Pumpkin Waffles (of the vegan persuasion)

Here we are again with more pumpkin. I seem to be nigh on obsessed, don't I? I mean, I am, but also? I always seem to have extra from other recipes, thus making me look up more new recipes, so it's just a pumpkin extravaganza up in here!

Confession: I do not remember the last time I used my waffle iron. It's... been a while. It's one of those things that I forget I have nestled in one of my cupboards, you know? A shame, because I quite like waffles. Much more than pancakes. Pancakes can take a hike if I've got the option of waffles. These waffles at Willamette, my alma mater, were almost boat-shaped, so you could pile it up with strawberries and whipped cream. Mmm mmm, those were Sunday mornings.

I digress. These are pumpkin waffles. And they are delish. My photos of them? Not so much, but... oh well. But okay, it turns out, these waffles? They're vegan. What! I didn't set out to make specifically vegan waffles, but I did set out to make some with soy milk rather than regular, and eventually I found the below recipe. I wasn't sure how they'd turn out, lacking the egg ingredient, but I think they turned out decent enough. Perhaps not as fluffy as one has come to expect from waffles, but then, I am not a waffle snob, so I was perfectly content.

Also? You don't even really need to add the butter and syrup. They taste mighty good all on their own!


Pumpkin Waffles

1 cup pumpkin
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
3/4 to 1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Combine together the pumpkin, sugar and milk until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the flour with all of the spices, then gradually add into the pumpkin mixture until just combined. Cook on waffle iron.

Here we have the pumpkin, sugar and soy milk all mixed together and friendly.

With the dry ingredients all added.

The first two to come off the waffle iron.

You must be careful, though, lest this happen. My waffles split in two! Partially because I forgot to "condition" my waffle iron, and I think also partly because these waffles don't have egg, so don't stick together as well as they would with egg. But you know what? They taste just as good to me!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

I have finally entered the modern age of baking with a Kitchenaid stand mixer! The only bummer is that I had to get it in white. I would have preferred a color, but the ones that had color options were a lot more expensive, so... oh well. I have already made three different kinds of cookies today! Don't worry, they are mostly for this holiday potluck thing at work we're having in a couple days, so they're not all for me. That would be crazy. So what did I make?

I made some peanut butter balls, soft pumpkin cookies, molasses cookies (a gluten-free variety!), and these peanut butter blossoms.

I'm sure everyone has had these at some point in their lives. They were always one of my favorites to make as a kid. I found an interesting variety of different recipes online, and kind of just tweaked one to go with the ingredients I wanted. I also halved it, because 48 seemed like way too many. Actually I halved all the recipes today, otherwise it would just have been too much of a cookie explosion up in here.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Ingredients:
48 Hershey's kisses
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
extra sugar to roll in

Preheat oven to 375F.

Mix together the peanut butter and the shortening until smooth. Add in the sugars, egg and vanilla and mix until incorporated. In a separate bowl (if you so desire, I rarely do), mix together the flour, salt and baking soda. Stir in the flour mixture into the wet ingredients.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls, rolling them each in sugar and placing them about 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. While they're baking, unwrap the Hershey's kisses. Once you take them out of the oven, each cookie gets one kiss in the middle. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

In pictures...

This is the peanut butter and the shortening.

And this is after everything else is put in. I forgot to take a photo of the in between step. It looked much the same, you're not missing a lot.

Here they are, all rolled in sugar and ready to go in the oven.

You'll notice they do not get a lot bigger, so you can't make them too small or the kisses won't fit. Here you can see some plain ones before kisses, and a few after.

Mmmmmmm..........

These cookies are especially good for those who like Hershey's kisses. I am not a huge fan of just plain chocolate like that, so I am not quite as gung-ho. But like I said, these aren't for me, they're for a party!

...Set: Life Unexpected 2x11 "Stand Taken"

Sooo.... this recap is quite late, I know. And I also skipped the last episode and quite frankly, don't have much desire to find a way to see it online. I didn't miss much anyway, so, eh.

First of all, what is up with guys named Trey being complete bastards on TV? Trey on The OC, now this Trey. Have there been more? It seems likely, given the trend. But what makes the Trey on this show so terrible? Well, if you'll recall, he was the one who used to hit Lux when she lived with him and Valerie some four-odd years ago. He was also the one that Tasha hit over the head with a shovel a couple episodes back when Lux went to confront Valerie and Trey about the lies they were spreading about her. That has all come to a head now, because Trey and Valerie are pressing charges against Tasha for assault, for which she could be tried as an adult and end up going to prison for six years.

