Monday, January 31, 2011

Chuck 4x13 "...vs. the Push Mix"

Anyone know what that electronic song at the beginning of the episode and when Morgan was going through the lasers was? I really liked it, but could not decipher the lyrics enough to look it up! Something about a joy ride?? Help! As another music selection, the one from the end of the episode was Young Blood by The Naked and Famous.

Okay! Now that I've got that out of the way. You know, I was concerned that there was going to be some big twist ending to this episode after everything ended so well for everyone, that I was actually more surprised that everything ended like it did. When I saw that floor sweeper, I thought to myself, "Oh no. Evil dude." But I was wrong! They just did a cool cut away so we didn't actually hear Chuck propose to Sarah, just saw them in the background, which was a great choice, in my opinion. We've already heard them say everything they need to say to each other, so it wasn't really necessary to hear the actual words this time around.

Recap/review of Chuck 4x13 'Chuck versus the Push Mix' by freshfromthe.comI just jumped straight to the end there, didn't I? Terribly sorry to spoil the ending, but would you hate me if I didn't do a really in depth episode recap? I'm going to attempt to make it quick. I feel like I say that every time, and then go longer than intended, but whatevs. Basically, at the top of the hour, Chuck decides he's had enough of Volkoff ruining his family, and is going to take matters into his own hands to take him down and get Sarah and Mama B back. This leads him and Morgan to the ship named Contessa, where Volkoff, Sarah and Mama B are currently on, and also happens to house Hydra, the super secret special network of bad guys the CIA has been trying to track down for years.

Things seem to go pretty well for a while, until they don't. Volkoff shows up to stop the party, and Chuck, Sarah and Morgan are forced to leave, Mama B staying behind with a gun to Volkoff's head to ensure their safe passage out. Earlier on, Volkoff had received a message from Orion, and confronts Mama B about supposedly being in contact with him, even though he's supposed to be dead. The latest contact asked for Mama B to meet Orion at a cabin, so Volkoff decides he's going to go himself to face him.

Only, of course, it's Chuck who was posing as Orion to draw out Volkoff and get him to say the special passcode to get the Hydra thing to transfer over to the CIA computer network that his dad set up so many years ago. It was all his plan from the start for it go down like this, and it worked like a damn charm. Way to go, Chuck. Way to use the old noodle. Sarah and Mama B are free!

Meanwhile, Devon has been freaking out thanks to Ellie going into labor. Luckily, Casey wakes up to knock some sense into him so that he doesn't leave Ellie alone. But she wouldn't have been alone anyway, because the whole gang shows up just in time for little Clara Woodcomb to enter the world. Lester and Jeff tried to put their own spin on the event by doing a cover of "Push It" over the intercom system, but thankfully were hauled away by security.

And, of course, while all of that was going on, Chuck finally proposed to Sarah. And she said yes. D'aw.

Where do things go from here now that Volkoff has been captured? Who will be the next big bad that everyone is suddenly, magically connected to, even though we've never heard of them once before? Hopefully we'll get a break from a huge central bad guy for a while. I don't know about you, but I could use a break from it!

Quotes:

"He has no respect for the unborn." - Jeff

"I'm like a seal. A seal that does yoga. Yoga seal!" - Morgan

"But you're not due yet! What is baby Clara thinking?" - Devon

"Ew, pregnant women." - Lester
"Oooh, pregnant women." - Jeff

"Cover song by cover song, we're shaping the youth of America!" - Lester
"I'm not allowed to do that anymore." - Jeff

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Monday, January 24, 2011

Chuck 4x12 "...vs. the Gobbler"

Do you know what I discovered in tonight's episode? I've been spelling Volkoff wrong this whole time. Here I was, spelling it Volkhoff, and no one corrected me! Oh well.
In tonight's episode we got to see Sarah go over to the dark side. Or, you know, pretend to go over to the dark side. After completing various nefarious missions on the side that we just heard tell of through the boys back at home, Volkoff finally decided to invite her into his lair. And he presents her with a mission: she must break out Yuri the Gobbler from prison. Why's he called the Gobbler? Because he apparently eats people, though we saw very little evidence of that aside from one dude missing a few fingers.

