King of the Nerds 3x06 "Murder at Nerdvana"

Tonight's episode gave me a little trip down memory lane. So much so that I thought to myself, dang, I would've been good at that Nerd War. Why was it so memory inducing, you may wonder? Well, let me get there, sheesh, calm down.

After last week, Colby was feeling a bit down, and honestly you really blame him when everyone seems to be focused on getting him out? Though everyone is still friendly and really do genuinely seem to want to be friends, it is a bit tough when you know that if you lose the Nerd War, the other team will nominate you to go into the Nerd Off. Jonathan states that he will volunteer to go up against him if their team loses at the top of the hour as well, because he feels bad for sending in Heather. Does this hold true? Well, first they would have to lose for that to matter, duh!

So let's get to the Nerd War. House Hooloovoo and Team Smash had to go head to head in a forensic battle. No, not the speech kind, but the forensic science variety. Basically, they would have to study a fake crime scene to determine who committed the murder of Pom Pom Kitty. Am I supposed to know who and/or what Pom Pom Kitty is referring to?? Yikes.

As I mentioned this challenge brought me back to my high school days. Like some of the contestants on the show, one of my classes had a similar challenge to this, where we had to look at hair follicles and fingerprints to try to determine who was the culprit in a "crime." Though I think we also had shoe size or something, rather than blood splatter, which sounded much more complicated. So, yes, the two teams had to figure out who was the culprit of the murder by studying fingerprints, blood splatter, hair follicles, and DNA samples.

And to be quite honest, House Hooloovoo pretty much creamed Team Smash. It's not as fun when the competitions aren't very close, so that was a bit of a bummer, but it was a bit of Smash's own fault for not reading the instructions correctly in the first place, just sayin'. And yes, for those who were wondering, I may or may not have been the first one to solve my own forensic crime test back in high school. Nerd alert!

Now some politics came into play. While Jonathan had previously stated that he would definitely volunteer himself to go into the Nerd Off, Lily had a sneaking suspicion that the Nerd Off would have to do with horror films, since that was part of the theme of the Nerd War. That put a wrench in Jonathan's plan, because he doesn't know hardly anything about horror films, while Amanda knows a lot. But would that really be the theme of the Nerd Off?

Only time would tell. Hooloovoo voted Colby in as predicted, and in the end Smash voted in Amanda, hoping for the horror challenge. Curtis tried to fake them out by saying it was going to be a math challenge, but it was, indeed, a horror challenge after all. To be more specific, the challenge was all about horror movie quotes. There were three different difficulty levels - easy, medium and hard. Depending on which difficulty you answered, then you could go smash in the brains of one, two or three zombies, respectively. Those would then give you points. So, one part skill, one part luck.

Though both Colby and Amanda got their first medium questions right, Colby got his second one wrong, while Amanda still got hers right. Colby had a comeback in the final round when he got a hard one right and got some big points, but alas, Amanda also chose hard and got it right, and just barely managed to sneak in the win.

Which means it's time to say farewell to Colby. I felt kind of bad for him, because they kept voting him in to everything, which isn't so great for one's self esteem. But, as Raychelle said, he has already won Jeopardy, so is it entirely fair for him to be in the competition? I also find it a bit funny that there are only two guys left and four girls still there. Will we have another female champion? The teams are officially disbanded, so now it's every person for themselves!

Also, what the heck? No preview for next week?! The horror!

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

King of the Nerds 3x05 "Nuclear Nerd Games"

Tonight's episode was a lot of fun, no? Honestly, I love me some games, so an episode dedicated to party games and puzzles is right up my alley. That's right, tonight was all about games. When the two teams were told about the Nerd War, there wasn't a lot of studying or preparing they could do. How do you study for party games when you don't know what they're going to be, exactly?

Anyhow, when it was time for the Nerd War, the two teams were given help by each having a celebrity guest join their teams - for Hooloovoo it was Penn Jillette, and for Smash it was Rachelle Lefevre. I suppose Rachelle gets to be considered a nerd because she's on a Stephen King show and was in Twilight? Doesn't really matter, though, because she actually fits right in.

