Supernatural 11x15 "Beyond the Mat"

Here's the thing. Not once do I ever remember the Winchesters reminiscing about watching wrestling with their dad as kids. Sure, there's a lot of time we did not see with them growing up, but they acted like this was a somewhat big part of their lives as children, to the point where Sam's first crush was one of the managers of the shows? Okay, fine. Whatever.

In a weird turn of events, I was more intrigued by Crowley's storyline than anything else in this episode. So I'll start with that. Casifer has his minions on a mission to find another hand of GAHHG, he's generally rude to Crowley, making him lick the floor and such, which supposedly engenders some sympathy from some of the other demons. One such demon, Simmons, who was so adamantly in Casifer's pocket last episode, shows up to free Crowley, saying there are some people still on his side, yada yada.

They escape, and he takes her back to his secret lair where he has hidden some artifacts, one such artifact being a hand of GAHHG. Of course, Simmons was secretly working for Casifer this whole time. Luckily, however, Crowley was not an idiot and didn't believe she was really on his side. He activates the stick thing, tries to use its power to vanquish Casifer, but hits Simmons instead, sadly leaving the hand without any juice. Luckily, though, he manages to do the disappearing thing before Casifer can get him chained up again.

Meanwhile, the Winchesters are off paying their respects to some wrestler guy, only to stumble into a case, as is their wont, after a guest is killed at one of the matches. Someone has died at each of the places on the tour, so something must be afoot. Is it supernatural? Is that the show's name? Sam finds out that there was some symbol left on each body or crime scene, to be honest I wasn't paying attention, but it basically leads them to believe a demon is snatching up souls. Who could the demon be?

Dean gives holy water laced tequila to a bunch of the wrestlers, but none of them flinch. Must be that annoying guy who left before he got there, right? Well, in a word, no. Instead, the demon turns out to be working with Dean's favorite wrestler Gunner, or rather, ordering around his favorite wrestler, who sold his soul to him, and in order to keep his stay on Earth extended rather than let the hellhounds take him down under, he's doing the demon's bidding.

Which inevitably leads to Dean being tossed around the room, trying to talk sense into Gunner, which eventually leads to Gunner stabbing ole demon in the back with the demon-killing knife. Bye bye demon, hello hellhounds. Alas, they were not able to save his soul, but mayhap they can save the world at large from that looming darkness, which is always looming and rarely around, apparently.

And we're off for a month. Yes, it's a mini hiatus until the end of March. Until then...

Random Thoughts:

- The "keep grinding" line there at the end reminded me of The Grinder. Not sure if that was intentional or not, but it was especially funny because I just watched an episode of that before this.

- How many of these hands of GAHHG are there, and why haven't they all been used up already if it's so easy to do so?

Quotes:

Sam: You realize you just literally described our jobs.

Dean: What, did he get in a tickle fight with Edward Scissorhands?

Dean: I think I hear my liver screaming at me.

Crowley: With all due respect Simmons, I don't think you can handle my rod.
Casifer: I bet I can. Is it just me, or is it getting a little phallic in here?

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Peanut Butter Cookies With Reese's Chips

The other day, I was at the grocery store in the baking aisle, one of my usual haunts, and saw the Reese's Peanut Butter Chips. For all my love of Reese's, do you know, I'd never actually tried their peanut butter chips?

So I bought them, because I could not let such a thing continue. It's interesting because I feel like nothing you make can quite taste like the peanut butter in an actual Reese's candy. And these chips are the same, they don't taste like that, but they do taste a bit like their Reese's Pieces.

And in a cookie? Especially a cookie warm from the oven? Oh. My. God. SO GOOD. I was thinking oh these will just be okay, but then I took a bite and was in rich, peanut buttery heaven. I mean these are still good after they've cooled down completely, but when they're still warm? I was amazed.

Seriously, if you like peanut butter, I would make these as soon as possible. As a note, I used natural salted peanut butter rather than something like a Skippy or Jif. Those are a bit more sugary, so they might make these extra sweet if you use them instead of a natural peanut butter. And you can try these with just regular peanut butter chips, but I could tell these had a distinct Reese's Pieces flavor, particularly when warm, so if you can I would try it with these special chips as well.

Go on, indulge yourself!

Peanut Butter Cookies with Reese's Chips

Makes 2 Dozen
Ingredients

• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl, beat together the brown sugar, peanut butter, butter, and egg on medium speed until creamy. On low speed, mix in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the peanut butter chips.
2. Shape the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, and dip the top of the balls in the granulated sugar. Place the dough, sugar side up, on your baking sheet about 3 inches apart. No need to flatten.
3. Bake for 9-10 minutes until light brown. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Recipe via Betty Crocker 

Supernatural 11x14 "The Vessel"

As far as the time travel episodes of Supernatural go, this one was...not my favorite. I mean, it was okay, but when you think back to when Dean first traveled back and met his young mom and dad, well, this one just can't compete. This time around, it's all about the Nazis again. I know there have been Nazis in at least one other episode.

