Friday Round Up

Well, we are officially post-Thanksgiving! Can you believe it? This year has been going by so fast. Have you figured out your Christmas gifts for this year yet? I've started making a list, but there are still some blank spaces on it.We may venture our to Black Friday for a little bit today - wish me luck! I am not a huge fan of crowds when shopping so it's always a bit of a hassle. Anyway, on to this week's links!

Writing can be difficult when you have a full time job. You go to work, you come home, and you'd much rather just veg out than try to work more. The weekends are short and there's all this other life stuff to get done, it really becomes about finding the time and mental head space. But there are some good habits to develop to make sure you are getting your crap done. This article talks about some of the habits of highly productive writers, and I have to say I agree with most of them. Though I don't always work on more than one project at once, I do know what I'm good at when it comes to writing, and I pretty much always finish what I start.

As you may have realized by now, I'm a bit of an introvert. You know, if that personality test from a few weeks ago didn't confirm what I already knew. Anyway, I've seen quite a few different articles around about certain things that only introverts understand, but I have to say that this one is the best one I've seen yet. My favorite two points include those about how weekdays are me days. Totally true. The last thing I want to do on a weekday is go out for drinks and be more social. I also am not a huge phone person unless you are one of a few select people. Texting? Totally fine. You wouldn't think it would be a huge difference, but it is.

I've talked before about some Netflix movies that you may not have heard of that are highly rated, but here is another great list of tricks regarding Netflix. They are always rotating out different movies (moreso than they do TV shows, it seems), so they have some places where you can see what's coming and going. And what about better recommendations? Honestly, it really does need to have a place where it just tells me what I would rate highly rather than going just by their fancy sub-categories, because that aforementioned list had a ton of movies I would rate highly, yet I'd never seen them on there before.

As you know, I do have a certain love for YA books. I've talked a bit about some of my favorite, more recent books, the past couple years, but this list focuses on some from childhood that we may have forgotten about. I admit, I have not read most of the books on the list, but some of them still sound pretty fun. Some I have read, though: Where the Red Fern Grows, Maniac Magee, A Wrinkle in Time, and Caddie Woodlawn. It definitely brings the nostalgia!

That's it for this week! Happy shopping, or not shopping!

Supernatural 10x07 "Girls, Girls, Girls"

What better way to start an episode during Thanksgiving week than by having a scene of Sam and Dean eating. I have definitely missed these small moments between the brothers, just joking back and forth with each other. This time, however, it actually does lead to a case. Coincidence, or just Dean's manly bits steering him toward more Mark-satiating kills? Hmm.

Because, yes, apparently Dean has decided to join a dating app, and has driven himself and Sam eight hours out of the way (out of the way of what?) to hook up with one of the girls. But, it turns out the girl is a bit more than she seems. Not just a hooker, but a soul stealing one. Apparently some demons have started shilling out girls who can get guys to give up their souls for sex. Dean, of course, is not so enthused by that idea, so yada yada yada, demon pimp gets killed, they go to find the demon pimp shop.

Only, they're a bit too late to the party. Before they get there, a witch named Rowena shows up and kills one of the demons with a hex bag-looking thing, and takes the two girls left there off with her to join her witchy ways. Another demon who witnessed the whole thing manages to get the story back to Crowley, who really doesn't seem much like he cares, but in order not to save face, sends some more demons out to capture said witch.

His demon dispatch, however, is no match for the Winchesters, who track down Rowena around the same time. You know, after she killed a snooty waiter by basically making his brains boil out of his head. Classy. While Sam fights off one of her new recruits after she puts a spell on her to become like an attack dog, Dean runs off to chase down Rowena herself. But, before he can do anything, someone decides to show up at exactly the wrong time. You remember that dude Cole? The one who's pissed because Dean killed his father when he was a kid. Yeah, he decides to show up just at that moment, letting Rowena get away. Rather than try to explain himself to Cole before getting physical, Dean just decides eh, let's do some fisticuffs. But in the end, he beats Cole and manages to tell him his side of the story - his dad was some kind of liver-eating monster. So, you know, no harm no foul, am I right?