Of course, all of this could go away pretty quickly if Lux would just come forward and testify as to why Tasha felt she had to protect Lux by hitting the dude over the head with the shovel in the first place. Lux, though, is still being hesitant about doing that, for reasons we just can't fathom yet. Because at this point, it seems like she's just being selfish or something by not coming forward.

Lux only makes matters worse when she first decides she's going to testify, then instead decides to go to Trey on her own and tell him that if he doesn't testify against Tasha, then she won't reveal anything about him either. But everyone is less than pleased with Lux's sudden change in story, and I have to at least give Cate some credit here for not believing Lux when she said she had been lying about Trey being abusive. She has been doing a lot of lying lately, though, which has gotten old for me.

The court date arrives, and Lux decides to actually come forward with the truth after Tasha basically has to remind her that she's her best friend and they'd do anything for each other. At first it looks like things aren't going to go so well when the other side starts poking holes in Lux's story, but then Lux unloads with the really terrible truth. It wasn't just that Trey was abusive, it was also that he was sexually abusive. He made her kiss him, and probably would have forced himself on her if she had not fought back the last night she was there. With all of this new information, and Cate convincing Valerie that she needed to come forward as well, the judge decides to drop the assault charges against Tasha. She does, however, still have other charges that hold, which will send her to juvie for a couple of months.

In the end, we find out that the reason Lux didn't want to come forward with any of this stuff was because she was afraid of losing another mom like she lost Valerie (because, you see, she told Valerie what Trey had been doing, and she chose him over Lux). Cate assures her that she would never leave her.

As for what else is going on, Cate's pregnant and back together with Ryan, seemingly on the road to recovery from all of their crazy drama. Eric and Lux are still a secret couple, and he even says the big L word to her. And, after Baze's dad threatened to fire him if he did not break up with Emma last week, their relationship is on the mend after he stands up for Lux in the courtroom and whatnot. Baze's dad is still not okay with the Baze-Emma relationship, though, and we find out that it's probably because he and Emma had an affair in the past, which Lux just happened to overhear. Oh boy.

Overall, one of the best episodes of this season. And come January next year when they air the two hour finale, it's probably going to be all she wrote for this little show. Oh well.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Supernatural 6x11 "Appointment in Samarra"

Wow. It's been a while since I've yelled at my TV so much during an episode of... anything. I don't mean yelled in a bad way. Though, Bobby was acting kind of stupid sometimes ("Don't go in there! It's a trap!"). Some other sample yells: "No, Sam! Don't do it!" "Please don't black out right now, I know you're going to do it. ... DAMN IT!" You know what I mean. You know they're going to do it, and it happens all the same. This is why I have to watch shows that I am obsessed with alone. Yikes.

Anyway! This was an intense bit of televisual entertainment, yes? Yes. Things finally come to a head in the search for Sam's soul, and though I did want it to keep going there at the end, I am glad that they gave us an answer as to whether it would be returned or not, rather than keep that as the cliffhanger. I am digging the pace of this season. I was a little worried that they would drag the soul thing out the whole season, but no. And for that - yay! Moving on.

At the top of the episode, Dean is walking into some mysterious (and gross, naturally) meat shop that houses some kind of disreputable doctor, a Dr. Robert, played by Robert Englund, who had worked on John a time or two. We aren't sure just what in the world Dean is up to, but the Doc and his assistant get to work and we soon find out. They are going to kill him - for a short period of time - so he can go commune with folks on the other side of the veil. Those folks being the reaper Tessa, and Death. One thing I will say is that we really had no lead up to this point in his thinking. What led him to decide to suddenly try to contact Death? Unless I'm missing something from the previous episode, which I admit is possible since I only watched it on an iPod in an airport and didn't have time for a re-watch. But I don't think so. Am I wrong?

The point is, Dean, while in spirit-y form, calls up Tessa to get in touch with Death. She doesn't want to deal, but it turns out that Death was listening in anyway, 'cause he pops right in to join the fun. Dean's proposal is this: he'll give Death back his ring if he'll get both Sam and Adam's souls out of the pit. Well hey! Mention of Adam, for once! Death says Dean can only pick one, so he naturally chooses Sam. Poor Adam, never can catch a break. But Death has another spin to the deal too - Dean has to wear the ring for a day, and act as Death. And he must do this for a full 24 hour period without taking the ring off, or he fails.