The War consisted of three rounds. In the first round, each team would give one word clues to their captain, who would then have to guess who they were talking about based on said clues. So, like, saying Star Wars and whatnot is a clue for George Lucas, etc. Hooloovoo chose Ben to guess while Smash chose Colby, and the two teams tied that round. Round two was all about pictionary. Each member of the team would get three minutes to try to get their team to guess whatever nerd related thing they were drawing, ranging from Back to the Future to an invisible jet. Hooloovoo got one more right than Smash in this round, giving them a slight advantage. Finally, in the third round, they had to basically do charades, acting out various nerd things a la Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and The Matrix. Though things were very close once again, Hooloovoo managed to pull out the win.

Which, of course, meant Team Smash had to head into the Nerd Off. And this is where things get interesting. The Secret Six alliance is still in effect, so they want Colby to be the one who goes home. But, they know he's going to be hard to beat, so they decide that they, in Team Smash, will vote Colby into the Nerd Off and leave the decision of who else to send in up to the rest of their team members in Hooloovoo. But, both Heather and Amanda tell the other members that they think Jonathan is the only one who has a chance against Colby.

Well, this gets back to Jonathan via Raychelle, and he decides it's time to take action against the Secret Six in order to save his own skin. He finds Kaitlin and tells her all about the secret alliance and suggests they team up to send either Amanda or Heather in instead of him, creating a new sort of alliance with the two of them plus Raychelle. Now, whether this was actually going to go anywhere was left a mystery until the votes for the Nerd Off.

Team Smash voted in Colby per their earlier agreement. But who does Hooloovoo vote in? Jonathan? No! It's Heather. So Jonathan's plan worked, leaving him to fight another day. That meant Colby and Heather would face off against each other in some kind of puzzle game. Kaitlin pretended to be secretly sabotaging Colby, but in fact she was helping him study how sudoku works because she really wants him to stay.

The Nerd Off itself turned out to be more of a word problem than anything involving sudoku. They had to dig through some barrels of sludge to find letters that they would then unscramble to fit into a saying on the board, with certain special letters in there then answering another puzzle at the bottom. Quite frankly, Colby killed it. They tried to up the drama by making it seem closer, and he did mess up there at the end by misspelling the final puzzle, but Heather wasn't even very close in solving the original jumbled word problem. So it's farewell to Heather.

When Colby was on Jeopardy, I thought he was kind of cocky. I actually took to calling him Eyebrows as he was always doing these crazy things with his eyebrows whenever he was on the show. Seeing him on here, however, has made me like him quite a lot, though. He's pretty funny, and obviously very smart, and though he's confident, I wouldn't say he's necessarily cocky. He's there to compete and he's going to be hard to beat in these challenges that play into his strengths. Now, if it were a pictionary drawing Nerd Off, he might be in trouble.

I think my top three in the competition now are probably Jonathan, Colby and Kaitlin. I kind of like Amanda too, though I'm not sure what her strengths are quite yet? We've already seen that Colby and Kaitlin are hard to beat in the Nerd Offs, and soon enough the team dynamic will be kaput so it will be every person for him or herself.  What about you? Who do you want to win?

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Molten Chocolate Cake

Long-time readers of this blog may be thinking to themselves... hmm... this looks familiar.

Or maybe not, because I didn't include pictures back then of the actual molten part of the molten chocolate cake! But, yes, back in 2011 (egads!) I did post about molten chocolate cake. And to be perfectly honest, I didn't change the recipe here, though I did neglect to use semi-sweet baking chocolate and just used unsweetened, which made these more like dark chocolate cakes than super sweet ones, but I digress.

I also feel like I still didn't get very good photos, though you may argue that these are least better than the last ones. But I was having a tough time with the camera for some reason in the low light, and had to end up using the flash, which is never a great idea for food photos.... but I couldn't not take photos right when they came out because then they wouldn't really be "molten" anymore. Man, it was tough, let me tell you.

