Mad Men's family affairs, a taste of the American Baking Competition and a quick True Blood recap

 Last night was the debut of The American Baking Competition,
where ten home cooks compete to win a publishing contract from Simon & Schuster(for their own cookbook) along with a quarter of a million dollars as their reward for being the best baker in the US.

Hosted by Jeff Foxworthy and judged by Paul Hollywood and Marcela Valladolid, the first culinary challenge was pies and tarts. Round one was the "Signature Dish",where each contestant made a tried and true recipe out of their own collection. Most of the pies turned out well(with a few noted excepts) but the surprise of that round came from Francine,who wasn't sure how Paul Hollywood would take her chocolate peanut butter and bacon creation. Turns out that a little bit of bacon goes well with everything there:

The next round was a technical challenge, where everyone was given the same recipe(a meat pie) but only the bare bones requirements. Getting the crust right was tricky and the tasting was done without knowing who did which one at first.

The last round is the "Show Stopper" and 36 tarts were tasked to them all. One guy(Jeremy, a firefighter) couldn't get all of his tarts done on time but he still managed to stay in the game as another competitor went home.

 At the end, one person was chosen as the "Star Baker" and that honor went to Francine,who is already a favorite of mine. Her down to earth demeanor and joy of baking is what a show like this is all about and I'll be rooting for her for the next few weeks. Hopefully, I won't be alone in that but my best guess is probably not:

Mad Men revisited some old family ties this week, as Don ran into a newly vamped Betty while seeing Bobby at his summer camp. The two of them reconnected in more ways than one,with a one night stand that had Betty in the driver's seat for once.

 However, it was obvious the next day that it was meant to be a brief encounter on her part,anyway,which is just as well since Don has enough complications on his personal plate as it is:

 

He wasn't the only one trying to seek solace from a former lover, as Roger's reaction to being scolded about taking his toddler grandson to Planet of the Apes had him attempting to worm his way back into Joan's life.

She's also moved on,emotionally and would prefer that her son only have one father to acknowledge(even if he is a total jerk but then again, Roger is no great shakes in that department either).

 The one person I would keep on an eye on here is Bob,who has made his way into Joan's good graces and is trying to do the same with Pete. Something about that guy just makes me think of Eve Harrington but it's still not certain who he's wanting to replace at the still nameless agency(too many initials,gang-my suggestion, pick a general name like Mad Ad for the firm). We've only got a few more episodes left, so hopefully SCDP/CGC will have a proper title by the end of this run.

 The new season of True Blood will be starting up soon,so it'll a good idea to refresh our collective memories about what happened last year and boy,was there a lot going on!

 Let's highlight the main points; Bill(and briefly Eric) became a member of the Vampire Authority after Russell Edgington took over in a literally bloody coup.

Russell went back to his blood addicting ways with the local werewolves,which got Sam and his new girlfriend all tangled up in that power struggle which distracted Russell and his new boyfriend Steve Newlin from the growing madness at the Authority due to indulging in the blood of the vampire goddess Lilith.

Meanwhile, Tara adjusted to becoming a vampire,thanks to a reluctant Pam, and Sookie reconnected to her fae roots only to discover an ancestor of hers sold her to a mysterious blood drinker named Warlow. As the season wrapped up, open warfare was declared on vampires, Andy become a confused papa to a gaggle of faerie babies and Bill took the Nestea plunge with the last of Lilith's blood. Pretty complicated, I know, but this new go-round of True Blood should be something to watch there and I don't intend to miss one crazy drop of it:

 RANDOM NOTES:

 THE WHITE QUEEN:  In August,Starz will be airing this BBC miniseries based on Philippa Gregory's set of novel about the War of the Roses. I happen to be reading The White Queen right now and let me tell you, this is one summer series worth waiting for: