The final season was not the strongest of the six, although Desmond gets some serious and welcome airtime. The candidate vs. Jacob, and all the other history stuff for the island, and Locke 2.0, are all complicated and convoluted in places. All of which leads to a less-than-satisfying ending to the series.… Read the rest
The fifth season of Lost is really solid, and yet it feels a bit disjointed with things happening at different points in time and location, and different groups coming together and parting.
Four of the EPs were first-rate in my view, including E01, E08 and E11 all dealing with time travel issues.… Read the rest
The season starts with the supposed rescue team arriving on the island but the extra members beyond the soldiers are not quite what everyone expected. Later in the season, you see a press conference where everyone has to lie.
The three biggest episodes of the season for me were Eggtown (E04) with a huge twist at the end, Ji Yeon (E07) dealing with Sun’s pregnancy drama, and There’s No Place Like Home Pt 3 (E14) when the island undergoes some magic.… Read the rest
While the first two seasons were watchable, I felt the show really hit its stride this season, with the third best season of the series.
There were five episodes that I ranked 5/5, four of them with a “heavy” Desmond role in them dealing with time-travel and trying to prevent Charlie’s death: Desmond feeling the weight of his pre-cognition (E08); trying to save Charlie while Claire is trying to figure out what is going on with them (E12); Desmond faced with endless choices where none of them seem right (E17); and Charlie remembering his five greatest memories (E21).… Read the rest
This is the best of the four seasons, as the show found its footing just in time to be cancelled. I really enjoyed the season, and while I wouldn’t say the Riker storyline from the finale was my favorite, it was still well done. A great season overall, back to regular trek storylines and getting to know different species better.… Read the rest
The third season picks up a bit from the second season low. Whereas Season 2 was mostly depressing, with very few notches in the Enterprise’s “win” column, this season had not only a few more wins but also some allies. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still at war, but they aren’t generally about to die every week just from the Expanse.… Read the rest
The second season has hints of temporal stuff throughout, but it starts to get a little grittier with the alien races they encounter. Almost all of them are duplicitous, false friends to the naive and well-being humans.
The two best episodes of the season are the third and third-last.… Read the rest
Most of Season 1 is about the first Warp 5-capable Earth vessel venturing out into uncharted space. The Vulcans have been taking very cautious steps in helping humans expand, and Archer has been pushing for Earth to take a more aggressive, risky approach. The season shows early attempts, selecting a crew, venturing out, and a series of bloody noses as they meet both friendly and less-than-friendly allies.… Read the rest
The new show takes place after the movies and the end of the Next Generation timeline. There has been what appeared to be an AI uprising and a catastrophic attack that led the Federation to ban all cybernetic organisms (like Data or more inferior copies) and to withdraw from helping the Romulans as their planetary system collapsed.… Read the rest
The premise for the series was always about Keira getting home, and what she would find when she does. Will it be the future she left, with the timeline intact? Will her husband and son be waiting for her? In most shows, the answers would be obvious, and simple. This one recognized the complexity of time, and introduced the idea of a time war with two different factions fighting to keep different timelines intact.… Read the rest
I wanted to come up with a definitive “personal” nachos recipe. After canvassing multiple people and various recipes, we considered multiple variations, but this was the winning combo for our family. Surprisingly, the hardest choice may well have been which brand and style of tortilla chips to use.
| Type of meal | Genre | Difficulty |
| Snack, Appetizer, Chicken | Tex Mex | Easy |
| Cooking Time | Yield | Rating |
| Prep: 10-30m Cooking: 10-15m Total: 20-45m | 4 servings | ★★★★★ |
It’s hard to call this a “new recipe” since we’ve used it several times before and it is really just using English muffins for your pizza crust with assembly of different toppings on top, so not much of a “recipe”. But I thought I would add it here anyway. I have a small bias towards including pepperoni in every variation, but technically it is optional.… Read the rest
This was an adaptation from a ground beef recipe book that I picked up when Andrea bought the Epicure silicone steamers that are so good at cooking ground beef quickly and easily. I didn’t use a steamer for this recipe, as there are other ingredients to cook with the beef, but that was more choice than necessity.… Read the rest
This was an adaptation from a diet recipe book for slow cookers, and was a pretty easy recipe (particularly using the slow cooker, but also just the limited number of items to chop / dice / slice). And the mango chutney is really the key to the sweet taste. I wasn’t a big fan of chutney before, but it is awesome here.… Read the rest
I snagged the base for this recipe from a “Taste of Home Fall Baking – Fresh from the Oven” cookbook. My first attempt at a proper cake, part of a goal for myself.
| Type of meal | Genre | Difficulty |
| Dessert, Side, Cake | Baking | Easy to Normal |
| Cooking Time | Yield | Rating |
| Prep: 40m Baking: 40m Cooling: 40m Total: 2h | 12 servings | ★★★★★ |
I snagged the base for this recipe from a “Taste of Home Fall Baking – Fresh from the Oven” cookbook. My first real attempt at a baking recipe, part of a new goal for myself.
| Type of meal | Genre | Difficulty |
| Dessert, Side, Rolls | Baking | Easy |
| Cooking Time | Yield | Rating |
| Prep: 1h Rise: 1h + 1h Baking: 30-35m Cooling: 10m Total: 3h 45m | 12 servings | ★★★★☆ |