In order to break Yuri out of the prison (which was located in a very-sunny-for-January Portland, Oregon), she needed help from the good guys. Their mission? To get Chuck into the prison as a new prisoner while Casey and Morgan disguise themselves as guards. This all goes off way too easily, incidentally, but whatever. Once inside, Chuck locates Yuri and is tasked with bringing this massive man down. He only just manages to get him unconscious before Sarah arrives to break them all out. I'm a little confused why Volkoff wouldn't have let her use some of his men for the mission. Whatever, I guess I'm not supposed to question it.

Recap/review of Recap/review of Chuck 4x12 'Chuck versus the Gobbler' by freshfromthe.comOnce she brings Yuri back to Volkoff, hoping that would mean she's been let into the inner circle, Volkoff just shoots Yuri in the head. And then what does he do? He scoops his EYE out! Gross! It turns out it wasn't a real eye, but rather some kind of tech device that held all of Hydra, his super secret network infrastructure that connects all of his bad guys together or something. He then proceeds to smash the eyeball, because he's apparently downloaded the info somewhere else. Mama B, though, manages to hide away a piece of the eye to give back to Chuck, so he can Mr. Wizard something out of it.

Volkoff's real mission for Sarah comes next: she is tasked with killing one John Casey. She gets him to meet her at this tall building in LA, and they proceed to fight it up, while trying to figure out how to make it look like he's dead without really being dead. Chuck, meanwhile, grows more and more anxious, because he wants to know what's going on, so he heads over there to find out. By the time Chuck gets there, Sarah and Casey have worked out a plan - she'll push him out the window onto a scaffolding some 40 feet below. He's sure he'll survive. She ends up having to do this in front of not only Volkoff and Mama B, but also Chuck, who of course shows up just in time to witness it. The only problem? The scaffolding breaks, and Casey goes plummeting all the way to the ground below, unconscious.

Volkoff knocks out Chuck and he takes the ladies away with him to points unknown. Later, Chuck tries to get in contact with Sarah via their super secret special secure line, but she, taking advice from Mama B, decides to get some distance, as that's the only way she'll be able to get the job done.

Casey, meanwhile, is in the hospital, hooked up to some very scary looking tubes and monitors. This is very upsetting to everyone, but particularly to his daughter Alex, who Morgan just realized he's fallen in love with earlier in the episode.

In the upbeat side plot of the night, Ellie was having problems getting Devon to agree on a name for their impending baby girl. She goes to Chuck for help, saying she's found the perfect name - Grunka. Chuck and Devon both agree this is a terrible name, so recruit the Buy Morians to dissuade her from using it. In the end, they decide on the name Clara. And Ellie reveals that she was never serious about the Grunka name anyway. I don't even know if that's at all close to how you spell Grunka. Groenke? It is Swedish, after all.

Next week it looks like everything comes to a head with Volkoff, which seems a little early in the season, but sure.

Music selection of the night:

Silvia by Miike Snow (looooove this song, I've loved it for a while)

Quotes:

"Grunka isn't what you name your beautiful baby girl, it's what you name... these people." - Devon

"Wow. Sarah, you look... evocative." - Morgan

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Life Unexpected 2x12 "Teacher Schooled" 2x13 "Affair Remembered"

I must say, after the many lows of this second, and final, season of this little show, they managed to turn things around in these last two episodes and send it out on a high note. That's right, friends. For those who don't know, the show is not coming back. These last two episodes were the series finale. And though there was certainly more story that could've been told, I found myself quite satisfied by the ending, thanks to the little coda at the end. The coda where they tried to fake us out, mind you. Were you as satisfied as me?

But, per usual, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's first take a look at the first hour - Teacher Schooled - or as we may like to call it - Secrets Exposed. Because there was a whole lot of drama a goin' on revolving around the two big secrets broiling - that of Lux and Eric and the newly discovered secret that Emma had an affair with Baze's dad. Just how did these secrets get exposed? Well!