No but seriously, he basically tells Cole, along with Sam's help, to get out of the monster-hunting life and go back to his family while he still can. Is this the last we see of bad timing Cole? Honestly I kind of went "blah" when he was brought back. Just not sure I care much about him as a character.

Meanwhile, Castiel and Hannah are still off on their... whatever it is. I mean, what exactly are they trying to do, anyway? Round up angels... for what? Anyway, there is some major sexual tension brewing between the two of them, but it is rather rudely interrupted by the husband of Hannah's vessel, who managed to track her down via credit card use. Hannah is so flustered by this encounter that she decides it would be better to just leave humans alone entirely, and vacates her vessel's body. Does that mean her essence goes back up to Heaven or does she just like, dissipate, or what? This leaves poor Castiel alone to... do whatever it is he's doing. Honestly, who cares?

Now you may be wondering where Rowena got off to. Or maybe you weren't really wondering, but it turns out she wasn't so lucky, and ended up being captured by some demons anyway. But when Crowley goes to see her face to face, it turns out she's rather familiar to him. His... mother? Dun dun dun!

Random Thoughts:

- Loved Sam's "Impala67." Hahaha so funny.

- I have to say that this season has seemed to pick up some steam lately. While this episode wasn't perfect or anything, it was still pretty entertaining, and the new Crowley-Rowena family connection will be interesting to see develop. As soon as he looked all slack-jawed seeing her, I knew she had to be related to him in some way or something. 

- Is there a point to this angel storyline anymore? I mean it just seems to be Castiel, like, driving around, looking for angels? And I was actually starting to enjoy the possible romance with Hannah, and then poof, gone.

- What was really the point of the Cole storyline? It kind of seems like he's going to go away now, but maybe not. It just seemed like an obvious way to show the whole Dean is evil versus Dean is good stuff.  Though it was nice to see Dean get to fight someone at his same strength level. The boys always get thrown around so much by the monsters and demons.

- The show hasn't dabbled a great deal in witches, only just a little bit here and there, so it will be interesting to see where that goes, particularly now that it has a connection to Crowley as well.

Quotes:

Sam: You're on a dating app?
Dean: Yeah. And you know what, don't knock it until you try it.
Sam: Nice screen name, Dean. Impala67.

Sam: We detoured eight hours so you could get laid?

Rowen: The King at last. King of what, Lilliput? I mean I heard you were short, but...

Crowley: Mother?

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chocolate Cake Doughnuts

As the saying goes, when the cat's away, the mice will play. Or, in my case, when the boyfriend's away, I will bake things with chocolate and stuff them in my face! Yes, my friends, we have a rare chocolate recipe on this here blog today. Feast. Your. Eyes.

And tastebuds.

I've tried a couple different baked donut recipes in the past (browned butter baked donuts, vanilla baked doughnuts), but had yet to try a chocolate-based version. So when I saw these a couple days ago, I knew I had to try them out. And let me just tell you, I was not disappointed. In fact, I would say these are the best donuts I've made yet. They're not too sweet, the chocolate flavor is there but it's not overwhelming. They are super moist and light, and the little mini chocolate chips add a little something extra, though I would say you could make them without and they would be just as good.

These make about 10 donuts total, or doughnuts. As you can see, I apparently switch back and forth between using donut and doughnut. Just try and stop me! But yes, this recipe had me using both of my donut pans, but you can always make one batch and let them cool before making the rest. Of course, you do have to let these cool in the pan completely, so having two pans really helped move things along here.

My glaze is maybe not as thick as I would like, but it definitely is still tasty and does add an extra degree of moistness to the donuts as well. You can always add more powdered sugar to your glaze recipe to give yourself a thicker coating. I also only glazed one side of the donuts, as I find that doing both sides can make them a bit sticky to eat. But again, that's personal preference for you!

Chocolate Cake Doughnuts
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 10 Doughnuts
Prep time: 00:10

Cook time: 00:08

Total time: 00:18

Simple and yummy recipe for chocolate doughnuts you can bake in the oven rather than fry.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder

• 1/4 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 6 Tablespoons sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups (or more) powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 Tablespoons milk

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients – flour, sugar, cocoa powder, mini chocolate chips, and baking soda. In a medium bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients – vanilla, egg, sour cream, milk, and vegetable oil. Add the wet to the dry and stir until just combined.
3. Spray your donut pans with cooking spray and fill each cavity about 3/4 full. Bake for about 8 minutes.
4. Let the donuts cool in the pan(s), then in a medium saucepan over low heat, combine the glaze ingredients, sitting until well-combined, then remove from heat. You can add more powdered sugar if you would like the glaze to be thicker.
5. Dip each doughnut into the glaze. You can do one or both sides. Set on a cooling rack to dry.

