is he acting? Oh, you know, just having dreams about brutally murdering people, and the waking up and finding a bloody shirt in his trash. You know, no big deal. The running theory is that another witch could be controlling him, making him do these things, but no one has heard of any such thing being possible. So, duh, of course that's probably what's happening, and of course it's probably the other witch dude Spencer who says point blank he's never heard of that happening, and then looks extremely shifty. Oh, and his familiar is a cat/man that makes Dean sneeze.

Light 'er up.

The part about why Spencer was targeting James is where I get fuzzy, but honestly, do we really care? The point is, he didn't like him or wanted him out of the picture for some reason, and made him kill some people, and now the police have all of this evidence against him, so despite the Winchesters managing to kill Spencer with their special witch bomb, James and Portia are going to have to leave town anyway.

Really the only bits you need to know in terms of the overall season arc are these... Dean is still worried about Sam being the only one who can complete the trials. He thinks they should find another hellhound so he can join the ranks of trial doers, but Sam is pissy about that because basically he thinks Dean doesn't trust him to get the job done. By the end of the episode, Dean decides that he does trust Sam after all, apparently because of the visions that Spencer made him see during the fight scene, and he's good with the plan. But, then, Sam's mouth starts bleeding. Dean doesn't see it, because of course Sam hides it from him, but obviously this does not bode well for dear Sammy. But honestly, if either of them dies yet again, I don't know. That's just a lot of dying and coming back to life to handle. It's only credible for so long, you know?

Random Thoughts:

- Dean is apparently allergic to cats? Who knew. And also doesn't like dogs. Does he like any pets?

- Why were they so gung ho about going in to kill James after they had just discussed that it might not be him? I don't care that they found the shirt matched a victim's blood or that the witch dude told them there's no way a witch can control another witch, it seemed very poorly discussed and hasty decision making.

- When Dean is talking about being concerned about their plan, Sam immediately draws that he's concerned about his being the one to go through the trials. That was a pretty big leap, and rather touchy, and kind of dumb.

- Jared sounded like he had a cold. Random thought of random!

Quotes:

Dean: That was incredibly hot.
Portia scoffs
Sam: It was pretty hot.

Supernatural 8x14 "Trial and Error"

2013-02-13T22:31:00.001-08:00

Are we actually smiling? At the same time?

Do you remember, back at the beginning of the season, when they found out that the demon tablet thing has instructions on how to close the gates of hell? Oh, no? Me too! It's just been so long since we've touched on the tablet storyline, I kind of plum forgot. It probably hasn't really been that long, actually, but things get spaced out and whatnot. ANYWAY. This episode we find out some STUFF.

In the ole batcave bunker of the Men of Letters, Dean is going domestic, decorating his own room for the first time ever and cooking burgers that even Sam will eat. What's this? Sam eating a burger?! Amaze. Alas, Dean's respite is to be short-lived, and I mean obviously because can you imagine an entire episode of just them hanging out? Anyway, he gets a call from Kevin, who has been holed up on that nasty ass boat trying to decipher the tablet. His routine is very sad and even gross, but he has figured out something! To the boat, Robin!

Yes, Kevin has managed to decipher part of the tablet, which basically says that in order to shut the gates of Hell, a person has to first complete three trials, the first of which is killing a hellhound and bathing in its blood. How does one find a hellhound without making a crossroads deal? Find someone else who has made a crossroads deal that is about to come due, of course! They seem to be able to find this info rather quickly, which I guess just proves their superior hunting skills? Anyhow, the plan is to track down the Cassidy family. They struck oil 10 years ago on farmland that would never have oil, so clearly something is fishy. (I just wrote struck gold first, you guys, I'm losing it!)

The boys travel to the ranch and end up getting jobs as farmhands, which is great for them so they can scope out things. They're pretty sure the person who made the deal is the woman who owns the ranch, Alice, but guess what! It's her chubby husband that's killed! He made a deal for Alice to fall in love with him, the poor sap. Whoops. Guess they have to find another dealmaker to get their hellhound!