Well, tough until, you know, I got to eat some warm molten chocolate cake. Because, really, what is there to complain about when you've got that going on? Especially when it's so frickin' easy to make?! 

Like, for real. You're probably thinking whoa, I can't make something that has a gooey middle center like that, that seems super hard. Well, you're wrong. These are super easy and quick and will surely impress if you have any guests.

Plus, who can resist something that is baked in a cute little ramekin? Come on.

Molten Chocolate Cake
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 4 Mini Cakes
Prep time: 00:05 

Cook time: 00:14 

Total time: 00:20

When you want some deliciously melty and warm chocolate served up in an individual cake just for you.

Ingredients:

• 4 squares semi-sweet baking chocolate
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 6 Tablespoons flour

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Spray 4 custard cups with cooking spray and place on cookie sheet.
3. Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted. Whisk until chocolate is also melted.
4. Stir in sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour.
5. Divide evenly between cups.
6. Bake 13-14 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft. Let stand 1 minute before serving. You can either eat straight from the cup or dump it out onto a plate and dig in to see the inside chocolate melt all over.

Supernatural 10x14 "The Executioner's Song"

After some more lighthearted episodes, it's back to business this week. Finally, the showdown with Cain. But wait, you say, wasn't Cain okay before? Wasn't he just holed up on a farm somewhere? Well, as the saying goes - that was then, this is now.

Because Cain has succumbed to his darker urges. He's been taking out murderers and other evildoers across the globe, centering around those that have descended from his bloodline, because it's all tainted and such. But that means he's starting to leave a trail, one the Winchesters pick up on without knowing it's his at first. Castiel has also managed to track him down after some tortuous bits with a demon, wherein he learns about his agenda.

Of course, Team Free Will, which I suppose is still relevant even now, is not so into Cain's idea of a culling of the bloodline, particularly when next up on the list is a boy of twelve who just happens to be the son of a murderer. Thing is, Cain's pretty dang strong. The only thing that can kill him at this point? You guessed it - the first blade.

Which means the team is going to need Crowley to bring it on over to them. He's still hanging out in his bunker of sorts, bored to tears despite his mother actively trying to manipulate him into helping her kill some grand coven mother. He doesn't seem easily fooled by her, but then again, she does have a way at touching at his sore spots. One of which happens to be that he's helping the Winchesters when they wouldn't do the same in return. But Crowley isn't having none of that, particularly not after Dean tells him he's on Cain's kill list (even though he isn't), so he heads off, blade in tow.


The whole gang is ready for their trap for Cain, using the kid he wants to kill as bait. Or, pretend bait, as they use an illusion spell thing Rowena was going to use for something else to make it just appear like the kid was there, and trapping Cain in a devil's trap. Which means it's time for Dean to take up the blade and go meet his "maker." Dean gets beat around quite easily, even with the blade in his hand. Cain manages to get the blade away from him, and does the one thing all villains should never do - pontificates about how he's saving Dean from going truly dark side, because he believes that one day the Mark will take over, and Dean will end up doing what Cain did - kill his brother.

Well, today is not that day. Dean manages to use Cain's own knife against him, cutting off his blade-wielding arm. So we must then bid farewell to ole Cain, as Dean has no choice but to use the blade on him when he says he'll never stop with the mad killing stuff. Slightly anticlimactic when you compare this scene to another where Dean is confronting a big bad demon - On the Head of a Pin, anyone?

Dean doesn't let the blade overtake him after their confrontation, but he doesn't give the blade back to Crowley like he said he would either. Instead, he gives it to Cas, who hides it in points unknown, leaving Crowley to go home and be berated by his dear mum for, you know, being a terrible King of Hell and all.

Meanwhile, back at the bunker, Dean is putting on a brave face, and so is Sam, but neither of them seem all that optimistic about Dean's prospects. In case you couldn't figure that out, Sam spells it out for us by telling Cas that Dean's in trouble. You think?

