SYTYCD Season 10: Top 20 Reveal

Well, it's finally that time. Time to introduce the top 20, Ameriker! Gotta say, not that enthused based on Nigel saying he's not sure everyone can deal with the rigors of the show. Please, can we have people who can actually dance rather than only personalities? That was my major beef with Cyrus last year.

Anyway. On to tonight's Top 20. Starting with the first group (hip hop!)...

Fik-Shun. He's nervous, but it's quite obvious he's going to make it through. Uh, duhhhhh. Guess it's good to have him go first since it's so obvious.

Emilio. Another hip hopper, who we haven't seen much of right now. A few days after filming, though, he injured himself, so he had to withdraw. No wonder we didn't see him.

Mariah. The lady hop hop dancer we've sort of seen in the background throughout auditions, glad she's making it onto the show so we can actually see her.

Fik-Shun and Moria do a Luther Brown routine to start the night. Fun routine, though a little bit on the boring side for me, though I thought she did better than him.

Second group (contemporary):

Mackenzie (don't remember her?). Jasmine Harper (Cyrus' ex! She probably hates that that's her "thing!"). Tucker (the car crash victim who bounced back). Nico (Papi!).

Stacey Tookey routine. They all looked pretty good, Tucker gets crazy emotional at the end of the routine. Mary pretty effusive about all of the, Adam gives them some constructive criticism. I like that they're not just giving them all lots of blase praise to begin things.

Third group (tap):

Alexis. Curtis (didn't think he was that great in his audition, but maybe he has something more there I didn't see). Aaron (originally didn't make it, but because Emilio had to withdraw, he gets in).

Anthony Morigerato (I really have no idea how to spell that) routine. Curtis had some problems keeping the pose at the end, but otherwise it was pretty decent. Tap is always pretty fun.

Fourth group (animation):

Jade (tiny dude). BluPrint (needs more personality dude). Both make it through, oh lordy.

Christopher Scott routine. Started off a little choppy for me as they weren't totally in sync, but definitely picked up as it went and got extremely cool. Particularly loved when they were sort of going back and forth. Not sure they'll be able to do anything else, but you can't deny that animators are cool in their style.

Fifth group (contemporary):

Carlos (haven't seen much of him). Hayley (sexxxy?). Malese (little pixy who was dropped on her head).

Mia Michaels routine. Wow, loved this routine. The girls especially drew me in, particularly Malese. She killllled it, just like Mia told her she needed to do, though the judges give her a bit of criticism. 

Sixth group (ballroom):

Brittany (haven't seen any of her, have we?). Jenna (she was good throughout). Paul (winner of SYTYCD Armenia). Alan (part of the brother duo, only had room for one of them).

Louis Van Amstel routine. Hard to really know who was the best when having to look back and forth between the two pairs. All seemed pretty good, judges like the girls better than the guys.

Last group (jazz):

Amy (one of the girls with the silly dancing dad). Jasmine Mason (they kind of gave this away by using the other Jasmine's last name earlier).

Sonya Tayeh routine. Good, though I did find myself getting easily distracted and thinking of other things. The judges really loved it and them.

Top 10 Guys - Christopher Scott sand routine. Dude, that was pretty cool. Awesome way to use sand as a prop. I think I said this last year, but I love Christopher Scott's routines. They're always great!

Top 10 Girls - Ray Leeper '60s jazz routine. Honestly the outfits are really distracting for me in this routine. Too much about the outfits and the music and less about the dancing. They definitely seem in sync with each other, anyway.

Top 20 - Sonya Tayeh routine. The camera work here is really annoying me. I'd like to be able to see everything that's going on. Seems like it's much cooler than it comes across because of the cameras zooming in and out and up and down and all around. Blah blah, complain, blah.

Well, that's it, people! We have the top 20 for this season. Do you have any favorites so far? Hard to say until we really start seeing them dance in other styles. Apologies for any misspelled names, but they don't have the list of everyone on their site yet!

SYTYCD S10: Vegas Week

Vegas week is always the hardest week to recap, so this may be a little haphazard with random comments. It's hard to cover everything.