Recap/review of Life Unexpected series finale by freshfromthe.comBaze was all happy happy joy joy about his relationship with Emma going so well that he revealed that he was thinking of selling the bar and using the money to buy a house that she would eventually move into with him. Lux told her she needed to put the kibosh on the deal because the truth has a way of coming out eventually (maybe take your own advice there, Luxy). Emma tried to make it seem like it wouldn't work because of her son, Sam, but Baze just rose to that occasion and decided he'd win Sam over. Which he did in rather goopy but ultimately heartfelt fashion by showing him that he'd have a place in this new house too.

Of course, it was not meant to be, because meanwhile, Lux was trying to set up a secret rendezvous with Eric at Tosh's place. He'd been blowing her off for a while, and she was upset about it and blah de blah. The night they were supposed to meet, though, Eric decided he couldn't go through with it, and instead went to tell Math what had been going on. Meanwhile, Cate and Baze are freaking out because they don't know where Lux is, so Sam has to spill the beans that he knows where she is and what's been going on.

Thus, all hell breaks loose. Lots of yelling ensues, and Baze tries to physically get into it with Eric. Lux takes the opportunity to tell Baze he doesn't know anything about relationships and tells him about Emma and his dad. Uh oh. And when he confronts Emma about it, she reveals that it went on for four years. FOUR YEARS! Holy moly. Dunzo for them.

Also dunzo? Lux and Eric. I did feel bad for him a little, because he really does seem like a nice guy, but he should've stopped the whole thing long ago. Lucky for him, Cate and Baze decide to just tell him to get out of town and never talk to Lux again rather than get the police involved. Of course, Lux is still pissed, as is her way. And that was basically that episode in a swift little nutshell.

Moving on to the grande finale! Cate and Ryan seem to be working things out pretty well. Kelly, Ryan's radio co-host, has been fired, and they want to give Ryan his own show for Cate to produce. On top of that, they are headed to a doctor's appointment to see the development of their gestating fetus. Except that's when things start to go down the tubes. Because the doctor can't find the baby on the monitor. Cate's lost the baby, and on top of that, she finds out that she won't be able to have another one.

Recap/review of Life Unexpected series finale by freshfromthe.comBut even with all of that going on, she's still dealing with Lux issues, because Lux is still mad about the Eric thing, and also accuses Cate of never actually listening to her and thinking she's lying all the time (HELLO, you WERE lying all the time!). They work it all out in the end, of course. That's what they do on these shows.

Meanwhile, Baze is real pissed at his dad for the whole Emma thing, but has to hide it at a big birthday soiree his mom is throwing for him. He almost spills the beans in front of the whole group, but upon seeing his mom's blissful ignorance, decides against it. Emma tries to talk to him and work things out, but it's too late for these two.

Lux is still dealing with the departure of Eric, and how she's not normal (her whining about it? very normal). She and Jones end up having a heart to heart, where he reveals to her that his mom is bipolar, and that no one is actually normal, and thinking you're not normal is actually the most normal thing of all. How many more times can I say normal in there? Probably not as many times as they said it in the episode!

Even with all of that going on, everything looks like it would be okay for everyone eventually, except that Cate sees Ryan's ex Julia at the doctor's, and she is certainly pregnant. Bum bum bum!

And with that, the episode jumped ahead two years to when Lux is graduating from high school. She gives a rather long-winded and teary speech, and we are left to wonder who has ended up with who out in the audience since everyone is seated all next to each other and it's all rather mysterious. Luckily, after the speech is over, people take to kissing each other and we find out that Ryan and Julia got back together and had a son. Math ended up with ummm... was her name Alice? Lux and Jones eventually got together. And Cate and Baze! Yes, I was rooting for them from the start. A shame we could not see their rekindled romance develop, but hey, it had to happen eventually.

Of course, I knew it was coming, but we also had Lux call Cate and Baze "Mom and Dad" there at the end, so you know things are all hunky dory for the little family. D'ahhh.

Well, that's about it, folks. Will you miss the show? At least it got a decent ending that didn't have some giant cliffhanger, right? I absolutely hate it when that happens (I'm looking at you, Farscape, no matter if you eventually had a TV movie to finish the story or not!).

