What Lola wants, Lola gets

I'm going to the coast today to get some much needed time away from Portland. I'm going with three lovely ladies who are strapped down with wine and tequila. I asked for food requests and I got only one: Peach pie. I've never made peach pie but I think I did pretty well.

I fully admit that I do not make pie crust. It's f$%^ing hard, painstaking, annoying, bothersome, and easier to buy at the store. The store is way better than my crust, trust me. Lelo in Nopo has a great recipe for it if you feel like spending an afternoon going insane.

Peach Pie

2lbs. peaches - peeled and pitted

1/2 cup raw sugar

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tbsp. cornstarch

This is really simple. Cut the peaches in even slices and put in a soup pot with all the ingredients. Turn the stove on medium. Stir the peaches until the liquid at the bottom thickens and the peaches start to get translucent and the ends. Don't let the peaches cook all the way through. No one likes mush pie. No one. This whole thing should not take longer than 10 minutes. If it does, you messed it up. Put the peaches in your pie shell and cover over with the other pie shell dough. Rub the top of the pie crust with butter and then sprinkle with a bit of raw sugar. Bake at 350 (don't preheat) for about 40 to 50 minutes. Watch your pie after the 40th minute. Voila, holiday pie.

Salsa for beginners

Lately, I've been making friends with people on Twitter. We gossip, share random tidbits and we ask for advice. I've been asked by a fabulous new friend to share some easy and impressive cooking ideas. It's warm out and I thought what could be better than salsa? It's pretty easy, but done wrong it can be watery and weird. There is nothing worse that scooping up yucky pink liquid on a chip or spreading it in your taco.

Roasted Serrano salsa

1 can diced tomato

2 Serrano chiles (unless heat is a problem, then just one)

1 cup cooked corn

1/2 red onion

2 garlic cloves

A few leaves of fresh basil and oregano

A handful of fresh cilantro

Juice of a whole lime + lime zest

Salt to taste

Cut the tops of your Serranos and roast at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. In the meantime, put the rest of the ingredients - except the tomatoes and zest - in a food processor and blend until everything is in itty bitty bits. Mix the blend with the tomatoes in a bowl. When the Serranos are roasted (you'll know because the chile skin will be brown) dice them up pretty small and add to your salsa. I always include the seeds because I like it hot. If you don't, slice the chiles lengthwise before you roast and remove the seeds. Reduce the roasting time by 5 minutes.

Perfect salsa and it will taste nice and smoky.

I love Emily and Brenden

Nice summer night, homemade brick oven, and fabulous friends. More details and pictures to come!

I am what I eat

Oh, cursed tape measure and calipers!

This morning my boyfriend - Gym - took my weight, measurements and body fat percentage. I smiled the entire time, but there is nothing like a grown woman being pinched in order to grab flab (26% body fat). I made jokes about giant boobs and the positive aspects of hair on one's belly. Fun fact: One of my thighs is almost as big around as Dr. Meredith Grey. The final humiliation was the "before" picture. Now honestly it wasn't that bad because I've already been working out twice a day for 5 weeks and I don't look half bad, but still, Gym was weilding a camera and telling me to stick out my gut. Argh.

Now I have to keep a food journal. You see, I entered the Just Lose It competition. Gym said it would help me get to my goal for an ultimate 30 year old fit body. He also said I have a good chance of winning because of my latent aggression and my need to win every competition. I'm also driven to fight when Gym whispers in my ear, "How bad do you want it, Karol Ann?" Seriously, that is a hot sentence.

I believe in my new man, so I signed up. now I have to write down every little thing, including my occasional monkey muffin that I stuff down my throat at Grand Central Bakery. I love those damn muffins. I am what I eat so the muffins are taking a back seat to quinoa and cauliflower. It sounds bad but I'm here to tell you; I caught a glimpse of myself in the elevator reflection today. Totally worth it.

Still not cooking, inventively anyway

I'm on a workout kick. My sparse readers will ask, "When are you not on a workout kick?" The answer is, almost never. This time, though, there is a reason. See, I've been on a rash of random dates in the last year. With dating comes excessive bar food, drinks, and lots of gym skipping. I recently proclaimed I was off dating for a while because I am A: exhausted, B: over bad dates, C: I'm dating for the wrong reasons, and D: I've gained seven not so sexy dating pounds.

My new boyfriend is Gym. He's reliable, always down the street, never makes me feel bad about myself and never pushes me unless I ask him to. Plus he always wants to see me and is there whenever I want to show up! There are no down sides to dating Gym. As of late, he's been putting me in my place and I love him for that. He keeps me from those pesky happy hours that are laden with margaritas and fried treats. Until I get back to a shape where I can have those occasional treats, I'm back on the wagon and committed to my old boyfriend, Gym.

I'm on a pretty serious diet of turkey or chicken burgers, various fiber-laden vegetables, cheese squares, smoothies, eggs and lots of water and tea. I've kept my coffee habit, but as my body is detoxing, I want it less and less.