Random Thoughts:

- Was anyone else a bit distracted by some of the music in this episode? It seemed to be a bit loud in some of the talking scenes. Maybe I'm just nutty.

- I mean... I kind of wanted more from a showdown between Cain and Dean. Like, a lot of build up for not a lot of reward here. And it was kind of... melodramatic? I suppose maybe because we know Dean is going to get out of this Mark business somehow that all of the near tears feels little like yeah blah blah okay. Or maybe I'm just being cynical, who knows.

- Does anyone know what the heck Cas' goal is for this season apart from helping Dean? There was that whole bit with Hannah earlier rounding up wayward angels, but is that still his thing? The even bigger question: do we care?

- Similarly, what the heck does Crowley want? I suppose that's sort of what he's trying to figure out, as he's so very clearly bored of his day to day King duties. But he needs to get some kind of goal, stat.

- Now the show is taking a bit of a break until mid March, when it moves back to... Wednesdays. Good? Bad? No difference?

Quotes:

Dean: Bass fishing, needlepoint, that's a hobby. Collecting serial killer stats, that's an illness.

Cain: I prefer to be thorough.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

King of the Nerds 3x04 "Do They Choose Wisely... Or Poorly?"

Each episode of King of the Nerds is a little bit bittersweet, I have to say. It's a competition show, yes, but also one of the only such shows where the contestants become actual friends. Or, at least, that's how it seems. Is it the magic of television? Hopefully not. Anyhow, it gets harder as it goes on because you get to know everyone a bit better. Like this week's ousted contestant, I was a little put off at first, but now not so much.

Anyway, let's get to the down and dirty into recap zone. This week's episode featured one of the more entertaining and fun challenges for the two groups - the Nerd anthem. Or song? Well you know what I mean. The two groups had to come up with their version of a Nerd Anthem, and would be judged on lyrics, choreography and overall performance. Team Smash went for a more rapping route, while House Hooloovoo went for a more pop diddy route.

To be honest, I enjoyed both of their songs quite a bit. The rapping had a lot of fun references while the pop diddy was very catchy. The guest judges this time around were all from the music industry - Travie McCoy, Lisa Loeb, and Moby. I'm not entirely sure how Travie McCoy fits in the nerd aesthetic, but okay? I suppose saying that at all is like a faux pas now? Ay. Anyway, Moby was definitely the most harsh on the two teams, though perhaps moreso to Team Smash, basically questioning whether Ori could actually speak Klingon and such. I mean, were they supposed to be 100% truthful in the lyrics? It's a song meant to encompass nerd culture, so...

But, in the end, Hooloovoo took home the crown thanks to their song being infinitely more catchy. Like, you could walk out of there humming it already. Which, of course, left Smash to head into the Nerd Off, to even things out between the two teams. Now, as you may recall, the secret six are comprised of Ben, Lily and Raychelle from Hooloovoo, and Heather, Amanda and Jonathan from Smash. So, for things to go according to plan for them, it would need to be Colby versus Ori in the Nerd Off. Did it go their way?

Well, Kaitlin had other ideas. She's smelling something rotten in the state of Denmark, filled with a sneaking suspicion that Lily, Amanda and Ben are in a secret alliance. She goes to Jonathan to form her own alliance comprised of them plus Ori and Colby. Of course, Jonathan is already in the secret six, so now he's a bit of a double agent. But is now the right time to double cross his original alliance?

Nope. Hooloovoo votes in Colby while Smash votes in Ori. And what do they have to battle over in the Nerd Off? Arranging a bunch of legacy nerds in the order of their birth date. Well, I think we all know how this one ends. Colby is a reigning Jeopardy champion, after all. They do try to make it a bit of a contest by also featuring a physical Indiana Jones component, complete with sticking your hand in a cauldron of snakes, but in the end, Colby came out on top. Honestly, it would've been really surprising if he hadn't won that.

Which meant poor Ori had to go home, none the wiser that it was really only because of a secret alliance. If it hadn't been for that alliance, I feel like a lot more fingers would've been pointed at Heather for speaking back to Moby. So, it's time to say goodbye to awkward and endearing Ori.

