We Made Pepsi’s Absurd Colachup, AKA Cola-Infused Ketchup

The recipe for Taylor Swift's chai cookies is fairly straightforward. All you need to do is measure out and combine every ingredient into a large bowl and mix it all together! After chilling the dough for an hour or so, you'll be ready to roll it into balls before baking in the oven. All in all, making the chai cookies took me under an hour – so this could make for a great weeknight baking project, or a weekend activity to beat a cold-weather slump. I've made them several times for friends' parties!

Ingredients For Taylor Swift's Chai Sugar Cookies

• ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil, since I didn’t have any vegetable oil)
• ½ cup white sugar, plus more for topping
• ½ cup powdered sugar, plus more for the icing
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 chai tea bag, plus more for the icing

How To Make The Taylor Swift Chai Cookies

1. Set your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet and set aside.
2. While the oven warms, beat the butter in a large bowl. After it gets fluffy, add the vegetable oil.
3. Add the sugar, powdered sugar, egg, and vanilla.
4. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and the chai tea to the bowl, and mix.
5. Chill the dough for about an hour.
6. Pour a small amount of white sugar onto a plate, for rolling the cookie dough in.
7. Roll the dough into 12 balls using your hands, covering each one in the white sugar before placing them on your cookie sheet.
8. Bake for “9ish” minutes. I ended up baking them for 10.
9. While the cookies are baking, make your chai icing – mix together a small amount (I used about ½ cup) of powdered sugar and half of a chai tea bag. Adding a capful of milk at a time, stir together until you reach your desired icing consistency.
10. When the cookies are done and completely cool, cover the tops with the chai icing. Then you’re ready to dig in!

Recipe notes:

• For step 1, pro tip: use the wrapper from your butter to grease your cookie sheet!
• For step 2, I used an electric hand mixer to beat the butter – much less physical work on the baker’s part.
• For step 4, I found that mixing with a fork helped incorporate the mixture really well. I then used a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl that I missed.
• For step 5, I didn’t end up chilling the dough, but the cookies turned out just fine!
• For step 8, Taylor’s recipe says to bake for 9 minutes, but I found I had to bake mine a little longer, around 12 minutes. This might be because I baked them at a higher altitude here in Colorado!

Voila! Now you can treat yourself like Taylor Swift would! Happy baking!

Ingredients for No-Bake Apple Pie Bites

• 1 cup cashew butter
• 5 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup flaxseed meal
• 1/2 cup unflavored protein powder
• 1/2 cup dried apples, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh Honeycrisp apples, finely chopped

How To Make No-Bake Apple Pie Bites

1. Add all the ingredients to a large mixing bowl, except for the freshly chopped apples. The mixture will be quite thick, so feel free to use your hands to get it mixed well together.

2. Scoop out the bites using a cookie scooper (about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons) and roll in the fresh chopped apple bits. Then roll the bite to form an evenly curved ball shape. Set aside on parchment paper and repeat with the remaining dough.

These apple pie bites are ready to eat as is, or you can place them in the refrigerator to firm them up a bit. The perfect fall energy snack!

Why aren't Rudy and Madison friends anymore?

Rudy Pankow and Madison Bailey were best friends during season 1 (Madison called Rudy her "bestie," and said that in any situation, "he's the first person I'm going to call"). But rumors of a fallout came after the show went viral in 2020. Fans picked up on their onscreen chemistry and started shipping the actors in addition to shipping their characters JJ and Kiara (the internet shipped the fictional couple so hard, in fact, that the relationship was written into the show despite it not being the team's original plan).

"Madison and Kiara, and Rudy and JJ, are two different people," Madison said in a 2020 Entertainment Tonight interview after the relationship started picking up steam. "Let's keep the ships on the show. But as far as the show, I'm all for it."

After publicity for Outer Banks season 2 began, fans noticed Rudy and Madison didn't seem to have the same connection in public, and even appeared to avoid each other on set — a far cry from their adorable interactions during press for season 1.

Fans started outright blaming Rudy's girlfriend Elaine Seimek, who was originally a PA on the show, for causing a rift between the two actors. Madison herself shut down the rumors with a TikTok promising they all had no problems, while Rudy Pankow took to Instagram to defend his girlfriend.

"To those who are creating such displeasure and opinions about the one I love and my relationship, it’s time to stop," Rudy Pankow said in an August 6, 2021 post. "In this era of social engagement and enlightenment I want to express the importance to spread positivity and needing to know when it is unfair to express your own distaste for something or someone, especially when you can do it behind an anonymous identity. I was always told the best version of yourself is your most humbled self…I make this statement as my most humbled self and would be so grateful if we all would move forward in positivity and respect."

Is there drama between the Outer Banks cast?

The Outer Banks cast drama rumors only intensified after a June 2023 dinner, when Madison Bailey and her partner Mariah Linney reportedly unfollowed Elaine on Instagram. Not to mention the fact Rudy Pankow isn't in any of the Outer Banks season 4 cast videos.

After JJ's death rocked the internet, creators Josh and Jonas Pate and Shannon Burke said that it was always the plan to kill JJ. "For a long time we had known that someone was going to die," showrunner Shannon Burke told Teen Vogue. "We thought it was going to be JJ all along."

However, the fact that JJ and Kiara have been dating for almost 2 years at this point, yet barely react to the other heading into danger has fans thinking Rudy asked to leave the show. And rumors that they filmed multiple endings to give Rudy the option to stay only adds fuel to the fire.

When new episodes of the show dropped in November of 2024, fans almost immediately clocked that Rudy and Madison appear to have used body doubles for a cuddling scene — while Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes (who dated from June 2020 to November 2021) were cozied up across the campfire.

Even though an anonymous source suggested Rudy and Madison aren't friends anymore, and that their chemistry onscreen in season 1 was because they'd fallen for each other IRL, a source told People the actors are not feuding.

When did Madison Bailey and Rudy Pankow meet?

Rudy and Madison first met after Rudy had booked the role of JJ and Madison was headed to a final audition. Despite the fact they had mutual friends, they didn't meet until they were on the same plane to Charleston. She told Harper's Bazaar in 2020 that she said hello when they crossed paths, then found a DM from him on social media. “He was like, ‘I knew you were Kiara the second I saw you,’" she said. "I was like, "Oh my God, did this guy three seats up really just DM me?’ He went and found our mutuals, found my page, and messaged me.”

Well, during press for Outer Banks season 4, when the cast was asked who would be most likely to fall in love with a stranger on a plane, Carlacia Grant (Cleo) answered with Madison, leading fans to believe she was confirming the romance rumors.

Did Rudy quit OBX?

Rudy Pankow exited Outer Banks after season 4, and Madison Bailey finally spoke about what JJ means to her in the cast's official goodbye — and got emotional talking about how well Rudy brought the character to life.

"We all read the character on the page," she says. "And we know what you brought to it and you turned it out and really made something of it and paid respect to the depth of the character while bringing a lightheartedness that the show desperately needed."

And during a cast video hyping up JJ's (and Rudy's) best moments from the series, fans were beaming when Rudy and Madison dissected some of the best Jiara moments from season 3. "this video healed me❤️🩹 thank you netflix!" one TikTok user wrote in the comments of Madison talking about JJ and Kiara's first kiss. "I’m so happy [they're] friends bro like fr 🥺🥺," another user said.