'24' season premieres

This season's rag-tag, kick-some-ass crew of '24.'

Previously on ‘24’
There was a terrorist making threats against the President or the American people or your neighbor’s dog. The horns sounded, the Jack-o-lantern shown across the sky and Jack came to the rescue. Along the way there was some torture, some extremely quick real-time driving through Los Angeles. CTU had a leak, someone Jack loved was killed, there was some huffing and puffing and blowing down of some houses. At the end of 24 hours, America was safe and Jack was ready to start all over again.

I must admit, that while I DO love ’24,’ the plot line after 6 seasons was getting a little stale. I swore that I wasn’t going to watch this season until my friend over at It's not you. It's not me. It's TV! sent me a little sneak preview clip and I was totally stoked. Then there was a writer’s strike and the season was postponed a year, so when I saw the premier was finally taking place I was pumped for some kick-ass Jack Bauer. Here’s how it played out over two nights.

The following took place between 8a.m. and 10a.m.
Someone from CTU (*cough* Tony) was a traitor. CTU has been disbanded and while facing federal charges for torture, Jack has been asked for his help by the FBI. Apparently, the FBI security isn’t much better than CTU and there is a possible leak there, too.

Chloe has been replaced by a just-as-awkward Janeane Garofalo. There’s a smart ass character, played by Entourage character Billy Walsh. The President, who is a woman this season, has an unstable husband. Jack tortured someone. America is entering into civil war. Innocent lives are threatened. And apparently Tony Almeida isn’t dead after all.

The real kicker: The government was smart enough to have one firewall in place for all communication across the country that could be taken down by one device. Smart. Real smart.

The following took place between 10a.m. and noon
Jack puts someone in a chokehold and demands to know where something is. Even though CTU was disbanded, a group of them is working covertly. Ah-ha. Garofalo didn’t replace Chloe, but rather they are BOTH awkward computer techs, as Chloe is part of the renegade CTU team.

There is a brilliant escape from FBI custody. At the drop of a hat Jack is able to infiltrate into a position with the bad guys.

Ok, so I wasn’t “wow’d” by the 4-hour season premiere like I thought I would be. After the short trailer that I saw last year I thought this season was going to be brilliant, but to me it fell short of my expectations (which is often the case). However, I wasn’t totally disappointed. I thought the first 2 hours were a little slow, but I became more interested by the second 2 hours. Hopefully the next episode, which is only one hour, will be better.

Crispy bacon = long life

Monday night meals

Usually I'm not awake early enough to catch much of the Today Show. For some reason, however, last year I was up and it seemed like the best thing to be watching at the time. Good thing, because it provided me with a delicious recipe. At the time, I didn't know she was a regular on the show, but the episode I watched featured Giada De Laurentiis from Food Network. The meal she was whipping up on air was Turkey and Artichoke Stuffed Pasta Shells. I'm not a HUGE fan of pasta, but any time you can make it with anything other than just plain marinara sauce, I'm game for giving it a try.

I made this recipe last year not too long after watching the show and it was a hit. I wanted to make the meal again right around Thanksgiving, but decided to veer away from turkey for a little while. So now, with the new year, I dusted off the recipe and had at it. Now the recipe states that you can make 24 stuffed shells which equal 6 to 8 servings. I, however, find that I have extra stuffing and make one large dish of 24 shells to cook right away then load up a smaller dish with 10 more shells to freeze for a later date.

Recipe notes: I don't make the arrabbiata sauce listed on the recipe, I'm sure if I had the time it would be a great addition. Until time starts growing on trees, Vons (Safeway) sells an arrabbiata with a great kick. Shopping at Ralph's last night (which is the only place I've found the large pasta shells), the only arrabbiata they had was almost $8 for one jar. I'm not cheapskate, but refuse to pay that much for pasta sauce. Rather than drive to another store I instead got a spicy marinara and mixed it with spicy roasted red pepper sauce. This time I also added about 1/2 cup of sliced baby bella mushrooms to the turkey mix and cooked them for a minute before adding the artichoke hearts.

One of the best things about this recipe: it is great as a leftover!

New year = new Biggest Loser

Tuesday night marked the start of yet another season of the Biggest Loser. I have become addicted to watching this show (my last post was the finale of Biggest Loser). I told myself that I didn’t want to devote 2 hours of my time to the show every week this time and wasn’t planning on watching it at all, but alas, I watched the premiere.

There isn’t a team on the show that I don’t want to win as of now. There are a lot of big personalities on the show this season along with a lot of firsts on the show.

Best friends and the Orange team, David and Dan, are both under 25 and Dan, who is only 19, happens to be the heaviest man the show has ever seen. The boys have a great sense of humor and I really want to pull for Dan because he is in such an unhealthy situation. I laughed when everyone was picking team and Dan made some comment on how it’s embarrassing enough being the fat kid picked last in gym class, but to be the last one picked by a bunch of other fat kids was a whole other complex.

Married couple and White team, Jerry and Estella, are the sweetest old couple. Poor Jerry passed out after the first workout (and this wasn’t even with the trainers yet) and it was very sad. Jerry is the oldest contestant the show has ever seen. I totally want to see this pair succeed and show everyone that age doesn’t slow you down.

The team that I immediately fell for was the Red team. Damien and Nicole are so in love with each other it is totally adorable. Also Nicole has such an endearing personality that has shown through after only one episode. Don’t let me down girl.

The big twist in episode one was that 9 people would be going home after the first weigh in. Each team that fell below the yellow line had to chose one person on their team to return home. The catch: if, after 30 days, a team member is still on the show, those who were sent home during the first elimination would be able to return. This twist stinks. You just find your favorite people and already the team is split up.

One other thing that I had to mention was the profuse sweating going on during the premiere. I noticed Ron from the Brown team sweating through his shirt and just thought that it was a result of his weight. Then I noticed how shinny host Alison Sweeney kept getting. Did the AC at the Biggest Loser ranch go out or something? Poor people are being tortured in the gym, the least thing you can do is give them a means to cool off.