Anyway, why Nazis, you wonder? Well, it turns out they found a Hand of God. No, not the Hand of God, or should I saw GAHHG, but a piece of one of the ancient things he blessed, or something. Only the last time anyone every heard of it, it was on a submarine that was sunk and never found during WWII. Well, that's a bitch.

Or is it? Dean has the bright idea of time travel, even though Sam rightly points out that Cas can't do that anymore. Of course, Casifer is a lot more powerful than Castiel. Casifer has taken up residence in Crowley's old joint, and the demons seem to be much happier to rally around him than their old master. Only he's not so happy about his current predicament - he wasn't able to bring Amara down alone the last time around, it was more of a team effort. Well, good thing the Winchesters call him up with this whole Hand of God business!

Sam, per usual, gets stuck in the present day, this time the reasoning being that Dean is more expendable than he is for this battle. Casifer is all "I'll watch over him, cackle cackle," but turns out the sub has been warded against supernatural beings, including the powerful archangel, so while he is able to get Dean on the ship, he is stuck in the present with Sam. He does find out all sorts of useful information, though, like a certain spell that requires said archangel powers and can get rid of sigils, or something. But in the end, he reveals himself to Sam after Sam says he can touch his soul for extra power. Aw, Sam, trying to be noble always biting you in the butt. At least that gets Castiel to resurface for a moment and tell Sam what happened.

But, back in the submarine, Dean finds the French woman who has the special weapon on board. Long story short, they chat for a bit, he tells her that they're going to be shot by a German ship, and that they need to get rid of the wards for his angel to get him home. Problem is, the last ward is on her body, and the only way to get rid of it is to kill her. The German ship arrives just at this moment to start depth charging them and demanding the weapon, so Dauphine takes it upon herself to use the weapon to get rid of the wards and free Casifer to rescue Dean just before she basically explodes the submarine and kills the German ship above.

Casifer brings Dean back home, and Sam spills the beans about his inhabitant. Casifer is ready to take the weapon and kill the boys, but turns out the Hand was only good for a one time use, so it's dead. Sam is able to do that angel-expelling sigil on the wall and get rid of Casifer before he can kill them. But now can they really go back to the bunker anymore? I guess they can sigil it up, too.

Random Thoughts:

- The ending with Dean near tears seemed a little bit dramatic to me. He was with those people for like an hour? At least that's what it seemed like. It didn't strike me as such a touching experience, but whatever.

- At least they didn't drag it out any longer for Casifer hiding who he really is from the boys. While it was fun for a while, it would definitely get old quickly as he would be able to get so much information from them.

- My guess is they're going to find some other Hands of GAHHG somewhere and use them to defeat Amara, or use Casifer to defeat Amara. Whether they actually save Castiel in the process remains to be seen. I could see them finally killing him off, but then everyone loves Castiel so I don't know if they'd have the balls to actually do it. Not that anyone really stays dead forever on this show anyway, even when they should.

Quotes:

Dean: How is this more important than our coffee situation?

Sam: Be safe.
Dean: When am I not?

Casifer: Hello Castiel.

Casifer: This whole deep cover thing, it wasn't terribly well thought out.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 11x13 "Love Hurts"

Supernatural has taken on holidays in the past, with their Christmas episode being one of my all-time favorites, and tonight's episode was another visit to Valentine's Day. But it wasn't about a cupid gone wrong or anything like that, but apparently the show's take on It Follows. Whoops, I'm giving some of the plot away! Oh well!

In a classic opening from the days of yore, a husband is cheating on his wife with the young babysitter. While she watches the baby, she gets her comeuppance in death by hand shoved through chest to retrieve still-beating heart. Yikes.

The boys catch wind of this suspicious death and head out to investigate. Husband acts rather skittish, so Dean gets him alone and he confesses to schtupping the sitter. And not just that, he stole the nanny cam that caught not just the kiss, but also the murder, on its little flash drive. Just who killed her? Oh my, the person looked just like the husband! But, he wasn't there... which means we must have a shapeshifter on our hands, right? They especially think so after the husband himself gets offed by what appears to be the already deceased babysitter. Dun dun dun!