Dean heads back to Bobby's place, where Sam is less than enthused about these developments. He doesn't want his soul back, no matter if Death says he can put up a wall in his mind to block out the Hellish details (for how long, though, is anyone's guess). Dean's like suck it, I'm doing it anyway. He sets off on his Death day adventure, leaving Bobby alone to deal with the rather psycho robo-Sam who is bent on not getting his soul re-instated. In fact, he is so intent on being soulless, that he calls up Balthazar to ask if there is some way for that to continue. Balthazar informs him that there is a certain spell that will keep it out, but it requires patricide - the killing of a father. Well shoot, John's dead, so it should all be okay, right? Too bad the blood of the father only has to be a father figure, not an actual biological father, because Bobby just happens to be right nearby, doesn't he? Bobby!

Meanwhile, Dean has started his workday, with Tessa there to guide him to his "victims." Victim is not the right word but, um... I am drawing a blank. His first subject, there we go, is a dude holding up a convenience store, and the second is a dude having a heart attack. These are all easy enough for Dean to go through with, but when Tessa then leads him into the hospital room of a 12-year-old girl with a heart condition, he doesn't want to go through with it. He grumbles and damn near stamps his feet in protest, refusing to do it, and lo, the girl is suddenly okay. He messed with the natural order, and everything is going to be perfectly fine, right? Of course not! Because we've been paying particular attention to the girl's nurse, Jolene, so we know she's going to bite it. And she does, because, you see, since she did not have to help operate on the little girl, she was driving home earlier than normal, and therefore got into a car accident. Boom - dead.

Dean feels epically guilty, particularly when Jolene's husband is very upset and is about to go kill himself off by driving himself into oncoming traffic. Dean tries to stop him, but with the ring on, the guy can't see him. So he takes it off and stops the guy just in time. Uh oh. That means failure, right? Right? He puts the ring back on to go take the little girl like he was originally supposed to anyway, to set things right.

Back at the ranch, or, you know, Bobby's, things aren't going so well for Mr. Singer. This soulless Sam is a rather conniving and smart a-hole, and no amount of my screaming at Bobby that he is walking into trap after trap could stop the inevitable. Sam gets him tied up, and is about to go through with the whole spell ritual to kill Bobby and keep his soul out for good, when Dean shows up and stops him just in time. Phew! Good timing there, dude. They lock Sam down in the panic room, but they know it's not going to hold him forever.

Death shows up to reclaim his ring, and he and Dean have a nice little chat. Dean admits that, knowing what he knows now, he would have killed the girl from the start, so that the nurse would not have died. Death is surprised to hear this, but rather pleased. It means Dean has actually learned something after all. And, in something that was no surprise to me (he learned something, and that was the real test!), he decides he'll go get Sam's soul back. Dean is all bzuh - but why? I failed! Death wants them to continue searching for Purgatory, apparently. He didn't say it in so many words, more along the lines of, "figure out what's happening to souls and why they're important." So he doesn't even know where purgatory is? That is one heavily secret place, for serious. I'm not sure why we need to know where it is either, though.

And with that, he brings Sam's shiny, glowing soul up into the panic room to shove it down into his chest. He tells Sam that he's going to create the wall, and for the love of Pete, don't go scratching at it, no matter how much it itches. And of course, as Sam's screaming his little head off - boom! Black. Damn. Dang damn dang.

Random Thoughts:

- The preview showed virtually no Sam apart from, like, one confused expression. Um! Hello! I care more about what Sam is going to be like than some virgin case they're on!

- Speaking of Sam. Does anyone else feel like this "wall" thing is a bit of a cop out? I mean, I know they've been making a big deal about how damaged Sam's soul will be and whatnot, but it doesn't seem right that he would just sort of be okay unless he starts to dig deeper into his mind. Pardon me for wanting more immediate repercussions. I know the show can't really function with Sam not functioning, but... I don't know. I guess I'll have to wait and see how they deal with it all once the show comes back on, gulp, January 28.

- Didn't Bobby seem like he was acting kind of dumb? I know he was supposed to be watching Sam, but when you get an inkling that Sam's out to get you, why in the world are you going to walk down into basements and barns? That's just asking for a whap on the head, which is exactly what he got!

- Dean's goodbye letter was to Ben. Aww.