Dean and his favorite, ole trusty demon killing knife.

Or do they? While Dean is ready to go all fake deal on a crossroads demon, Sam has a feeling something more is at work with the Cassidy family, and he is, duh, not wrong. The other members of the family come to the ranch to console Alice, and it's basically just a scene from Dallas, bickering sisters, the ranch manager who's been there forever, blah blah. The problem is, they don't know who among the group could've made another deal, and since you can't see a hellhound unless you're about to be eaten by one, that's sort of a problem. Luckily, Kevin has some more information: you can see a hellhound through glass that has been in holy fire. Dean fires up some glasses with some of the holy oil they still have from back in the olden days. Super specs!

After another of the family members is killed while trying to hunt down the "wolf" that killed the other dude, the Winchesters decide enough is enough and lock up everyone in the living room. Everyone except Ellie, the ranch manager, who made a pass at Dean, was given a raincheck, then said something like "this is the last night it can happen," which Dean does not realize AT ALL means that she obviously made a deal too, but ugh, whatever. I guess he was distracted by the pretty girl coming on to him. And also slightly flustered by it, which apparently is a thing now? He never used to be flustered by that sort of attention.

I fear things do not look good for poor Kevin long term.

Anyway, Dean wants to go gallivant off to kill the hellhound himself, despite Sam's protestations that he needs backup. Why is Dean so hellbent on killing the hound by himself, we wonder? Because, apparently, he believes these trials to be a suicide mission, and since he knows that Sam can see himself in another life, wants to take care of the closing the gates of hell thing on his own. Because that always goes as planned! Especially once you say it out loud!

Things decidedly do NOT go to that plan, even after Dean finds out that Ellie made a deal and even finds himself face to face with a hellhound. You'd think after getting torn to death himself by one, he might have more fight ready for the thing, but he ends up getting scratched and losing both the knife and the glasses, which is just when Sam comes in and, well, I think we can all see that Sam is the one who ends up killing the thing and getting doused in its blood, just like the trial commanded. And he's fine with that, because he plans to live through the closing of the gates, and he wants Dean to want to live through it as well. Aw. He does the little ritual, gets a glowy arm for a bit, and that's one trial down!

Random Thoughts:

- Sam, you still didn't pick up your garbage even after Dean gave you a look and you saw how much he cared about his room! How dare you!

- For me, a lot of the plot twists were kind of obvious in this episode. Oh well.

- Kevin's getting headaches and nosebleeds and isn't sleeping very well, not to mention maybe having a small stroke. Things do not look good for him in the long haul, I fear. Sam is worried about it, but Dean is all mission first. At least they got him to take a shower. Yikes. Poor Kev, too bad they can't bring him to the batcave.

- I wonder what the other trials are. Hmm. Also, do we think they will actually succeed in closing the gates? What would that mean for the show? It did just get a season nine pick up, after all. I have a feeling it's going to end up at ten seasons like Smallville.

- Dean was rocking those glasses, but Sam looked totally weird in his! Probably just the style of them. Random thoughts, I told you!

Quotes:

Dean: Memory foam. It remembers me.

Dean: Those bitches can be, well, bitches.

There were quite a few more than this that I enjoyed, but my brain was not in the mood for pausing and rewinding and writing them down. Feel free to put your favorites in the comments and I'll add them!

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2013-02-11T16:46:00.000-08:00

I have a problem. A chocolate chip cookie problem.

No matter how many I make, I will always try a new recipe, even if there's one that I really like already. Why? I don't know. I mean, just let me list off the various ones I have tried (and enjoyed!): Jacque Torres, Molasses, Soft & Chewy, Otis Spunkmeyer style... I'm nuts! Except no, because I never put nuts in my chocolate chip cookies. Sacrilege!

