SYTYCD S10: Top 20 Performance Show

Fun opening tonight, they've never really done anything like this before with the whole bit through the studio and including the choreographers and judges. I wonder if that was really all one shot done live or if they did a bunch of takes. Pretty cool if just one shot. Great choreography by NapTab.

Mariah & Carlos. Jason Gilkison jive. She definitely looks out of her element. Not flick kicking quite hard enough, which is a shame because I really like her. He seems to be handling it pretty well. The last lift looked labored, eesh! Mary comments on it being fast for them and that it seemed a bit labored. I always feel great when I think the same as the judges, ha! Worried they may be in the bottom, though, aww.

Jasmine M. & Alan. Travis Wall contemporary. Blindfolded. That's pretty risky for a first week dance. Love her dress. They're pretty dang good, actually, for not being able to see each other (or see each other very well). Probably good that Alan's used to being a partner, more trusting/trustworthy.

Malece & Jade. Travis Wall jazz. Two Travis Wall routines in a row? That seems super weird. All I can seem to think about is how tiny he is. Cool concept, can't help thinking it would've been much cooler with other dancers, though. Apparently they really improved over the dress rehearsal.

Jenna & Tucker. Tyce Diorio broadway. Yiiiiigh. I guess I shouldn't have preconceptions, but I almost always hate broadway. They definitely seem polished and look like they could be on Broadway themselves, just not sure I really particularly care about the routine. And what's with all the kissing? Sheesh. Nigel calls them a power couple.

Brittany & BluPrint. Sean Cheesman afro-jazz. Oh boy. Could be great or a disaster. Decent job, not awesome but not bad. BluPrint better than may be expected, but sometimes want him to have more expression in his face. Kind of don't know much about Brittany, she could get in bottom due to lack or memorable-ness. Judges all commend BluPrint, Mary even gives them a train scream. Wow.

Alexis & Nico. Christopher Scott hip hop. I think she actually has more swag than she lets on. Pretty fun routine. Nigel doesn't think they felt the routine at all, which I can see a little bit, sort of like doing steps rather than dancing through. They could end up in the bottom based on these comments. Alexis gets way too over the top with the voting numbers bit, hate when they get too hammy like that.

Makenzie & Paul. Jason Gilkison Viennese waltz. Oh boy, that's a dreaded pick, particularly at the beginning. It's just so vanilla. Something seems a little bit off about this routine. Her uncomfortableness with the style is showing through. Paul's doing a decent enough job trying to partner, but just felt weird from her for me. Judges just give them good comments, though. Okay?

Jasmine H. & Aaron. Sonya Tayeh jazz. Two tallies together, thank goodness. Her legs are insane! The splits, loved that slow one she did. That was a pretty cool routine, they got down into it, though I confess my eyes were drawn to her the entire time. Loved Wayne's "creepy" comments, and the judges all comment on her legs too! Ha!

Hayley & Curtis. Christopher Scott hip hop. Interesting that two of the tappers get hip hop in first week. That girl is dang sexy, sheesh. Thought they both did a good job, was a cool routine. Mary comments on stage presence, which I think is a great comment.

Amy & Fik-Shun. Sonya Tayeh contemporary. Fik-Shun gets the pimp slot, huh? Not a surprise! Great routine, wouldn't know he's a hip hop dancer by that. Very strong from both of them. Cats her first chills of the season. Great comments from the judges, these two are definitely safe. Glad Fik-Shun brought it tonight, was worried based on last week!

So, there you go! Do you have any early favorites? Any dancers you think are in danger? Am I wrong, or is it normally couples that get votes and not individuals at this point in the competition? Seemed like it was couples in the past but maybe I'm wrong.

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Amish Friendship Quick Bread

Do you remember getting those Amish Friendship Bread plastic bags of dough stuff? Please tell me you've done this at least once in your life. Basically, you get this starter and add milk and flour and stuff to it throughout a week or so. You then bake some of it, and divide the rest into more starter bags, which you can either keep for yourself or give to friends, which is the whole point of the "friendship" bit in the bread name.

Whether this is actually an Amish tradition, I cannot say. Whatever the case may be on that front, the bread itself is really tasty. But what happens when you don't want to wait around, don't want to have to keep adding milk and kneading and coming up with endless starter bags?

You find a recipe on the internet that makes the bread without all that work, duh.

Amish Friendship Quick Bread

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk together the flour and baking soda in a separate bowl. In your mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Alternately mix in the buttermilk and flour mixture, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup flour, etc. until it's all mixed together. I recommend this versus the stick it all in at once route because then stuff flies everywhere!
2. Distribute half of your batter into 2 greased loaf pans (so that's 1/4 of the batter for each pan).
3. In a small bowl, mix together the topping. Use 3/4 of that to sprinkle the tops of each of the loafs, then add in the remaining batter, smoothing out the tops. Sprinkle with the rest of the cinnamon mixture and swirl with a knife to get a design inside the bread.
4. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a tester in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes before removing and serving!

Recipe via Redfly Creations


In photos:

Butter, sugar, eggs. Your typical setup for most baked goods.

Alternately mix in your buttermilk and flour. You want to do this rather than just dump it all in at once. If you do the dump method, stuff will come flying up and out the sides of your mixer. Trust me, I've been there.

Use half of the batter and divide it between your two loaf pans.

Sprinkle 3/4 of the cinnamon mixture between the two loafs.

Spread the remaining batter between the two pans, smooth the tops.

And sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon stuff on top. Swirl the tops with a knife to get a fun design inside.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until it looks something like this, and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Leave that in the pan for 20 minutes to cool before removing.

Slice 'er up and enjoy! Also great with butter spread on top. Though, what isn't good without some butter added? I mean. Right? Also, that design is kind of weird. Looks sort of like a butt. Pretend it's something pretty, like a butterfly or something. Yeah.

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!

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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?

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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'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

Ingredients

• FOR THE MUFFINS:
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• FOR THE STREUSEL TOPPING:
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces

Cooking Directions

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

(Recipe via Martha Stewart)

In Photos:

Cut together your streusel ingredients: brown sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, butter. Stick that in the fridge for now.

While you preheat your oven to 350F, beat together your butter, sugar, sour cream and vanilla.

Beat in your eggs one at a time.

Then add in your flour mixture, which you should've whisked together in a separate bowl earlier if you're really following directions. Or you can be like me and just add them in here.

Take half of the batter and plop those into your buttered and floured jumbo muffin tin.

Then spoon in half of your streusel topping.

Then put the rest of your batter on top. I got my fingers wet and pressed down to get them flat. The water helps it not stick to you.

Then put on the rest of your streusel! Stick that in your oven for 25-30 minutes.

They'll come out like this. Make sure when you stick in a tester it comes out clean so they're cooked through. Let those sit in the tins for 5 minutes.

Then put them on a wire rack to cool completely. These are LARGE.

We tried making these in a smaller variety, regular-sized, and while they're good, they're not as good as this jumbo size. Go jumbo if you can!

Then, get yourself a plate, and dig in. You'll want a plate. These are big and kinda crumbly.

Here you can see the middle layer of streusel as well. Mmm mmm mmmmmmm....

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!

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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

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) box cake mix - vanilla or yellow
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup toffee bits (with our without chocolate in them)

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
2. In a bowl, combine the cake mix, 1 of the eggs and the melted butter until incorporated together. Press into your prepared pan.
3. 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.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes until edges are golden brown and the center is set. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.
5. Keep these in the fridge to assure firmness, otherwise your top layer may start melting everywhere!

Recipe via Cookies & Cups

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!