Recipe via The Stiers Asthetic

Friday Round Up

This may be sort of a week overdue now, but as I'm sure many of you know, we landed a spacecraft on a comet recently, the first time in history that has been done (at least in human history!). There have probably been tones of stories out there, but some that caught my eye was this one featuring photos from the comet's surface, and this one featuring strange sounds emanating from the comet's surface. The sound one is quite freaky, actually, as it sounds like the Predator or the creepy aliens from Signs communicating with each other with a whole lot of pops and whatnot. Scientists think perhaps it's the sound of stuff being jettisoned into space and then kind of popping or something, but who knows.

In other science news, have you ever wondered just how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere at any given time? Well, NASA has released this time-lapse video of a year of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and it's pretty amazing/scary. Scarmazing? Basically, the atmosphere gets a lot more CO2 going on in the winter months as compared to spring and summer, when trees are doing amazing things and sucking up the stuff. It also shows carbon monoxide from fires and such at different times of the year as well. It kind of makes you want to move to Australia or something, which is hardly covered in the stuff as compared to everyone living in the northern hemisphere.

If you're a fan of Star Wars, perhaps you should try taking this supposedly super hard quiz on the topic and see how you do. I got 9 out of 15 right, which isn't too shabby. Some of them I was debating between a couple answers and just chose the wrong one. But on at least one I just completely guessed and got it right, so perhaps that evens out. How did you do?

As some of you know, I am a big YA book fan. That means I end up seeing a lot of YA movie and TV adaptations, because I'm curious just how well they are going to pull it off. The Hunger Games? Great. Percy Jackson? Not so great. But the real question now is, what other properties should be developed in that way? Well, this article discusses some of the titles they think would make good adaptations for Netflix. Personally, I would love to see Cinder done well, as I've found that series really cool. The Knife of Never Letting Go may be more appropriate as a movie series than a TV series, but that would be one that may be tough to do well. And, of course, I absolutely adore the Legend series and would really want that one done right. A couple of the others I'm a bit eh about, but others I haven't even read yet. Any fans out there? What do you think?

Finally, I will end it on a bit of a more serious note. Relationships are tough sometimes, as I'm sure everyone knows. And if you don't know that it can be tough, well then you must have had some pretty great relationships! Many couples can't make it in the long haul, and this article discusses why that may be happening. Basically, it pays to be nice and listen to each other is what it's saying. If you don't actively listen and be kind to one another, you won't make it. Something to keep in mind!

That's all for this week! In one more week, we will be in post-Thanksgiving mode. Can you believe? My goodness!

Supernatural 10x06 "Ask Jeeves"

Mrs. White, in the Kitchen, with the Revolver.

You know, having two light-hearted episodes in a row has been rather refreshing. I've enjoyed having just the brothers Winchester doing their thing rather than all of the extra angel/demon drama swirling around. This week's episode was a pretty classic standalone, and one done well. I found myself laughing quite a few times throughout.

Basically, Sam and Dean find themselves at this rich lady's funeral after Dean finds one of Bobby's old phones with a message saying Bobby is one of her benefactors. Since they are basically his next of kin, Dean figured they may as well go and see what the deal is. What they find, of course, is a little more out there than they were expecting. Although why wouldn't they expect something out there? Come on now, boys.

At first everything seems okay. Well, as okay as can be when all the relatives aren't particularly mournful and instead seem to be lusting over Sam and Dean. They get what Bunny left for Bobby, and it turns out to be some kind of cross-shaped pendant, with some fake rubies and diamonds. But it's not just a pendant, oh no, it has a secret key. What can the key be to? Well, the boys are wondering as well, and figure perhaps the butler knows, so they head back to the mansion just in time to find out another member of the family has been killed. Dun dun dun!