Quotes:

"Enjoy the ride down, pal. Trust me, sauna gets hot." - Dean

"I may have been born at night, boy, but it wasn't last night." - Bobby

"Don't say here's Johnny." - Bobby

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Glee 2x10 "A Very Glee Christmas"

Tonight's holiday episode was overloaded with songs, which is no surprise. Their special episodes always get bloated that way. Not that I don't enjoy Christmas music, but I like Glee so much better when the episodes actually care more about the stories than the songs. Call me crazy. Moving on.

In what shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone, Artie finds out at the top of the hour that Brittany still believes in Santa. He decides to convince the glee club to just go with it, to let her have the magic of Christmas. They agree, but things get complicated when they go to visit Santa at the mall and Brittany asks for Artie to be able to walk. That's a wish they just can't quite grant. They recruit Coach Beiste to help out with the situation, dressing up as Santa to go visit Brittany and let her down gently. Beiste does her best to do just that, but Britt just isn't feeling the Christmas spirit anymore. Artie takes her home to console her, and there they find this swanky walking machine thing that can make Artie walk for short periods of time. A Christmas miracle? Sort of. Coach Beiste bought it and secretly put it in Brittany's living room, making one Christmas wish come true. D'awww. Jeez. I must be a sap because I may have had a tear in my eye.

Meanwhile, Rachel is trying to get back into Finn's good graces by embracing his love of Christmas. She tries to give him the gift of her song (gag) and later tries to kiss him while they're looking for a tree. Finn, however, is not having it. After having his only two girlfriends both cheat on him, I'd say he's got a point. He says they're broken up for good, but I think there's still a light at the end of that tunnel.

Sue does what comes naturally to her - she decides to sabotage the secret santa the teachers do every year by making everyone get her as their person. This results in the teachers rebelling and taking all of the gifts back to give to charity. Sue won't have it, though, and dresses up as the Grinch, with Becky as her reindog, to steal all of the stuff back again. At first she gets to revel in her "win," but when she sees that despite her trying to ruin Christmas, the glee kids still have the spirit anyway, she decides to turn things around. You see, Will is feeling lonely during this time of year now that he's divorced and Emma has married Carl. When he comes home to his empty house, he soon finds out that it's not empty. Sue has set up all of the stuff she stole in his living room, with the help of the glee kids. She does still gift him with a razor, for shaving off his hair, naturally.

And that's about it. I will say that I loved Will's idea of "A Soul" for Sue's gift, and how his act of rebellion leaving her office was to take the phone off the hook. I barely wrote down any quotes tonight, though. Is it my laziness, or were there not that many? Perhaps a combination of the two. Oh well.

Songs:

The Most Wonderful Day of the Year
We Need a Little Christmas
Merry Christmas, Darling
Baby, It's Cold Outside
You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch (or Sue the Grinch)
Last Christmas
Welcome Christmas

Quotes:

"My mastery of camouflage was the only thing that kept me from being court-martialed after that Mee-Li misunderstanding." - Sue (that's just my best guess)

"You know what they say, early's late if you make tomorrow yesterday." - Beiste

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Supernatural 6x10 "Caged Heat"

Sorry for the delay on this post, but I have been visiting Las Vegas, where I have learned that I am not a huge Vegas fan. This really should come as little surprise to anyone who knows me! Also, I'm attempting to write this on my iTouch in the airport thanks to a delayed flight. Oh joy of joys. Plus I had to do that full body scan x-ray thing. Anyway.

This week's episode (which I also watched here in the airport!!) was rather intense, no? Apart from a couple light moments with Castiel, it was all drama-rama. The episode started things off with Crowley interrogating a shapeshifter looking like himself on the whereabouts of Purgatory. Said shifter does not know anything about it, so Crowley kills him.

The Winchester brothers, meanwhile, get a visit from one of their old demon buddies, Meg. I use the term buddy very loosely, of course. Meg wants the location of Crowley and threatens the boys, but Sam figures out right quick that she is on the run herself. He suggests they work together to find Crowley to both of their own ends, with each of them secretly planning on backstabbing the other, I'm sure. Dean is against working with demons again, but Sam points out they are already working with one. Good point, dude.