Previous Episode

Monday, January 17, 2011

Chuck 4x11 "...vs. the Balcony"

It's funny, for a good 2/3 of this episode, I was thinking to myself that I've kind of become complacent about Chuck. That's not to say the show isn't good or anything, just maybe that I've gotten a little too used to how the episodes are set up. I will say, however, that they are pretty good at coming up with those end of episode twists. I knew some kind of twist would be coming for this one, but I wasn't quite sure what it would be.

There were two main missions in this episode. The regular ole mission was to recover this nanochip that had all of the European CIA black sites listed on it from a Chateau in Loire Valley, France before this French dude named Pierre (naturally) could get it. The sub mission of the hour, however, was to get Chuck to propose to Sarah. He tried to do it at this fancy Italian restaurant at the beginning of the show, but upon hearing of her parents' disastrous similar proposal, put it on the backburner.  Lucky for him, they got a shiny new mission in France, right?

Chuck, Sarah and Casey head out to France and get going on both missions. There is some shenanigans involving a wine bottle. You see, the nanochip was inserted into a wine bottle, so they had to track down the bottle it was in, but of course that bottle was used for some big party going on, and a French dude did not want to give up his glass, which the nanochip was in. Yada yada, Chuck successfully retrieves the chip, has to fight some bad guys, and very nearly proposes to Sarah before they head back stateside.

I say very nearly, because he never actually did successfully go through with the proposal. Because that would be too easy. It would also be too easy for him to do it at some point in the very long flights they would've had to take back and forth from France but, you know, details. Guys always think it needs to be some big fancy thing, when it really doesn't.

Anyway. Back in Castle, Beckman informs them that Chuck and Sarah will be going back to France to pretend to be rogue agents turning over the chip to Pierre. Beckman makes sure to tell Sarah that she has to be the one to do the drop, in the most obvious set up for some kind of later twist ever.

Recap/review of Recap/review of Chuck 4x11 'Chuck versus the Balcony' by freshfromthe.comMorgan tries to psych up Chuck to really propose this time when they're back in France, only Sarah overhears them. She has a secret conversation with Morgan, and is on board to make sure the whole thing goes well. Once they're over there, the mission appears to go off with nary a hitch (apart from Chuck having to beat up Pierre and one of his henchmen), and just when he's about to propose... lights! Agents! Sarah is being arrested for treason!

Back at Castle, we find out that it was all a set up to get Sarah to look like a turncoat, so she could go into Volkoff's business and take it down from the inside, therefore releasing Chuck's mom from Volkoff's grasp. Chuck is understandably upset by this news, but Sarah is determined, and heads off to do her duty, sans-proposal. Bum bum bum!

At the Buy More this week, marriage was also on Lester's mind, as his parents decided to take matters into their own hands and try to arrange a marriage for him. The girl in question happens to be beautiful (you know she's going to be beautiful when they do a slow-mo shot of her boot or heel-clad feet entering the store). Lester, of course, screws it up, a couple of times. First he tries to be too traditional, then he goes full on Jeffster and serenades her in the store, ostensibly freaking her out a little too much.

One last thing - is there some kind of bad guy handbook that instructs them in that specific look? You know the one. They have their head tilted down, and look up at everything through their eyelashes, their lips pursed, sometimes with a mischievous grin playing on them. I swear, every bad guy does that exact same look.

Quotes:

"Not every criminal works for Alexei Volkoff, Chuck." - General Beckman (this made me laugh out loud because I have repeatedly been saying that everyone they've been running into lately has been magically connected to Volkoff!)

"Why is everyone obsessed with marriage?! ... I don't wanna talk about it." - Lester

"Forget about the balcony, Bartowski. All you need is the girl." - Casey

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Brownie Popcorn Bags

Today, my dear friends, I am here to show you how this slab of chocolatey brownie goodness...


Turned into this...

Brownie Popcorn Bags by freshfromthe.com

What's that? Are those little popcorn bags? Indeed they are, indeed they are. I'm going to a party for the Golden Globes later today and wanted to make a movie-themed treat. I knew I had seen something fun over at Bakerella at some point. And lo! There they were. I also became lazy about halfway through and decided to just make seven of the actual brownie bags, and the rest of the brownies are now little brownie bites. I figure people aren't going to be chowing down on a ton of the popcorn bags because they're kind of large.