Even worse - a police officer is on site and now Sam and Dean are stuck in the house. Classic Clue whodunnit time comin' atcha! While Sam occupies those in the living room, or whatever it may be, Dean goes off to explore the rest of the house as one of the women is claiming a ghost killed the guy. They can't get to their car for their supplies, though, so it's a bit back to basics for them here. Dean ends up seeing a strange book on a shelf that has the same symbol as the pendant, and it turns out to hide entrance to the attic that needs, you guessed it, their special key!

And up in the attic is the maid, Olivia, with the other dead maid from the opener, who was stashed up there for, you know, safe-keeping. At first they think it's the butler who may be up to nefarious deeds, but it turns out that the butler is dead too. Only Dean is talking to the butler while Sam is looking over his dead body, so what the heck? Are there a bunch of ghosts hanging around the house? Nope, just your friendly neighborhood shapeshifter. Except not so friendly.

The boys find some silverware in the house and proceed to go about trying to nonchalantly touch everyone with it, only no one reacts, so who the heck is the shifter? Wait, can it be... the detective? But no, he's dead too! Dun dun dun! Now the family is starting to freak out a bit, and get suspicious of Sam and Dean being the only new people in their midst, so they lock them up.

Not the best idea, of course. But at least they figure out they weren't using real silver in the first place, and that's why no one was reacting. They would've found that out soon enough, though, because it turns out that sweet maid Olivia is really the shifter. Apparently she is the secret child of the deceased Bunny, who was the woman who everyone was originally mourning. She was locked up in the attic all of her life until recently, and when no one showed respect to her mother, decided it was better to just start killing them. Naturally.

Sam and Dean manage to find a gun cabinet in the room their locked up in, though, so they can get out and kick some shifter ass. And we find out the backstory of how Bobby got involved with this family many years ago, blah blah, no one really cares about the crazy shifter's backstory. Dean swoops in and shoots her up with some silver before she can kill Sammy. And he puts two more bullets in her for good measure, which Sam thinks is a bit excessive, but Dean claims is just him getting back into the game in their classic BM moment at the end of the episode.

Random Thoughts:

- Dean's little grin when the woman asked if Sam works out was pretty hilarious.

- Enjoyed all of the Clue jokes - picking up the lead pipe and the rope when exploring. The wrench. The knife. The candlestick. The revolver. All accounted for. Classic.

- Sam having to pretend to seduce the two women was pretty hilarious. He always seems to have the cougars after him. It's a shame Jared doesn't think he's very good at comedy, because lately I think he's been pretty great with the subtle comedy, perhaps even moreso than the regular drama stuff.

- These last two episodes have felt more like classic Supernatural to me than the show has felt in a long time. Honestly, I'm not really looking forward to getting back into the whole Cas and Crowley of it all next week. It's been nice to see the Winchesters on their own, working together. Boo hoo.

- There were quite a few great quotes in this episode, I may not have gotten them all. Any I missed that you loved, feel free to share of course!

Quotes:

Dean: Real men don't drink out of cups this small.

Dean: Bobby had secrets man. Like loving on Tori Spelling. If only he knew Dean cheated on her.

Dean: You stay here and keep an eye on Mrs. Peacock and Colonel Mustard.

Dean: Guess we can rule out the butler did it.

Sam: We're not the bad guys, Dash.
Dash: I beg to differ. You're wearing flannel.

Dean: We got played by the maid.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Friday Round Up

Posting this is a bit late today, whoops! Life has been a bit busy this week, so much so that I realized I didn't even have that many links to share when I started working on this today. But I've remedied that now! We're good to go here, people. Let's get started on the weekend! Oh and the picture above is what's going on in the Portland area of Oregon right now. Ice craziness! I'm down in LA but wanted to share a picture from my hometown area.

Have you ever turned on Netflix, scrolled through the hundreds of movies you've never heard of, and then just given up in frustration at not being able to pick something? I feel like this has happened to all of us at some point. But this handy dandy list of the best movies on Netflix you haven't seen is super helpful for those particular nights! Or days, too. I've seen three of the films on this list, and I have to agree that they are all pretty good. The three in question are Nowhere Boy, The Ice Storm, and Gattaca, for those wondering. And I even own a copy of Short Term 12 on BluRay, I just haven't gotten around to watching it yet. Any on there you've seen that you would recommend?