Sam calls up Castiel for help, but only gets him to pop down from on high when he says that they've found the ark of the covenant (a la Raiders of the Lost Ark). Poor Cas is having a rough time up in Heaven these days. He also has some reservations about putting Sam's soul back after the torment he will have suffered while in Hell at the hands of Lucifer and Michael in the cage. Dean posits that they have to try, and Cas reluctantly agrees.

They decide the best way to try to find out where Crowley is, is by getting the information out of Samuel. Samuel is all bull-headed about it, and our suspicions are confirmed as to the reasoning behind his deal with Crowley  - Crowley said he'd bring Mary back. Dean tries to reason with him, but it's a no go. Dean, Sam, and Cas hang out and try to figure something else out (and Cas watches some porn!), when Samuel shows up, saying he has seen the light. He points them in the right direction.

The right direction is an old, creepy warehouse where Crowley is keeping all sorts of creatures. The team gets in rather quickly, which none of them thinks bodes well. And they would be right. There are hellhounds waiting for them, and Meg can't even black smoke her way out of her host. She stays behind to fight them off (after a major lip lock with Castiel!) and the three desperadoes delve deeper into the manse. They don't get much farther before Cas is angel-sigil blasted out of there, thanks to Samuel, who has turned out to be the major double crosser in this round.

Crowley's demon stooges grab the boys and lock them up int heir very own separate cells. They also capture Meg after she has managed to kill off the hellhounds. All that effort for naught! Samuel comes to visit Dean, and Dean tells him in no uncertain terms that the next time they meet, he'll kill him. And who can blame him? Mary would never forgive you for condemning her sons to get her back, dude. Anyway, some more stooges come and take Dean off and lock him up with some ghouls who are supposed to, apparently, eat him. Lovely! But action-robo-Sam has a different plan. While Dean and the ghouls grapple, Sam bites into his own wrist and writes a devil's trap on the ceiling of his cell! HARDCORE. It does work like a charm on his would be demon stooge captors, though. He escapes just in time to save Dean from being ghoul food.

Meanwhile, the demon in one of the Campbell cousins (the Corin Nemec one) has got Meg up on the torture rack we last saw one dastardly Ruby on. I'm not sure what information he's trying to get from her, but he's doing some nasty stuff to some rather intimate places. Yowch. Lucky for her, the boys come to her aid, with the newly reclaimed demon killing knife (she took it from them awhile back). Together again, they are able to use some special trap (I'm assuming it wasn't just a regular one) on Crowley, wherein Meg can do some hand scrunchy torture bits. Crowley claims he can't get Sam's soul back, and that they shouldn't want it back either. They're going to let Meg kill him with the knife, only he bests her fairly easily and is about to wreck almighty havoc until Castiel shows up, with Crowley's poorly hidden bones in a bag. Cas threatens him, and his song remains the same about the soul, so he must be telling the truth. All the same, Cas goes and burns up the bones anyway! Whoa! That was unexpected. Before they can kill Meg too, she jets out of there.

In our patented roadside end of episode chat, Cas confesses that things aren't going well for him upstairs, and he wishes he could be more help to them down on Earth. Dean tries to offer help, but it's not use. After Cas leaves (to go kill all the other beasties in the holding cells, naturally), Sam confesses that he doesn't think he wants his soul back after all, much to Dean's dismay. Dean tries to talk some sense into him, but he just straight up walks away, leaving Dean to shout his name as his back. Aww.


Random thoughts:

- I say this every week, but I can't wait for Sam and soul to be reunited. I have a rather disturbing desire to see just how messed up he will be. And honestly, they can't just leave his soul down there, regardless of whether they were to reunite it with his body. Poor Sammy! (And Adam?!)

- What's Samuel going to do now that Crowley is gone and no longer there to honor his deal? He was never going to honor that deal anyway, but you know...

- And who's going to take over as king of hell now that Crowley's gone? I really did not expect his death! Bad ass Cas!

- The porn stuff with Castiel was hilarious, of course. Aw, Cas, don't ever change.

Quotes:

"Guess I kinda lost my head." - Crowley

"This is very complex. If the pizza man truly loves this babysitter, then why does he keep slapping her rear? Perhaps she has done something wrong." - Castiel

"This is what you boys do, sit around watching pornos with angels?" - Samuel
"We're not supposed to talk about it." - Castiel

"I learned that from a pizza man." - Castiel

"I'm standing in pee." - Dean
"Consider yourself lucky." - Sam
"Yikes." - Dean

"I said can't, and I meant can't, you mop-headed lumberjack." - Crowley

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