So how are these made? They're actually quite easy. The longest part of the process is making the brownies themselves, since I made them from scratch. I didn't take photos of that process, as I've done them before, but you can look at the ones I've made before for a reference: Homemade Brownies.

What will you need to make these?


Brownie Popcorn Bags

Brownies
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
3/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Frosting
1/2 cup butter
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-2 tablespoons milk

Decorating
Miniature marshmallows
Popsicle sticks (or something similar that you can use)
Red sanding sugar or red sugar crystals

Confession: I used store-bought frosting. I rarely have milk, and didn't want to make some from the powdered stuff for just a couple of tablespoons, and I knew I had a tub of the store stuff already. I have no qualms, since I only used some of it and would have had tons of frosting left over.

Instructions:
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Line a 12 X 18 inch jelly roll pan (or as I call it, a cookie pan) with parchment paper. You can rub the pan with the end of a stick of butter and then the paper will attach and stay in place (I didn't, it worked okay).
  • In a small bowl, mix flour and baking powder together with a wire whisk and set aside (I hardly ever do this and just mix them in separately in the end!).
  • Melt butter and chocolate together in a medium saucepan on medium heat. Stir frequently making sure the chocolate does not stick to the bottom.
  • When melted, remove from heat and add sugar. Stir well until thoroughly combined.
  • In another small bowl add eggs and whisk gently. Then add vanilla to the eggs and pour into the chocolate mixture.
  • Fold eggs gently at first to incorporate and then continue stirring until the eggs completely disappear.
  • Add the flour and baking powder. Again, stirring together slowly at first and then more quickly to make sure everything is blended.
  • Spread the batter evenly in the pan. The batter will be thick.
  • Bake for about 12-13 minutes. Remove and cool completely.
  • Once cool, use a five-inch popcorn bag-shaped cookie cutter to make 10 popcorn bags. Alternate the direction of the cutter and you can get 2 rows of five bags. Now, I didn't have these, so I just cut them using a pizza cutter into rectangles.
  • Remove the brownie bag shapes from the pan by using the cutter to carefully squeeze and lift. (You can also use a spatula.)
  • Transfer the brownie to a small cake board to serve individually. Release the brownie onto the board by spreading open the sides of the cutter. Who has cake boards? Not me. I used little pieces of parchment paper.
  • Once on the cake board, you can stack all the brownies and cover in plastic wrap until ready to decorate. You can also trim the cake boards to the same shape as the bag with scissors.
  • Make your frosting.
  • Cream the butter and vanilla in a mixer. Add the sugar slowly and mix until thoroughly combined. Add milk if necessary to make the frosting consistency more creamy.
  • Fill a decorating bag, fitted with a #10 tip. You can also use a plastic resealable bag with corner snipped off. Pipe the outline of the popcorn bag shape and then the inside. You can then spread the frosting on evenly with a knife or even use one of the popsicle sticks. Place two clean popsicle sticks gently on the surface of the frosting. They should be placed at the bottom of the bag with frosting visible on either side of each stick. OR if you're like me, you can just spread out the frosting onto the brownie without any outlining or anything, using a frosting spreader. Worked just fine. I also didn't have popsicle sticks, and couldn't find them at Target, so I used these little gelato spoons I had. Use whatever works!
  • Sprinkle red sanding sugar over the bottom part of the brownie until you can’t see the frosting underneath. Carefully remove the sticks to reveal a red and white striped bag. Place miniature marshmallows in varying directions on the top of the brownie for popcorn. Gently press them into the frosting to secure.
  • Repeat with remaining brownies and enjoy!
Pictures:


Here is a brownie with some frosting slathered on. I just used a frosting spreader. It's certainly not as neat as Bakerella's way, but do I care about neatness? Not really.


I had to use little gelato spoons to outline the white stripes in the bag. They worked quite well.


After sprinkling on the red sugar crystals and removing the gelato spoons.