So there's this video of a guy in Russia having a near miss in a road crash that at first seems pretty amazing. But! When you watch the full video, some questions arise. One - Why is the pedestrian seemingly just standing in the middle of the intersection? Seriously, he doesn't appear to be crossing the street, but rather just standing there. Two - Why are the people filming the crash filming in the first place? And why do they appear to have no audible reaction when the crash happens? I mean, I would be going like "holy sh*t!" or something, but it's pure silence in the car. All a bit suspicious!

This is just a bit of fun. I always enjoy seeing different takes on popular movies, and this artist decided to remove one letter from some famous movie titles and draw the results. Here you can see everything from OboCop to Finding Emo. I think the one that gave me the biggest chuckle was Oh Bother, Where Art Thou? I won't spoil what it is for you, so just go look.

I'm not sure I necessarily agree with whatever message this post may be shilling, but I do enjoy comparing goofy pictures of celebrities as kids to what they look like now. Some of the kid photos are pretty classic. But I'm not sure about calling it "proof there is always hope" because that basically just says don't worry, you may be pretty someday. And should being pretty be the only thing we worry about? What about being smart? Okay, I'll stop now. But you get what I mean.

That's all for this week! Have a great weekend.

Delightfully Dense Peanut Butter Cookies

Sometimes, you just need an easy little peanut butter cookie to brighten up your day. And these ones certainly fit the bill, being both easy and quite yummy. They don't flatten out much when baking, instead pretty much holding their little ball shape while getting some small cracks on the top. You can decide not to roll them in sugar before baking, but that does cause them to spread just slightly more, and they dry out a little bit faster. But it's all up to personal taste there! Perhaps you don't want quite as much sugar, and that's perfectly understandable.

I also appreciate when recipes make smaller amounts of cookies, as having a bunch lying around is no good for a couple reasons. You know, so you don't eat all of them. And also so they don't go a bit stale before you have a chance to eat all of them.

You can use natural or the Jif/Skippy variety of peanut butter for these. The ones I made in this recipe were with natural peanut butter. I expect they are not quite as moist or sweet as ones made with the "regular" peanut butters, but they are still delicious, and perhaps slightly healthier? Sure! Honestly I always prefer to use non-natural peanut butters because I hate having to mix around the oils in natural ones. And this time was no exception, as the oil kept spilling over the edge of the container and just generally causing me to be annoyed. But c'est la vie, I suppose. It's just peanut butter.

Delightfully Dense Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted or aerated
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar, for coating

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Beat together your peanut butter and butter until smooth. Add in the brown sugar, and beat until combined. Then, add in the egg and vanilla and beat some more until it's nice and creamy.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together your flour and baking powder, then slowly mix in to your wet ingredients until just combined.
3. Line your baking sheet with parchment or a silpat. Place your sugar on a plate, then roll spoonfuls of the dough into balls, and coat them in the sugar by rolling them around the plate.
4. Place them about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet, and bake for about 12 minutes, until the edges just start to brown and the cookies start to crackle on top. Remove from the oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for another 10 minutes before transferring to a rack or plate to cool completely.

Recipe via Julia's Album

Supernatural 10x05 "Fan Fiction"

I have to say as a long-time Supernatural fan, I definitely appreciated this episode. There were so many small moments throughout that only those who really know the show would understand (evidenced by my boyfriend asking me just what the heck was going on and when I explained saying it sounded like gibberish), that I found myself having a little giggle to myself quite often.

Let's get on to the recap, though! In Flint, Michigan, an all-girls school is putting on a musical production of the Supernatural book series. The drama teacher in charge of said production is less than enthused by what she's seeing from director Marie's vision, and when she decides she's going to go ahead and tell the principal to cancel the whole thing, promptly gets swept up by some mysterious vines to points unknown.

Meanwhile, Dean is working on his beloved. You know, the impala that he was so rudely neglecting as a demon. And also looking up cases, such as this possible disappearance in Michigan. Sam is reluctant to go out on another case that seems highly unlikely to be a supernatural one, but Dean is rather insistent. And when they get there, of course, things turn priceless as they realize just what is going on. Honestly, the plot isn't super important in this episode, so I should be able to wrap this up fairly quickly here.