The boys think it must be the wife, but she passes the silver test. What they don't see, though, is her frantically shoving some spell-making stuff into her garbage disposal before her husband-shifter shows up to kill her too. Luckily, she's not a complete wuss/idiot as some people on this show, and manages to get out of the place and go find Sam and Dean. Once she confesses what really happened - she got a spell from her hairdresser to make her husband love her again - they're able to figure out, well, not much, other than it appears that it's really a curse, and it gets passed from person to person with a kiss. The last person kissed is the first on the list, and once they're killed, it goes for the next, and the next, and so on.

It shows up there at the motel, so Dean quickly kisses the wife to take the curse on before they skedaddle out of there to the salon where the witchy hairdresser works. In more ways than one. She has a spell book in the basement that tells them exactly what they're fighting - a Qareen. Which is basically a shapeshifting killer thing that can only be killed by stabbing it in the heart, which is conveniently not in its body. Oh, and it takes on the guise of the cursed person's deepest desire. My, I wonder what Dean's could be?

Sam heads upstairs to look for the heart while Dean searches downstairs. Sam is luckier in the heart department, but before he can stab it, the witch shows up and tosses him around with some spells. Which gives the Qareen enough time to find Dean and taunt him a bit before trying to punch its fist through his heart. Luckily, the wife interrupts the witch trying to kill Sam in time for him to shoot her and stab the heart, just before the Qareen was going to rip out Dean's. And another bites the dust.

That leaves us with a final scene with the brothers, where Dean actually confesses who was his darkest desire. Sam is not surprised, pretty much at all. Score one for both being honest with each other and for Sam not being stupid. Dean is all angsty about it, like man, I won't be able to do it when I'm near her, but Sam's all "I got this." Carry on.

Random Thoughts:

- I know I don't always touch on the funny scenes in the actual recap portion here, but they are nearly always my favorite. It seems like it's becoming something of a tradition now, after the opening death, a funny/cute scene with the brothers in the bunker just being brothers.

- Also, we must comment on the rock-paper-scissors that Dean finally did not lose. Well, someone's growing! Why wouldn't he just do paper as his first thing, though, if he was sure Sam would do rock to beat him? Not growing enough, apparently!

- Is it sad I'd rather have these more standalone episodes now than the ones dealing with the overall plot? In the old days, it was almost always the opposite.

- You have to assume the writers have all seen It Follows. Incidentally, if you haven't, it's actually a really creepy movie that I recommend. One of the smarter and more interesting indie horror movies. Not that I've seen a ton of horror movies, but...yeah.

Quotes:

Sam: Is that a hickey?
Dean: And? It was Valentine's Day.

Dean: First, I need bacon.
Sam: No. First, you need a shower.
Dean: You're not wrong.

Dean: Hey what's a dad bod?

Dean: The Art of Dyeing. Well, can't say she didn't warn ya.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 11x12 "Don't You Forget About Me"

I suppose it shouldn't really come as a surprise anymore, but I feel like I end up loving any episode that involves everyone's favorite erstwhile sheriff, Jody Mills. I know I've made it no secret that I think the show isn't as good as it used to be, but at least there are a few gems every now and then. I laughed quite a bit throughout this one, particularly during one scene that I'm sure everyone loved.

Anyway! On to the recap. Claire's been hunting down leads on supposed supernatural creatures in Sioux Falls, and calls up Dean and Sam for their help, unbeknownst to Jody, who, along with Alex, the other wayward teenager living with her, think Claire is looking for bad where there isn't any. Which leads to the most awkward family dinner ever, the above mentioned scene. Great for so many reasons, not least of which is how much the boys were eating, and how much they did not want to be around for any and all girl talk. Basically, Alex is doing great in school, dating the most popular guy, while Claire is too into hunting, and Jody isn't sure how to handle it all since she's not their real mother.

It soon becomes clear, though, that something is decidedly not quite right in town after all when Alex's favorite math teacher ends up dead and strung up the flag pole. That immediately made me think her boyfriend must've had something to do with it, like he was jealous of her liking him so much or something. In the end, I wasn't so far off. Of course, the squirrely janitor also seems rather suspect, particularly since he's being played by an actor I've seen on a bunch of stuff.

Said squirrely janitor is definitely involved, particularly since the SSN he used for his custodian job belonged to someone else, and the fact that he showed up in town right when all of the people started disappearing. Claire is quick to say she was right all along, as teenagers are wont to do. More importantly, though, she and Jody get attacked by the janitor while heading to a meeting with her school registrar (though why would this meeting be at night, I must ask), who turns out to be a vampire. Luckily, Jody gets a call off to Dean, but they are taken nonetheless.