How much longer can the secret six last? Jonathan seems ready to jump ship at any moment, as well he should as he and Raychelle would probably be the first two voted out by the rest of them. Also, Kaitlin is no dummy. She really should team up with Colby in some way if possible, because they both are pretty smart and good at the Nerd Offs. I think those three are my favorites right now, but who are yours?

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Supernatural 10x13 "Halt and Catch Fire"

Ahem. Well. I don't know about the rest of you, but this episode was not my favorite. In fact, it is probably my least favorite of the season so far. The idea of an internet ghost isn't necessarily a bad one, but I don't know, there was a lot of hokey going on. But a recap is what I do, so here we go...

A guy and his girl are driving along, listening to their nav app Trini tell them how to get to Taco Town, only Trini is taking them some ass backwards way to get there, and when they call her on it, she tells the girl to get out of the car all menace-y. The girl obliges, only to have the car lock the dude inside and then drive him off a broken bridge. And smash to credits!

Meanwhile, Sam informs Dean that Cas is close to finding out something, maybe, that can lead them to Cain, or something. But Dean is more interested in working on this mysterious killer truck case, so they head off to the college town of Spencer, Iowa to do some digging. Turns out, the guy had a brother he didn't get along with who died in Afghanistan, and left that evil truck to him. So it must be the dead brother possessing the truck, right? Not sure why we didn't get a call back to the evil ghost truck from season one, but I digress.

Back at the school, it's time for the second killing, because that's just the timing of the show. A sorority girl gets strangled to death by her computer cord after being taunted by an online princesselsa8 telling her "810" and "I know" and "You'll pay." You know, typical things said by a Frozen fan. The roommate Delilah is supposedly shocked by this death, but clearly hiding something. Dun dun dun.

The boys are now off to investigate just what the whole 810 business means after Sam does some hacking into the dead girl's computer and discovers that weird chat. Turns out, it's an address. And across the street from that address, a woman is going to pick up a bunch of flowers left at a power line. Turns out, her husband Andrew was killed there in a car accident months ago. Do we have our pissed off spirit now? Yeah, probably. Because yet another college kid dies, this time after talking with Delilah in cryptic tones about coming clean and blah blah. I should say, Delilah wants to come clean while this douche just threatens her. Well, too bad for him, because he gets music-ed to death by his stereo. Gross.

Obviously, they know Delilah has something to do with Andrew's death, and it turns out that she and the other three already dead ran him off the road into a power line, then rather than calling for help when the power line came down and shocked him to death, they just drove off. Andrew is naturally pissed at his untimely death by some stupid college yahoos and is going for revenge. While Dean stays behind to protect Delilah, Sam goes to the power line to try to figure out how Andrew is doing the killing, and because I've already said it, I'll just repeat it - he's getting around in the wifi. Uh huh. Okay.

Sam goes to talk to the wife, who confesses that Andrew was actually talking to her online for a while and she didn't want him to go away so she didn't do anything about it. Meanwhile, Dean is fending off ghost Andrew, who is now attacking them. He tries to talk some sense into him about how revenge is not the way and blah blah, but it's only the wife who is able to make him stop and move on to a better afterlife.

In their patented brotherly Impala chat moment, Dean tells Sam that he doesn't want to look for a cure for the Mark anymore, that the way he can live with it is by continuing to hunt and save people, thereby assuaging the evil inside or something. Obviously that's going to last.


Random Thoughts:

- Love how the end of the episode Dean is talking about not looking for a cure, and in the preview for the next episode he's all up in Cain's business. That lasted long! Not that I'm upset. Because finally, Cain.

- I mean, am I crazy or was this episode just... not good? Honestly I don't think it's because ghosts are boring any more, the whole thing just felt a bit stilted. Even Dean getting excited about the college food and the college girls just didn't feel quite right. Which is a bummer because I quite liked last week's episode. I suppose there have to be clunkers every now and then.