All I know is that I saw this recipe for browned butter chocolate chip cookies, and knew I had to try it. Browning butter is probably one of my favorite scents in existence. You can't argue with me on this one, you just can't. Them's the rules.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
(via Joy the Baker Cookbook)

2 sticks plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon molasses
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Brown 1 stick plus 1 Tbsp butter in a medium saucepan. When it's to that brown color, quickly dump it into another bowl to stop the cooking (you don't want it to burn!) and set it aside for the moment. Be sure to get all those browned bits, though, they are yum.

In your mixer, beat together the granulated sugar and the other stick of softened butter until they are light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add in the molasses and vanilla and mix until combined, then add in the brown sugar and the cooled browned butter, beating for about two minutes to combine.

Next, beat in your egg and egg yolk for about a minute. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda, then dump that in your wet ingredients and slowly mix together. Once they're just combined, fold in the chocolate chips. If you want, add in nuts at this point, but I don't do that nonsense. Now, please, for the love of cheese puffs, stick this in the fridge for 30 minutes. You won't regret it.

While that's in the fridge, preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, get your rack in the center of the oven. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper. After the 30 minutes are up, scoop out some dough onto your baking sheet. Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes until edges are light brown, but the middle still a little light. Let those sit on the pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely, or just shove straight into your gullet, whatever you so desire.

In photos:

Brown 1 stick plus 1 Tbsp unsalted butter. You do this over medium heat. It foams and pops and there will probably be some bits on the bottom of the pan when its done. Remove this to a bowl to cool while you start the rest.

Beat together the other stick of butter and the cup of sugar for 3-5 minutes until it's fluffy.

Add in the vanilla and the molasses.

Then add in your brown sugar and that cooled browned butter, with all the browned little bits!

Next up: the egg and egg yolk.

In a separate bowl, whisk together your flour, salt and baking soda, then add that all at once to the wet dough. Mix it slowly until just incorporated.

Fold in your chocolate chips, then stick that baby in the fridge for 30 minutes. While that's in the fridge, preheat your oven to 375F, and put some parchment on your pan.

Scoop out the dough onto your parchment-lined pan, and bake for 12-14 minutes until they look golden brown around the edges and still a little light in the middle. Let them sit for 5 minutes before you put them on a cooling rack or gobble them up direct from the pan.

These have a crisp edge to them. They're not as soft as I generally like my chocolate chip cookies, personally, but the browned butter does give it a nice, slightly nutty, zing. It also seems to make them taste a tad saltier to me, so I suggested you use 1/2 tsp salt rather than a full teaspoon. Unless you like salty, then by all means go full teaspoon power!

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Supernatural 8x13 "Everybody Hates Hitler"

2013-02-06T22:37:00.003-08:00

There aren't many who can make Sam look small.

After getting the key to a secret Men of Letters bunker last week, the boys track it down to Lebanon, Kansas, where presumably it hasn't been opened for at least 60 years. Looks that way too, as things are all ham radios and other old timey things, despite there still being working electricity and water. While Dean goes off to check on Kevin and the tablet situation, Sam starts digging into the massive library to track down whether any groups the Men were affiliated with might still exist.

Meanwhile, we flash back to war-torn Europe in World War II, where some Nazis are taken out by some big dude. One of them gets away, however, working some magic. There's also this ledger book that's apparently important that he doesn't take with him. This ledger has traveled through to present day, where an old Jewish dude has tracked it down to a library, only he knows he's got someone nefarious on his trail, so nefarious, in fact, that said bad dude causes the old guy to spontaneously combust. Well, that's a way to ruin your day.

Golem? Necromancer? Neither sound too great.

Sam catches wind of this death, because it turns out this man was part of the Judah Initiative, a group of Rabbi saboteurs. Time to investigate his death, then! While Sam tries to find what the guy was looking up in the library, Dean questions those who last saw him, both feeling like they are being followed. Which, in fact, they are. By the old guy's grandson Aaron and, oh yeah, his giant talking Golem!

