corey's blog

    I judge a Lost episode's greatness based on how much I enjoyed the mythology in the episode. This week, there wasn't much... at least not until the end. I don't have a whole lot to talk about this week because I don't care much about Kate's story and that's about all we got this week. That being said, I did like the episode. Kate's story was well acted and edited. It didn't drag on too long and we now know why she was so torn up when she ended up at Jack's before the Ajira flight. We got to see Cassidy again this episode and the twist to that storyline was that Kate left Aaron with Claire's mom... not a huge shocker and it won't have a big impact on the overall plot.

    He's Our You is the tipping point for the season five story arch. What I mean by that is that we'll see events in the Dharma timeline get out of hand and bring an end to Sawyer and Juliet's 70s house party. The other half of the cast, stuck in present times, has a bit more of a journey ahead of them as Christian Shepherd said in Namaste. The more interesting storyline at the moment is back in 1977 and the pace started picking up at the end of this week's episode with young Ben Linus getting shot in the chest by Sayid.

    Namaste answered a number of minor questions that have popped up this season and has cleared up a few timeline issues. I don't want to call Namaste a 'filler' episode, but that's pretty much what it is. The only major plot development that happened during this episode was Sayid showing up in 1977 and getting captured by Jin near the Flame station. The purpose of this episode was to set up the coming story arch that will take us to the end of the season, eight weeks or so from now. So what'd we learn? Well, we now know that Radzinsky was actually part of Dharma but he wasn't always holed up in the Swan pushing the button and telling bad snowman jokes...

    Reubens are simply delicious. The combination of sweet/tangy dressing, salty corned beef, sauerkraut and rye bread is just divine. The Reuben isn't a terribly complicated sandwich, but making a proper reuben requires a little work. Nothing too strenuous, just round up the ingredients listed below and you've got yourself the king of the deli sandwiches... We recently made some pretty killer Reubens and I thought it'd be worthwhile to post the recipe and a few pictures. After all, it's almost Saint Patrick's Day and what's more Irish than corned beef? Well, potatoes and a Guiness I guess... but on short notice I'll settle for a Reuben and a cream ale.

   Lost is off for a week so we won't get any answers for about two weeks. In the meantime I thought I'd speculate a little more on the second half of this season. So far this season the story arc has moved at a pretty frantic pace. I thought it would have taken all season to round up the Oceanic Six and get them back to the island... when it really only took about four episodes. The story is very well laid out but it does seem somewhat rushed. I doubt this will change as we wrap up the fifth season and I think we'll end this season at a point in the storyline that we might not expect. Here are my thoughts...

    I don't eat much seafood. I'm not sure why, it just isn't my favorite thing to eat. I used to eat quite a bit of fried fish as a kid... hey, who doesn't like crispy batter and tartar sauce? But even now, I opt for chicken or beef over fish. Over the last year there have been a few times when I've had fried calamari or salmon that I've really liked but it hasn't really changed my opinion of seafood. This past week we made shrimp, which is probably my second favorite type of seafood, right up there next to fried. Don't get me wrong, I do like shrimp quite a bit. I like my shrimp simple though, nothing fancy... So that's what I made - a simple garlic and butter shrimp dish with a killer side. More on that after the break.

    It seems almost too obvious now that the Lost island is, in one way or another, the Egyptian underworld. In the latest episode we get two big clues that would point us in this direction. But before I get in to that there were many, many more points that were interesting. This episode quickly puts us into the Dharma storyline as a truce is broken and Sawyer's group is taken into Dharma custody. As with many Lost episodes it starts by putting us in an undisclosed time and place. We learn that it's the mid-seventies and Dharma is in full effect. Horace, who is one of the leaders of Dharma on the island, is drunk and blowing up dynamite out near the sonic fence. It's because of this that we meet LaFleur, the head of Dharma security, who is actually Sawyer...

    If you aren't really up on your wine writers or from Kansas City, you probably don't know who Doug Frost is. I had only heard of Doug Frost after seeing his new series on the local PBS station, Check Please!. The show is a public access romp through Kansas City's culinary scene... which may not sound all that appealing. As it turns out, there are pretty cool restaurants in Kansas City, who knew? Anyway, Doug Frost's job as host is to lead the discussion and fill in the gaps with talk about wine. It really is a fun show to watch. If it weren't for Check Please! I probably never would have made it in to Cupini's in Westport, or Wine. in Brookside... but more on that later.