- It's interesting, I've been going through a lot of my old posts to update some of the more technical stuff, and I remember so many more of the season five episodes that I was looking through than any of the following seasons (I only started recapping halfway through season five). Ah, the glory days.

- Do you ever have those moments where you're watching a show like this with someone who doesn't necessarily know it, and you're just rattling off explanations for things? Like "iron dissipates ghosts" and such? Always a good time.

Quotes:

Sam: What in the world?
Dean: A crossookie.
Sam: A crossookie?
Dean: Yeah they're the new cronuts.

Dean (checking out college girls): Sorry I ever made you leave.

Dean: I'm not gonna make it.

Dean: Oh yeah, sure Sammy. We'll just kill the internet. Wait, can we?

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

King of the Nerds 3x03 "The Gods Are Angry"

What's the reward for stirring up drama in Nerdvana? Getting voted into the Nerd Off, duh. But before the Nerd Off, of course, there is the Nerd War. And what was the Nerd War all about this week? Well, loosely based on mythology, I guess, but that was more the Nerd Off portion than the war when you get down to it.

Basically, the two teams had to build boats out of cardboard and get them across a pool of water. They only had two hours to construct these boats, and could only use cardboard, wood glue, and duct tape, pretty much. And this is where all of the drama began, really. House Hooloovoo basically told Todd straight up that if they didn't win this challenge, he would probably be next up in the Nerd Off. This admission sowed the seeds of rage inside poor Todd, who immediately started thinking that Lily was really the one who should go next, as she was spending more time flirting with Ben than actually helping with the boats. But, hey, it didn't matter at this point quite yet if they could at least win.

Team SMASH, meanwhile, were themselves getting annoyed with Ori, who, regrettably, was having a tough time figuring out how to make oars for their boats. Nonetheless, their team was a bit more civil to each other apart from that, and for Ori's part, he didn't seem all that fazed by some of the more heated things said to him in the moment.

At the Nerd War, the two teams had to designate one person to stay on shore, while the four other teammates paddled their two boats across a pool, picking up mathematics clues along the way, to then solve a puzzle on the other side, before then having to get their boats back across the pool. If their boats would sink, they would have to swim and drag it along with them. The two teams went a bit back and forth here, with Smash doing well at getting their boats in, but Hooloovoo doing well at getting to the end of the pool. In the end, however, it all came down to geometry problems, and Team SMASH was able to pull out the win thanks to a combination of Jonathan's mathematician brain and Colby's high school teacher Jeopardy brain.

Which left House Hooloovoo heading into the Nerd Off. Todd's team all decided that he would be the one they were voting in, and he got super pissed after he found out, saying that he believed Lily was really the weakest link. However, he wasn't calm and collected about it, instead opting for Hulk Rage and doing a lot of shouting, which only ostracized him more from the group, really.

Side note: he basically accused Lily of crying to get her way. I know some people probably see it that way, but I'm on Lily's side here. When someone is in your face like that, the gut response in some people is tears, whether you want them to come or not. Quite frankly, we would rather them not. And yes, I speak from experience.

Anyway! When it came time for the votes, it was no surprise to anyone that Todd was heading into the Nerd Off. The person the other team decided to send in against him was Kaitlin, as everyone views her as a very tough and smart competitor. The Nerd Off was all about Greek mythology, where whoever was able to match four mythical people with the object that pertained to each of their stories first being the winner. And honestly, it was almost sad to watch, as Todd just got straight trounced in this one. Usually there is a little bit of back and forth about who might win, but it became clear pretty quickly that it would take a lot here for that to be the case. So, Kaitlin takes down another competitor for the second week in a row.

Honestly, if Hooloovoo keeps losing, Smash will probably keep putting Kaitlin in to the battles, especially since she is not in the secret six alliance. But can she be stopped? Though we know if the teams get too one-sided the show will shake things up. Do you have any favorites to win so far?

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Ultimate Cookie Bars

Let's just cut right to the chase here - I've made these before for this here blog. They are the famous cookie bars, and were one of the first recipes I shared when I started this thing. Which means the pictures aren't that great, and the recipe itself, while good, could use a little more tweaking.