So, basically, the Judah Initiative created the Golem to take out this Thule Society of Nazis who were doing terrible magical, necromancer-style experiments on Jews, gypsies and the like. He managed to destroy the compound, as we saw, but there are still some of the Thule around in modern society, and they are looking for that ledger, as it has records of their experiments and who they managed to turn into necromancers. Aaron's grandpa hid the book in the library, so they go to find it, only to have one of the necromancers follow them. Lucky for them, they have a Golem on their team this time, and he easily dispatches the necromancers. Also lucky that they always salt and burn their bodies, as that's the only way to make sure a necromancer stays dead, apparently.

Just doin' our thing, wearing some plaid, holdin' some guns.

The boys are concerned about Aaron's control over the Golem, though, as he really doesn't seem to know what he's doing. Not much time to dwell on that, however, because some more necromancers show up looking for that dang ledger. I'm not entirely sure why the ledger is so important to them, but whatevs, they are clearly deadset on getting that thing. The head dude manages to disengage the Golem, because though Aaron woke him up, he apparently didn't claim him by writing his name on the piece of paper in his mouth.

In other news, Golems are weird.

Anyway, there's some fighting and all of that, and in the end these particular members of Thule are dispatched. Now that Aaron has seen the importance of his grandfather's work, he decides he should follow in his footsteps after all, and writes his name on the Golem paper. So we can assume they go off to hunt themselves some Thule Nazi bastards.

The boys head back to their new bunker, which both seem to be enjoying rather a lot. Sam for the vast amounts of knowledge, Dean for the free booze and a safe place to sleep, though we must remember that the last Man of Letters told them to close it up forever, so clearly it's not going to be a forever home.

Random Thoughts:

- OMG, that whole bar scene with Dean and Aaron... HILARIOUS. Mostly because of Jensen/Dean's reaction to the whole thing. The gay references on this show lately are getting more and more blatant.

- How long until some evil dudes find out about the secret bunker and either try to break in or successfully break in? Let's just say the Winchesters do not have the best luck when it comes to these things.

- Why was that ledger so important? It's possible I missed something, but it seemed sort of silly for them to care so much about it for the sake of secrecy.

- What if the Men of Letters had never gone defunct, John joined them, and Mary was working as one of their hunters, and they had this, like, forbidden romance? And then... ahem. Sorry. Sometimes I get carried away.

Quotes:

Dean: Sammy, I think we found the batcave.

Sam: You gonna take off the dead guy robe?

Dean: Okay... citizen... as you were.

Aaron: What, do two just break in wherever you go?
Dean: Our dad wanted us to have a solid career to fall back on, just in case this hunter thing didn't pan out.

Supernatural 8x12 "As Time Goes By"

2013-01-30T22:30:00.000-08:00

That time travel, she is one fickle mistress, as we seem to learn over and over again. I do appreciate the fact that they don't ever seem to be able to change anything when there is time travel involved, which is the only thing that really makes sense when involving time travel. That it all already happened this way, in some kind of cosmic loop thing. Uh oh, this is getting brain heavy. Let's just get into the recap, shall we?

Awkward family dinner?

Back in the late '50s, a mystery man, who we'll come to know as Henry, is kissing his son goodnight. He's off to complete some sort of initiation at some kind of cult-looking place, with full on hooded robes and strange symbols and whatnot. Only, the sexy lady who is also supposed to take part in this ritual is really a demon, and kills all the other brotherhood types. Henry manages to run into a room with all sorts of weird stuff and does some kind of blood sigil spell that sends him away...

Tumbling right out of the closet of our very own brothers Winchester. They are, of course, rather perturbed that some dude just stumbled out of their closet. Particularly when said dude starts asking if one of them is John Winchester. And just why would he be asking such a strange and jarring question? Because that blood sigil spell from earlier was supposed to take him to his son. That's right, this dude is Henry Winchester, doing some time traveling. Turns out, though, he's not alone in his travels, because that demon from earlier has followed him through the portal, and guess what! The magic demon knife can't kill her! Dun dun dun!