But! Basically, they're both flabbergasted at what is going on, though Sam seems a bit more flattered and amused by it than Dean, who is, of course, being very Dean about it, especially all the mentions of subtext. Anyhow, when they do some exploring and come up empty, though, they decide it must not be ghosts or monsters after all. But, duh, that's before another girl goes missing, right in front of director Marie's eyes. Taken by some scary Scarecrow with vine hands. D'oh.


The brothers inform Marie and her AD that the world of the supernatural is real, and attempt to tell them that they are, in fact, the brothers Winchester, but the ladies only believe the supernatural part. At first they think the monster terrorizing the play may be a Tulpa, but the weird flowers it leaves behind just don't fit. Sam, being the geek boy he is, figures out that it's actually the Greek god Calliope, who feasts on those trying to stop works of authors, basically. So, since both of the girls were trying to stop the play from happening, they were taken. And when the play is over? It's the director's turn to bite the dust.

Of course, they're not going to let that happen. But they can't just stop the play because that's what caused all the disappearances in the first place. So, the show must go on, and only after when she comes for Marie will they then be able to dust Calliope. Things don't always run smoothly in the Supernatural world, though, and Sam gets captured by Calliope. Luckily, he manages to still stake her eventually with whatever wooden stake thing is meant to kill her, just as the scarecrow monster was about to take Marie on stage, resulting in an explosion of purple death goo all over the audience, who loves it.

And that's only the first act of the play! By this time Marie has kind of figured out that Dean and Sam are legit after all, and they stick around to watch the rest of the play, as Dean has kind of softened to the idea after spending time with them, and they get to watch the final BM. You know, the brother melodrama, not the bowel movement.

To leave things on one final note for the fans, though, the "publisher" of the novels shows up at the play... and it's none other than Chuck himself, or perhaps God if you believe that. While I'm sure all of us would like to believe that may mean he was coming back again, I feel like that was just a little nod to the fans rather than something more. Also funny because earlier in the episode they were wondering where Chuck was in the cast of characters and Marie had said she didn't much like that storyline, so she cut it. Har har.

Random Thoughts:

- Loved all the title card in the beginning! Always fun to see all of them at once like that.

- Also loved the "we've got work to do" nod with the shot from inside the trunk. Yes!

- Dean nodding along to the music was pretty hilarious. The songs were all pretty funny, actually. And it was also nice to have the group number of Carry On there at the end, with the boys watching.

- What's so great is how much this show can poke fun at itself. Not many shows really do that, but these meta episodes really just show how much they listen to and appreciate the fans, and how we can both be amused by each other in equal measure.

- Also enjoyed all of the nods to the Amulet aka Samulet, with Dean putting it on his mirror there at the end as well. Aww.

- Don't you kind of wish we saw the robot tentacles in space?

- This episode has become an instant classic, for sure. I'm sure watching it back again there will be even more Easter eggs for fans.

- There were really too many different quotes to get all of them down, but the below are some of the ones that stood out at the time.

Quotes:

Sam: Oklahoma? Hugh Jackman got cast in Oklahoma.
Dean: You ran tech, Wolverine.
Sam: Shut up.

Sam: Casdean?
Dean: Shut your face. Get in the car.

Sam: It's not a Tulpa.
Dean: Come on say it one more time, but more Arnold... it's not a Tulpa...

Marie: Writer. Director. Actor. I'm gonna Barbra Streisand this bitch.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Friday Round Up

For a blog where I talk a lot about baking and television, these Friday Round Ups sure seem to feature a lot more stuff about science and space than any of that! I'm not sure why that is, but I guess it's always good to keep a well-rounded mind, yes? So let's just get to it then!

In the first picture of its kind, the Moon and the Earth are pictured together in the above photo. It was taken by China's Chang 5 test vehicle while it was doing a loop around the moon. Isn't it crazy to think that everyone we know, everyone we've ever known, has existed on that little blue dot there? Yeah, I try not to think about that sort of thing too much, as it can get your mind in a bit of a boggled place, but still. The link also features some other cool pictures of the Earth and the Moon taken from the same vehicle, if you're into it.

