All's Fair in Oven War (S16, E02-337)

Yet again Marge proves she can be the craziest Simpson of them all.

Plot Summary
With the house next door on sale, Marge and Homer take a look inside.  Marge is in awe with the house's state of the art kitchen, and wishes the same for her run down one.  Homer promises to build it himself, but after a few mishaps, Marge calls in a contractor.  During said mishaps, a pile of old Playdude magazines fall from the ceiling.  Homer claims to only have them for the articles, so Marge ensures that reasoning by clipping out any trace of nudity in every magazine.  Upon realizing this, Homer banishes the unholy book into the trash can.  Some time later, Bart and Milhouse discover the magazines, though all they find within the book are adult themes.

With the help of contractors, the new kitchen is eventually finished, and Marge celebrates the rather pricey venture by making a special batch of chicken wings.  She takes the batch to a church luncheon.  The green-colored, Wasabi Buffalo Wings are an instant hit with the group, and Marge's confidence is high.  Ned Flanders suggests Marge enter the "Ovenfresh Bakeoff", where the winner will be the new model for the company.  Marge decides to follow through and makes a batch of "dessert dogs" which are dessert ingredients formed into hot dog shapes.  After the family approves, Marge sends in the recipe, and its good enough to gain her entry into the bakeoff.

Meanwhile, Bart and Milhouse turn the treehouse into a Playdude-style pen, introducing all sorts of adult-like themes (while still being unaware of the adult theme).  James Caan even stops by for awhile.  Parents across town learn of what their kids are picking up there, and complain to Homer.  After Homer confirms how clueless Bart is about what he's doing, Homer just ups and decides to tell Bart all about sex.  Bart is so disturbed by it, he runs to tell Milhouse, and they go to tell they others kids, all of whom are disturbed by these new adult themes.

At the bakeoff, Marge along with Lisa begins to cook her dogs, but Marge finds out that the other competitors not only like to ridicule Marge's entry, but stop at nothing to sabotage it as well, leading to her dogs catching on fire.  In an attempt to salvage the dogs, Marge learns she's nearly out of time, with the door leading to accepted entries closing.  Marge is able to slip her dish, and herself, into the entry room just as it closes.  Alone with several high-quality dishes, Marge starts losing it, still angry how everyone trashed her dish.  She decides to serve a new dish: revenge.  Pulling out Maggie's ear medicine, which tastes awful, Marge drops a little into everything edible, laughing manically along the way, though Lisa witnesses this through a keyhole.

Marge is one of two finalists for a final bakeoff, along with Brandine, whose roadkill dish Marge didn't sabotage as she wasn't aware it was actually food.  Lisa confronts Marge over the cheating later on, but Marge shrugs her off, noting that its all or nothing for her right now.  As the final bakeoff begins, though, Marge finds a card from Lisa stating how disappointed Lisa is.  Marge finally gives in, and admits publicly that she sabotaged the others dishes, giving Brandine the most default victory ever.  Marge is happy Lisa looked out for her, though Cletus is upset that Brandine's new status has gained the eye of James Caan albeit not for long.

Quick Review
I enjoyed this episode.  Again, the jokes aren't in the same quantity as they used to be, but there's hardly anything about the episode which was bad or cringe-worthy (aside from the return of Thomas Pynchon, his appearance dragged the episode down a bit).  James Caan's appearance was good, particularly the Godfather-style ending, and with both plots being good it makes for a pretty decent episode.

Final Score: 7.8