Turns out, janitor and pretty boy are working together, as Mr. Popular brings Alex to the abandoned pool where the janitor has brought the other two as well. In her past life, Alex had brought the janitor to her vampires, who killed him and made him one of them. So, he's out for revenge, ready to kill her family and make her feel the same pain. The three ladies have to fend for themselves a bit before the Winchesters can get there (not sure how they arrive at the same time when Sam seemed closer, but whatever), which leads to Claire being bitten and much fighting. Luckily, the girls are quite adept themselves and join in on the fighting against the vamps, who both get dispatched, like duh.

Of course, all of this makes Claire appreciate what she has much more than she was before, which is to say, not much. And also brings Claire and Alex closer, making them feel more like a family with Jody. In the end, Claire wants to keep hunting, but Alex thinks she wants to get away from it all. Both valid options to be explored later!

Random Thoughts:

- The guy in the opening looks waaaay too much like the guy who plays young Dean; that so confusing.

- Seeing the boys love a home-cooked meal was both hilarious and kind of sad. Loved that whole dinner scene in general.

- Do people really leave their keys in their car sun visors? I swear it happens all the time on TV and in movies, but is that a real thing?

- There has been a lot of talk about the Wayward Daughters concept for a spinoff show, and to me this only confirmed that it would totally work. I would've totally bought something like this as a backdoor pilot as compared to that crap they shilled before. I don't know that it would ever happen because it's such a fan thing at this point, but I would totally watch it.

Quotes:

Sam: Dude, I'm not gonna survive hundreds of monster attacks to get flatlined by some double donut monstrosity.
Dean: The Elvis!
Sam: Whatever. How many calories are in that thing?

Claire: I've been hunting.
Jody: AKA menacing innocent people.

Claire: I don't want to go to school.
Dean: Nobody wants to go to school, Claire. It's school.

Jody: It had to be the leg. I'm gonna need bionics.

Claire: I solemnly swear not to hunt like a dumbass.

Jody: As long as everyone wears a condom, we'll be fine.
Dean: I want that bumper sticker.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Classic Lemon Bars

A not so secret thing about me: I'm not a huge lemon fan. Invariably, I would never pick lemon bars as my dessert of choice. So why the heck did I make them, then, you wonder? Well, I had a couple lemons sitting around, about ready to go to waste, and no, I was not going to stand for that! And, since certain people around here like shortbread and lemon, voila!

The craziest thing? I kind of like them! In small doses, ha. I mean eating a huge chunk of it is a little bit tart and whoa. Nonetheless, I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed these. The lemon flavor is really determined by your lemons. I would definitely recommend making sure they are nice and ripe and, if you can, organic is definitely best. Whatever you can get the most juice out of, for sure. 

Next confession: I kind of messed these up the first time I made them! Yes, it happens to everyone. The recipe I was following didn't say when exactly to pour the lemon topping onto the bars, just when they were warm out of the oven. Well, I did it too quickly!

Don't do it right when the crust gets out of the oven. I mean, you can, but the weirdest thing happened - my topping ended up being on the bottom. This seems like it would defy the laws of physics, but it happened. The lemon was on the bottom, the shortbread was on the top, and I was very confused. I assume it must've been able to pour straight through the shortbread while it was still very hot and not completely cooked together. So, I reflect this in my directions - let the crust sit for 5 minutes when you take it out of the oven, then pour your topping on before you put it back in the oven again. Got it? Good!

I definitely recommend these if you are a lemon fan. And even if you're a bit on the fence, you may give them a try, because I unexpectedly like them and am decidedly not a lemon fan at all! Also, they're really pretty easy. The only thing is that you do dirty a lot of utensils and whatnot with all of the zesting and juicing and whatnot. But so worth it.

Classic Lemon Bars
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 9 Pieces
Prep time: 00:10

Cook time: 00:18

Total time: 00:28

Printable Recipe

You can’t go wrong with classic lemon bars – sweet and tangy at the same time, perfect for even those who aren’t even huge lemon fans.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• pinch salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• zest and juice from two medium lemons
• 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Instructions:

1. Place your oven rack in the upper third of your oven and preheat to 350°F. Grease an 8x8 baking pan and set aside for now.
2. To make the crust: In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in your flour and salt. Beat until it's incorporated, then press it down into your prepared pan. Pro Tip: get your hand wet so the dough doesn't stick to you. Bake for 15-18 minutes until the edges have just browned.
3. While that's baking, make your topping: In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until nicely combined and thick. Add in the flour, zest, and juice, and whisk until blended.
4. When the crust is done baking, let it sit for five minutes. Then, pour your topping on there. Stick that back in the oven and bake for another 18-20 minutes, until the edges have browned a tiny bit and it doesn't jiggle in the center when you move it.
5. Allow to cool completely in the pan. Slice into squares, and go to town. You can get fancy and dust with some powdered sugar if you like as well, but it's totally not necessary! 

Recipe adapted very slightly from Joy the Baker