It really is pretty crazy to look back at some of my old baked goods on here and see how much my photos have improved. Of course, it helps having an actual decent camera. Like, a lot. A bajillion amount, really. My old little point and shoot camera could never get these kinds of photos, no matter how hard I tried. It did not like super close-ups, no siree.

But let's get back to the recipe. Every time I'd made these in the past, while they were definitely delicious, and deliciously gooey, they would always do that slumping thing where, after you take it out of the oven, the middle would deflate down a bit, with the edges staying up higher. Which, of course, made the edges the least desired pieces, as they were almost always much drier than the rest. So I thought to myself, I wonder if this is one of those moments where I should use a combination of baking powder and baking soda instead of just baking soda in the recipe, and what do you know!

Voila!

Magic!

The middle did not deflate after I baked it. The whole thing stayed nice and uniform throughout. Hallelujah! I may have done a mini victory jig after I let the bars sit for a while after taking them out of the oven. You know, no big.

One other thing you may notice in the below ingredients that's different from the original is that I cut down the amount of sugar. The less sugar is for a very simple reason - the marshmallows add a lot more sugar to the mix themselves, and the original recipe wasn't accounting for that, so it was very much a sugar overload situation.

I also did one more optional thing on half of my bars for this go 'round - I added some dulce de leche to the top to give it an extra boost of richness. You can see the dulce versions in the very first picture up at the top and the first one below the recipe. The dulce made the marshmallows explode even more than normal, so if you want some extra flavor, you can totally add it, but if you don't, that's fine too, it just depends on what you like.

Hopefully you all like this slight change to the original recipe! If you end up making them, let me know what you think in the comments!

Ultimate Cookie Bars
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 18 Bars
Prep time: 00:15

Cook time: 00:25

Total time: 00:40

Easy, gooey, and delicious for days. You can’t beat these cookie bars!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/14 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1+ cup mini marshmallows
• 1 15 ounce can dulce de leche (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a 9x13" pan with cooking spray.
2. In the bowl of your mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat in the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute each until fully incorporated. Mix in the vanilla.
3. Mix in the baking powder, salt, and flour on low until just incorporated. You don't want to overmix here. Then, add in the butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, and marshmallows. I usually do this by hand so the marshmallows don't get too destroyed. Make sure all are evenly distributed. If you want your bars a bit gooier, add in more marshmallows.
4. Plop that into your prepared pan, and smooth out until even. Now, if you want, you can get crazy and add a layer of dulce de leche on top. For that, scoop the dulce into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave it for about 30 seconds or so, just so it's a bit more pliable. Dollop that onto the top of the bars, then swirl around with a knife to distribute it around. You can do more or less here depending on your preference as well.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the edges are golden. The middle can still be slightly less done, as it will set up more when you let the pan sit out for another 10 minutes to cool. You can adjust the baking time depending on your preference for gooeyness as well. The more gooey you like it, the less time you bake.

Supernatural 10x12 "About a Boy"

You know, sometimes these more "event" episodes featuring the younger versions of Sam and/or Dean can be a bit of a let down, but I have to say this was probably one of my favorite episodes of the season so far. The dialogue was really funny throughout the episode, and honestly, I was just happy to have it be good old Sam and Dean.

Anywho, let's get to the meat of this recap. Some people have gone missing in Pendleton, Oregon, in bright flashes of light, leaving nothing but their clothes behind in a smoking pile. Sam convinces Dean he should take a break from the relentless research to take on the case. Of course, Dean is feeling a little guilty after his beat down of Dark Charlie, but he ends up agreeing to go.

While Sam heads off to check out the victim's house, Dean checks out the local bar where the guy went missing. He decides to have a few drinks, and chats up a friendly woman named Tina. Of course, Tina ends up being nabbed by this dude who does something to the people, making them disappear in the white light, and Dean, going to find out what happened, ends up getting zoinked as well.