The solo round gets rid of at least 50 dancers. Must always be a bummer to get there and then just have to leave. A couple were featured:

Malece Miller is pretty impressive in her solo. She must be someone we're going to follow through the week. She gets dropped on her head while practicing for the jazz round, has to go the hospital. Ends up doing well anyway and makes it through.

Donovan Gibbs was featured pretty prominently in auditions but is let go during the solos round of Vegas. I can see why, though, he wasn't that great.

Fik-Shun. Oh man, I forgot how awesome this guy is. Hopefully he can do other styles well. Also pretty much rocks the jazz round. He could totally make it to the top 20. Does well in ballroom, too.

Jenna Johnson. Clearly shines in the ballroom round and is mentioned that she shines in other areas too. She could be the girl ballroom dancer to make it to the top 20.

Curtis Holland. Wasn't really mentioned until the last, contemporary round, but apparently has been doing well throughout Vegas week. I wasn't very impressed with his first audition, but he seems to have some kind of breakthrough or breakdown, because he makes it through. Seems primed to make the top 20 at this point.

Jasmine. Cyrus' ex who really impressed me in her audition. Could really be a redemption type story for her to make the show, seems primed for it to happen at this time.

Jade vs. BluPrint battle mode - both animators, neither of which impressed in the contemporary round. Supposed to only pick one, but they end up letting them both stay.

One surprise for me was when Jennifer Jones was cut. She seemed really strong.

Next week: the top 20 is revealed! Who do you hope makes it out of the 33 left? Anyone you DON'T want in?

Coffee Cake Muffins

Have I ever discussed my distaste for grocery shopping? I think perhaps this is inherited, because my mom hates it too. Though, I do think maybe if the grocery stores I liked to go to weren't so damn crowded all the time, it wouldn't be quite so terrible.

Alas. Crowded. And the types of crowds that make me crazy, wherein I have to wait in some long dang line to check out while carrying a super heavy basket, because I always seem to go for the basket.

Now you know my grocery shopping woes, something I'm sure you're just VERY HAPPY about, because it totally impacts your life! The thing is, when I get in this state, and I want something for breakfast, instead of going out to eat or going to the store to get something, I often scrounge around the kitchen and the internet to see what I can make instead.

Lo, muffins! Coffee cake muffins that are, omg, delicious! They don't really look that delicious, either. They look kind of sad, to be honest. But they're not. They're yum. Super yum, even.

It's interesting that coffee cake never really does have coffee in it. But thank you muffin gods that it doesn't, because yuck. Yeah, I said it. Coffee is yuck! Boom goes the dynamite!

Coffee Cake Muffins
(via Martha Stewart)

Muffins:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour cream
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Streusel Topping:
1 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark)
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces

First, prepare your topping in a medium bowl. Stir together the dry ingredients, then with a pastry blender or some knives, cut in the butter until it's large crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Next, preheat your oven to 350F. Prepare your muffins - butter and flour your muffin tins. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

Using your electric mixer on medium speed, beat together softened butter, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs on eat a time until well combined. With the mixer on low, beat flour mixture into the butter mixture.

If you're using jumbo muffin tins, divide your batter in half among your prepared cups. Top with half the streusel mixture, then the remaining batter, and top with the rest of the streusel. If you're using smaller ones, just put the streusel on top to make it easier on yourself.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean (you may want to reduce this baking time a bit if you're not making jumbo muffins). Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sorry, no step by step photos this time, as I was making these at night and we all know the curse of the bad night lighting.

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SYTYCD S10: Memphis Auditions

Wayne Brady joins Mary and Nigel in the final episode of auditions in Memphis. Thank goodness this is the last audition episode, am I right?!

Dorian "BluPrint" Hector - Animation, in same crew as Cyrus from last season. Self-described style as sort of a dysfunctional robot, and I have to agree. A very awesome dysfunctional robot. What is it about this style that's so cool? Vegas.

Curtis Holland - Tapper. Goal is to be the fastest tapper, and certainly he's fast, but I think in concentrating on speed he loses some style. Not very graceful. Choreography. Through to Vegas.

Tucker Knox - Contemporary. Quite beautiful. Fluid. Emotional. Great that he came back from his terrible accident to be able to dance like this. Vegas.

Courtney Thurston - Contemporary. Has a lot of potential, though not the greatest with transitions between power moves. After much hoopla with her dad, Vegas.