Brownie Popcorn Bags by freshfromthe.com

The final product! So cute!


And some of the carnage left on the baking sheet. I decided to only do about seven of the bags and use the rest of the brownies as brownie bites. You can also see I was being green and recycling the parchment paper from the pan to use for the individual bags.


A bowl of brownie bites. Cures any ailment.

Brownie Popcorn Bags by freshfromthe.com

These are so cute, even if mine are slightly messy. 

I can report that the brownies themselves in this recipe are quite tasty. They are very rich (lots of egg!) and actually about a quarter of mine weren't quite done when I took them out, so they're extra gooey and I am just keeping them for myself. Shush!

Friday, January 7, 2011

...Set: Supernaturally Six-y

Chirp, chirp.

Crickets?! There are crickets in here right now? Oh wait, yes. That's because I've been rather absent. Apologies, dear internet friends. I was back up in the great NW, freezing my tuckus off for a little over a week during the holidays, only to come back and have my apartment be just as freezing cold. The perils of being afraid of the scary gas wall heater and only using a small space heater.

But enough of that! I've come here today to discuss a very important topic. So important that you just better sit down and get ready. What is so important that I'm asking you to sit down, when in fact you are likely already sitting down?

Supernatural season six.

HA! Gotcha! So it's not that important, per se. But we are in the midst of what many fans call the winter Hellatus, and bam in the middle of season six, so I figure, it's time to get to brass tacks and discuss just how we're feeling about this somewhat divisive season. Divisive in that there seems to be a dividing party line - hate/love. I confess I am somewhere in the middle. I live in the grey area. The gray area. The greeaaay area.

Season five, in many respects, was a capper to the show. Where do you go after the apocalypse? How can you possibly top it? The entire show had been ramping up and up and up to that point, and then here it was. Bing bang boom. Season six has been striving to answer the follow-up question: how do you live after you've survived the apocalypse?

 We may be post-apocalypse, but our blatant promo imagery would 
have you believe that we're still in season five.

Being that this show is about saving people and hunting things, though (and since Jared Padalecki/Sam is the other half of this dynamic duo), obviously we can't just sit back and watch Dean try to deal with living in suburbia without his little brother. And thus, I'm sure, began the quandary of season six in the writers room. Dean can't just stay with Lisa and Ben, but how do you get him back on the road? How is Sam back from Hell, and what has it done to him? And what is going to be the overall story now that we're done with Lucifer and the apocalypse? Lots of tough questions.

I'm not going to just regurgitate everything that's happened so far, if you're behind, just go and read my recaps. My question is: are you satisfied with the direction the show has been taking? On the positive side, I thought it was very interesting that they completely changed Sam. He came back without a soul, and was not the same person in pretty much any way. Now that he has been re-souled, the question is: what will he remember, and how long can the wall that Death put in his mind keep the Hellish memories at bay?

Of course, with Sam being all robo-y, Dean got to be all emo and argumentative with him. While we certainly got some rather humorous moments thanks to Sam developing a demented sense of humor without his soul, he was also without moral compass, something that Dean, of course, could not handle. Which led to more brother fighting, the likes of which has become so common place that I'm glad we did not have to endure a whole season of robo-Sam.

 Sam: Why are you pulling a knife on me? Haven't we done this at least 100 times?

In terms of overall arc, we've got these lingering questions: what is with the hunt for the alphas of each monster species? What is with the search for purgatory, and why is it suddenly so important when it was heretofore never mentioned? Now that Crowley has bitten the big one, who will take over to run Hell? Castiel has been having his own problems up in Heaven - a civil war abrewin' - how much of that will we see, or will we continue to not see it?

Overall, while I have found this season satisfying and have enjoyed it for the most part, I will say that I've felt something a little lacking. Maybe it's the lack of brotherly love and all will be resolved now that Sam has his soul back, but I don't know. I have felt little urge to re-watch any of the episodes, which is usually a good indicator of how much I am liking something. Or not liking, as the case may be.

But now, for the peanut gallery - what are your thoughts on this season? 

How do you like season six so far?

Hit up the comments!