Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2017 Note: You can view this with updated photos over here at this link.

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

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

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

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In your mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add in egg and vanilla and blend until well mixed.
3. Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Place tablespoon sized drops of dough on your cookie sheet, bake for 8-10 minutes until barely golden brown around the edges. These will not get brown, so don't overcook them.
5. Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. For me this made about 2 dozen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Woo her with a tango, Mr. Carmichael.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kiss the girl!

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

And that, as they say, is that.

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

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

Song Choices:

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

Quotes:

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

"Unleash the perverts." - Lester

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

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

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

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

Previous Episode

Chuck 5x12 "...vs. Sarah"

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

She don't remember nothin'.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until the finale...

Song Choice:

Your Hands - Ghost Society

Quotes:

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

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

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

7Up Biscuits

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

7Up Biscuits

Ingredients

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

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Cut sour cream into the biscuit mix, then add in the 7Up. The dough will be VERY VERY VERY sticky.
3. Sprinkle additional biscuit mix onto a cutting board or table and pat out the dough as best you can. Use a biscuit cutter or knife to cut into 9 equal pieces.
4. Melt butter in a square pan and place the cut biscuits into the pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes until tops are golden brown.

In photos:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Standing and staring is our specialty at Carmichael Industries.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Song Choices:

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

Quotes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Banana Bread

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In photos:

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

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

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

Mix in your dry ingredients. Dough-y!

Fold in your Reese's.

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

Bake it up!

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

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

Chuck 5x10 "...vs. Bo"

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

Rainbows?

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

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

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

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

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

Choice Songs:

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

Quotes:

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

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

Morgan: You're no longer a perfect ten!

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

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 7x12 "Time After Time"

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

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

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

Rock those fedoras, gentlemen.

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

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

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

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

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

Random Thoughts: 

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

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

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

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

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

Quotes: 

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

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

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

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

"Sweet merciful awesome." - Dean

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Underappreciated Gems: 10 Things I Hate About You

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

10 Things I Hate About You

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

Most of the high school cast.

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

Joey, you are so hilariously dumb.

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

Kat, you know you want him.

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

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

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

new design!

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

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

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

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

Happy 2012!

Supernatural 7x11 "Adventures in Babysitting"

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

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

Sam does not look amused, Sally.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random Thoughts:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quotes:

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

"Costume. What?" - Dean

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

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

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

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

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

More babies? Not yet.

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

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

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

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

Choice Song:

Jackpot - The Albertans

Quotes:

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

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

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

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

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

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

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

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

Thank god this kid was not Sarah's.

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

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

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

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

Song Choice: 

Fun ft. Janelle Monae - We Are Young

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