They wouldn't be Winchesters if they didn't dig up some graves.

But why? That demon knife should be able to kill any demon, right? Well, no. Because this particular demon is Abaddon, apparently one of the first demons, and perhaps the last of her kind. That doesn't mean it's going to be any easier to get rid of her. And just why did she kill the brotherhood folk in the first place? She wanted some mystery box that one of them gave Henry before he hopped his blood sigil Delorean.

Henry is convinced that his order, the Men of Letters, should still be around, and that Sam and Dean, his grandsons, and as such legacies, should be part of the group. Alas, it is not so, as John never saw his pop again after that fateful night. This does not bode well for Henry's future, clearly. It also gives Dean some ample material to angst over, as apparently John hated his dad because he thought he walked out on him as a kid, and we all know how Dean feels about family. Super important, yo. More important than mystical brotherhood legacy group things, for sure. Sam is more tolerant, per usual. It was sort of nice to hear Dean stand up for John, though, because for a while there he was pissed at him for how they were raised. Anyway!

Henry gets worked up after reading John's journal and realizing the life his son was forced to lead, and wants to go back and fix things. Dean heads him off at the pass while Sam goes off to try to find out how to get rid of Abaddon and just what the mystery box is, as it turns out one of the dudes from the brotherhood didn't actually die, just pretended to and took over someone else's identity. Now, Sam is a bit of an idiot when he goes and talks to this dude, just divulging information even though there's something clearly shady about said dude's wife. Like, when he eagerly asks if you have the box? Don't just go ahead and say yes, Sam! Sheesh. Rookie move. Because that wife lady is really Abaddon in disguise.

There are sure some handsome men in this family, right?

Abaddon calls up Dean to offer a trade: Sam for Henry and the box. Oh, we did find out the box has a bunch of supernatural knowledge in it, apparently, and that's why it's such a hot commodity. The brotherhood dude tells Sam to get rid of it for good, yada yada. Anyway, Dean is all ready to go in guns hot to get Sam back, and manages to convince Henry that this is the right thing to do as well. We're led to believe in a dumb fakeout that Dean was going to just hand Henry over easy peezy lemon squeezy, but come ON, he wouldn't do that, no matter how annoyed he may be with his gramps.

Henry carves a devil's trap into the tip of a bullet like a boss, and shoots it into Abaddon's brain. While it doesn't kill her, it does trap her, but not before she stuck her hand in Henry's gut. Uh oh. The Winchesters never can catch a break. Death, death and more death. It's just their lot in life. Ha. Death. Life. Sorry. I'm tired. Anyway, Dean chops off her head, and the plan is to basically bury her in cement forever. Even though she'll be alive, she won't be able to do anything.

Alas, though, Henry is not long for this world. He dies in the arms of his grandsons, who must bury yet another parental figure. No hunter's burial for him, I guess, as he of the "hunters are brutes!" mentality. They end up with the box, but are headed to get rid of it at the end of the episode, like the brotherhood dude pleaded.

Random Thoughts:

- Are you really able to break out a car window with your elbow?

- I'm a little fuzzy on the workings of that blood spell. Like, why did it choose 2013? Why not send him to a time when John was still alive? Or just across town to him in his present time? And why do the blood spell in the first place to get out of that situation? I guess if it's the only thing you can think of, sure...

- It was pretty awesome that Henry was able to get out of the handcuffs and get them on Sam and Dean without them being the wiser. Nice moves.

- I liked how they tied it back into the whole thing about their bloodline being super important, combining hunters with these men of letters folk. Brains and brawn, as Sam called them.

- I always wonder why they don't try to call up Cas in these situations. Like, couldn't he have healed him? I mean, I get it, he was meant to die, it would screw up the timeline, but why don't they even think of trying it?

Quotes:

Dean: So you're like Yodas to our Jedis. ... Nevermind, you'll get there.

Henry: You're also Winchesters. As long as we're alive, there's always hope.

Dean: All I see in our family tree is a whole lot of dead.