The goal of this is to recover my boot camp body of last winter. I'm motivated by a bit of vanity, my BFF's smoking wedding body, and a long vacation I have planned for August. Not a bunch of menu options, but I can still do random creative things like, Scrabble magnets!

Fashion for a Cause

It's no secret, I love the GLBT community. I do what I can, when I can for the fight for equality. Sometimes in my fight for equality, I get to put on a hot, hot dress and walk a red carpet. That's what I'll do this weekend at the Basic Rights Oregon fashion show, STRUTpdx. Saturday, May 16th my friends and I will be drinking champagne, checking out local designers and dancing at an afterparty all for the low price of $13 dollars. We'll wake up a little hungover knowing we did it for the cause! Check out this ad for STRUT:

Hatching some sauce

I'm in a creative phase. Everything I've seen and felt in the last few months seem heightened some how and I think that has unleashed a secret box of ideas. My latest master plan? A line of sauces. I made two tonight - lime & serrano and fruity - and I'm taking them on the road tomorrow to friends for a taste drive.

Unfortunately for you, I will not be sharing these recipes. I know that no one could quite recreate them, but just in case, they'll remain in my head. But, some pics!

Beauty find for ladies who love long lashes

Hello lady friends. I'd like to introduce you to Dior Show.

I went to Sephora today with Roester to engage in some much needed retail therapy. I planned on just watching her shop for various lotions and potions. I wandered around, smelled things, touched things, fought the urge to buy too many containers of eye shadow no one notices anyway. Then, I came across the mascara column. Oh lovely display of wands, how it inticed me. I started touching the tubes and wondering if it was worth the temptation. Do I try it on and not purchase? Do I annoy the snot out of the over made up staff by making them help me? Why, yes, yes I do.

I put on Dior Show. Hello, heavenly long lashes! I've got lashes that touch my nose because of the Christian Dior mascara! Kanye West was right, "There is nothing like Christian Dior; they don't make s%^t like that anymore!" That might not be exactly the right lyrics, but close enough. And my lashes don't touch my nose, but they do look extremely long. I was hoping after I spent $24 on a tube of black smear I'd have a dinner date to show off my lovely new lashes, alas, can't have it all.

The moral of this story, ladies? Run fast to your Sephora counter and purchase Dior Show. You'll have lashes so long you can hail a cab just by blinking.

I made Gwen some soups

I've been tossing around the idea of deleting this blog. While I love to cook, I'm not doing so much of it these days. As I say constantly, I've only been making turkey burgers. That isn't as interesting to blog about as say, a caramel banana cream cake; a cake I owe to someone very soon.

But my good friend Gwennie Pie is laid up. My answer to comforting her? Why, food of course. So I made three delicious soups: Black bean, minestrone and chicken with white beans. They are pretty basic, but oh so tasty. It also reminded me that I love to make stuff - food, crafty stuff - and I should show it all, not just the edible kind. So, stay tuned as I figure out what to do next. Until then, my favorite of the three Gwennie Pie Soups:

Black bean soup

Black beans
corn
butternut squash, cubed
red chile sauce (not the gross canned enchilada sauce)*
garlic, couple cloves
white onion, diced
chicken stock (whole box)
salt to taste

Cook down the onions and garlic in a little chicken stock. When the onions are shiny, throw in the corn and the black beans (I used the can beans, rinsed them first). Add a little more stock. Add one cup of red chile sauce. When it looks nice and thick and bubbly, add the rest of the stock and the squash and turn the stove to low. Let it all swim together for 30 minutes, then you are done!

*Red chile sauce

One can of diced tomatoes, plus the liquid
2 garlic cloves
1/2 red onion
1 tbsp oregano
4 tbsp New Mexico red chile powder (It has to be NM. No cheating.)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt

Blend all of the above at the same time in a blender or food processor. You'll want to drink it like milk and spread it on everything, trust me.

Healthy eating makes my stomach intolerant

Anyone who reads this little blog endeavor of mine knows I'm slightly obsessed with food. I'm also focused on healthy eating, fitness, and how to be in great shape, inside and out. Now that I only cook for one my diet consists mainly of bran buds, crackers, turkey burgers and lots of veggies. I throw in some cheese occasionally and make baked goods when I'm invited by others to dinner at their homes. Here is what is tripping me up: bacon.



For reasons unknown, my stomach isn't being as receptive to bacon as it once was. It started innocently enough when I went to lunch with a couple of friends right after Thanksgiving. I had a BLT salad at lunch counter downtown. Halfway through, I thought I was going to lose my lunch. I had to stand outside in the breeze for 10 minutes to keep it down. I thought it might be the dressing and moved on. In the months following, I've had to eat bacon very slowly to see if I'm going to have the same reaction. Sometimes, I do.



Bacon and I are in a stare down and I am scared I might lose.



Today for lunch I had a delicious sliced deli chicken breast sandwich. I asked for bacon on top. In the first bite, I had to remove the bacon because just the smell made me feel a little rumbly. I'm starting to wonder if all this healthy eating is making my stomach intolerant to fun foods.



The same thing happened to me when I was 17 and didn't eat beef for a few months. I haven't been able to keep beef down in 14 years...