What does zoinked mean in this case? Well, he wakes up in some kind of basement... in his teenage body. He's still regular Dean, just in his younger body. And Tina is also there in the room next door, also in her teenage body. Dean, of course, does not intend to just sit around while the dude comes and takes them one by one, so he manages to escape, and goes to look for Sam.

Sam has been trying to find Dean, but coming up empty apart from finding some flowers at the scene of the disappearance that witches often use in transfiguration spells. Hmm! Dean shows up at their motel and Sam is understandably a bit flabbergasted. But at least they sort of know what they're dealing with here - a witch. But this presents an interesting opportunity, as being back in his teenage body means Dean doesn't have the Mark anymore. Does that mean he should just stay in his teenage body, weird hormones and all? Something to think about.

But no time to think about it now. They've got a girl to save and a witch to kill. It turns out that the dude who was hunting them down happens to be done other than Hansel, of Hansel and Gretel fame. He weaves a sob story about the witch making him do her bidding for hundreds of years, and he's ready to help take her out. He also lets a little piece of valuable information out, too - the satchel around his neck, if Dean squeezes it, will turn him back to his correct age.

They head upstairs to do battle with the witch, who is getting ready to cook Tina. But it turns out that Hansel was lying and isn't really on their side after all - he was just luring them upstairs so the witch could aid in taking them out. While all of this is going on, the witch lets slip that she's in the US by order of the Grand Coven, to take out a wayward witch. Could that be... Rowena? Indeed.

No time to think what that means right now, though, as they get to the fisticuffs. Sam, as he is wont to do, gets knocked to the ground and is down for the count, looking dazed. Dean gets beaten up a lot by Hansel, but manages to steal the hex bag from around his neck. Just in time, too, or the witch was going to turn Sam into Colin Ford and eat them all. Or is that just in time? We all would love to see some Colin Ford, I'm sure.

Anyway! Dean squeezes that hex back to get back his man size and Mark powers, and throws that witch into the fire to burn, baby, burn. Along with the hex bag, which I'm not sure was entirely necessary when he knew young Tina was sitting right there in her teenage body. It turns out, though, that she may be perfectly happy to stay that age, getting a second chance to do her life right. If only I could do that, Dean thinks to himself.

And what would the end of a Supernatural episode be without the brotherly chat? You know, Sam's not happy the Mark is back, but at least he has his brother. D'ah.

Random Thoughts:

- Really? We're supposed to believe Sam believed in the Easter Bunny until he was nearly twelve with everything they saw as kids? Yeah. Sure.

- I thought Dylan Everett did a great job as Dean. He looked so tiny next to Jared, though, ha. It's also kind of funny that he's actually twenty in real life but playing fourteen. Ha. But yeah he did a good job at the Dean gravel voice stuff.

- The whole Taylor Swift bit and callback were pretty funny. That song is so frickin' catchy, man!

- When the heck are they going to go looking for Cain, already? I mean, it's clear they aren't finding anything in the lore, yet they don't seem to be on the lookout for Cain. What's the deal?

Quotes:

Dean: You also believed in the Easter Bunny until you were twelve.
Sam: No, I didn't.... Look, I was eleven.
Dean: And a half.
Sam: And a half, right.

Homeless Man: Look, we all know what's going on here, okay?
Dean: Don't say it.
Homeless Man: Aliens.
Dean: He said it.
Sam: Yeah, he did.

Sam: ...and that his bathroom was quote, staring into the devil's butt.
Dean: That's... vivid.
Sam: And accurate. I saw it.

Tina: You know, before, I thought you were just a drunk.
Dean: I prefer functional alcoholic.

Woman: Your son is so polite.
Sam: ... Thanks.

Sam: Cake. Why would they give you cake?
Dean: Don't know. It wasn't even good cake. Too dry.

Sam: I'm way too big to fit in that.
Dean: First time you ever had to say that, huh?

Hansel: If you're going to fry that candy-coated bitch, I want in.

Sam: You pulled a Dean Winchester.

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