Shanshan Qiao-Rothlisberger - Traditional Mongolian dance balancing bowls. Quite beautiful, actually. Wanted it to be longer, too. Choreography. Through to Vegas despite fake out.

Nico Greetham - Love his music choice. Very cool, unique style to him. Jazz style of dance, though Mary says it all when she says it wasn't long enough. Vegas.

Elyse Frelinger - Trapeze instructor turned dancer. She's actually pretty good. Judges all mention liquid and fluid. Vegas.

Jenna Johnson - Cha cha. They're really good. I'm not always a huge fan of the ballroom style, but they're pretty entertaining. Too bad he's too young to try out. Vegas.

Novien Yarber - Contemporary concentration on masculine movement rather than flowery arms. Nigel loves it, which is hilarious because he wanted to concentrate on the masculinity because he knows Nigel likes that. Not to say he's not good, because he is too. Vegas.

Isabel Freiberger - Salsa. They do have a lot of cool tricks, as advertised. Very entertaining. To choreography. Doesn't make it through.

Caleb Brauner - Contemporary. Cute, could become cloying a la Kent. Audition is only okay, though, kind of wish he would've combined the contemporary with the hip hop he says he's studied forever. Judges have him do some hip hop moves. Vegas.

Larry Booze - Hip hop. His footwork is pretty amazing. Very fluid, just glides across the stage. To choreography. Decides to withdraw.

Jasmine Harper. Contemporary. Ex of Cyrus. I kind of love her. Has a raw quality to her movement, graceful. Vegas.

Paige Pellicano - Jazz. Dad is the Elvis impersonator. Good dancer but doing a lot of what I call hair dancing - lots of flipping the hair all around the place. Judges say have potential but needs to be more emotionally connected. To choreography. Doesn't make it.

Next week - Vegas!

Cake Mix Toffee Bars

Have I mentioned lately how much I love toffee? Because I lurrrve it. Didn't even know how much I liked it until I tried one of those Hershey's toffee and almond nuggets a few years ago, and then discovered that it wasn't just because those are great, but because I just love some dang toffee. What even IS toffee, one wonders. It's basically sugar, okay. Basically sugar made even more delicious than plain ole sugar.

And now, you know, the grocery stores carry these toffee bits that you can put into cookies and whatever other baking desires you may have. In truth, I prefer the ones with chocolate mixed in, but I had a bag of the regular toffee bits, just straight toffee, and decided to find a recipe to incorporate them in that wasn't just cookies.

Therefore - cake mix toffee bars! These are ridiculously easy to make. If you aren't one for complicated recipes and feel perfectly fine using cake mixes, get on it! You can use vanilla cake mix, like the original recipe calls for, or you can use a yellow one, like I did, since I didn't have vanilla. Also you can use the chocolate toffee bits or the regular ones, both work. Moldable recipe, this!

And? A very sweet one. Like, whoa, brush your teeth after sinking them into these babies.

Cake Mix Toffee Bars
(via Cookies & Cups)

1 (18.25 oz) cake mix - vanilla or yellow
2 eggs
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup toffee bits (with or without chocolate in them)

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.

In a bowl, combine the cake mix, 1 of the eggs and the melted butter until incorporated together. Press into your prepared pan.

In another bowl, combine the condensed milk, the other egg, vanilla, and the toffee bits. Whisk together until combined, then pour that onto your cake layer.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until edges are golden brown and the center is set. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Keep these in the fridge to assure firmness, otherwise your top layer may start melting everywhere!

In photos:

Mix together your cake mix, butter and 1 egg.

Press that into your prepared pan.

Whisk together the other egg, 1 tsp vanilla, the condensed milk and your toffee bits. I only had regular toffee bits with no chocolate.

Pour that onto your bottom layer.

Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes until edges are golden and middle has set. Mine started to bubble up in the middle a little, as you can see. You'd be able to see it better if this picture wasn't so blurry. Yikes.

Let them cool all the way before you start cutting in to them. The top will still be sticky, at least mine was! But also, make sure you keep this refrigerated, otherwise the goo will start to become a melty glop on top!

 Cut 'em up into bars. You probably want small bars like these; they are very rich!

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