Not to be outdone, another moon in our galaxy had some action this week. That far off moon of Saturn, Titan, has some hydrocarbon seas, as you may or may not know. But, most of the moon is turned too far away from the sun to really get any light. But, recently, the Cassini spacecraft was able to get some pretty cool photos of the sun glinting off the surface of the liquid. There's some speculation as to what may be happening on the surface of Titan. For example, could life possibly develop in a state where methane is more prominent than oxygen and nitrogen? I feel like we need to invoke some Jurassic Park here and say... Life finds a way.

Okay, moving on from space! But only sort of, because my next topic still involves it in a way, but on a more local level. There are still a lot of people who won't believe that global warming is a thing, and that humans are causing it in drastic amounts. But maybe people would be more inclined to just listen already if they called it climate change more often than global warming. Anyway! To combat roadway pollution, in Geneva, Switzerland, a design firm has invented an algae farm that sits above the freeway, taking in the carbon dioxide while giving off oxygen. The algae itself can then be used in a variety of ways, such as for biodiesel, medications, even makeup. Seems like a pretty cool idea to me, although I'm not sure what the actual environmental impact is. Like, how much carbon dioxide does that one farm soak up? Hmm.

In entertainment-related news, Interstellar comes out this week. Now, as you can see above, I love space. And space movies? Definitely. I enjoyed Gravity, and loved Sunshine. Moon was decent. Galaxy Quest is definitely a classic. And duh, of course the original Star Wars. I also like the new Star Trek. Anyway, while I am looking forward to seeing Interstellar, I am a bit worried I may not like it as much. Now, I won't deny Christopher Nolan is certainly talented with visuals and all of that, but personally I find most of his films pretty overrated, and in reading a couple different articles and finding I was nodding my head along with them, I think it has to do with the fact that I rarely see emotion in his films. They have a lot of polish and spectacle, but the human parts aren't always there. Anyway, I haven't seen Interstellar yet, and I will be, and hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised this time around.

To end on a more baking relevant note, I will share a recipe I saw this week that looks absolutely delish, and that would be Smitten Kitchen's Date Cake with Toffee Sauce. Dates plus toffee? Um, yes and yes.

Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix Review

You know what, I've never been to Red Lobster. At least, not that I remember. Considering my one experience with lobster to date ended in me feeling sick all night, I'm not sure I'm going to be visiting Red Lobster anytime soon. But, maybe I don't need to, now that they have started distributing their cheddar biscuits nationwide in an easy-to-use mix form, as I'm sure these would probably be my favorite thing on the menu. I mean, cheese plus biscuits? Yes, please.

These are quite delicious right from the oven, nice and hot, with the cheese melted inside and the garlic butter oozing over the top. I'm not a huge garlic person myself, but I have to say that I don't think these biscuits would taste quite as good without the extra seasoning on top. It just makes them have that little extra oomph of flavor. But even better than all of that is the fact that these biscuits don't have that slightly metallic taste that some biscuit mixes do. You know, from the baking powder/soda or whatever they put in it? I often notice the same thing with cake flour, but maybe my cake flour was just old or something? Anyway! Off topic. Yes, these biscuits have no metallic flavor. Good.

We found a value pack of them at Costco, but my mom also saw them at Target. I suspect they may also be in grocery stores now too, but don't quote me on that one. The best part is that they're super easy to make, especially if you have pre-grated cheese. A note on the cheese - make sure to use as sharp of cheddar as you can! We actually put in more cheese the second time we made these, and they're even better with that extra addition, in my opinion. But yes, aside from the cheese, all you need is some water and some butter. Easy peasy! We also checked the ingredients list, and it doesn't appear that these have anything super terrible in them, which is nice.

I just want to note that I was not asked to post this review or anything. We literally just saw the box at Costco and thought hey, we should try those!

Each packet makes between 8 and 10 biscuits, depending on how big you want them to be. I made 8 here, as they seemed to fit the best on my cookie sheet. I definitely did not really care that they looked perfectly biscuit-like, particularly since these are drop biscuits, but if you are super into things being perfectly shaped, you know, go ahead and strive for that when you're dropping the dough out. I mean, it's sticky, but you can try.