"Nothing to lose, huh?" Lois muttered under her breath as her hand absently drifted down to her stomach, 'But if I start now, how many more months do I really have before my feet start to swell up and my bladder starts getting kicked in?'
But even as Lois recalled the pains of pregnacy a smile spread across her face as she remembered the man who had sentenced her to such a fate, 'It's been so long since I've seen him…hopefully whatever he has planned, this weekend will give us some time alone. Though I wonder how many of Meg's friends I'll be competing with for that privilege.'
Lois had to fight the urge to roll her eyes at that thought as she tried to remember all the names Meg had mentioned during their weekly phone calls. Their relationship had quickly mended through constant communication, ranging from lighthearted gossip to more meaningful, deeper conversations. Through these talks, Lois had come to learn about the other three girls that has some how found themselves gravitating towards Ramon. 'Finding out about Patty had been enough of a shock, but now two of their co-workers and a woman who owns a farm are in the mix now?'
Lois should have been mad that Ramon was seemingly with all these other women every single day of the week while she was stuck in her parents' house, pregnant with his child. But Lois couldn't find it in her to hate the man, especially after she was the one who told him that she needed more stability before they could be a family.
"Lois, dear, what's the matter?" Barbara asked, snapping Lois out of her thoughts and making her realize that a tear had rolled down her cheek, "Did something I say upset you?"
Blinking, Lois reached up and wiped her eyes dry, "N-no, I just realized that I kinda miss having a family. Even with all the chaos and migraines… it felt good to take care of people."
Barbara stared at Lois for a second before smiling fondly, "Well, I can't encourage you to get back with that pig of a man you finally left after so many years. But if you were able to find even a glimmer of happiness in that mess, then maybe it's something worth looking for again. Though do try to find a man who will give you the space and time to find who you are."
Lois smiled and sniffed before leaning in to hug her mother, "Thanks for listening to me mom."
"Oh, hush, you're a mother yourself, you know I could walk away," Barbara scoffed, followed by a chuckle as she pulled away, "Oh, I think your cooking show is back on. I'll leave you to…well, hello, and just who is that?"
Lois glanced back over at the TV and saw that the camera was focused on Ramon and Colette standing side by side, waiting to hear the judge's decision. "Oh, that's Ramon. He's the owner of the restaurant Meg works at."
"Well, I can see why you're so invested in this show," Barbara muttered as she drank in Ramon's appearance, "When did they start making men like that?"
"Mom!" Lois exclaimed in shock, making Barbara laugh, "Relax, dear, just a bit of an observation. Besides, I'm sure he already has a girlfriend or wife, or two."
Lois shook her head as if she couldn't believe her mother's antics, but internally her sentiment was the complete opposite: 'You're closer than you think.'
---
"And we're back at the end of the second round with the judges' verdict. Let's see if we'll make it to the third round or not."
"Ramon, your dish was fantastic," Mayor West started, "The gnocchi and beef paired perfectly together, and the herb infusion in the dumplings made a very distinct impression. However, it was something we had all had before, or at least some variation of it. But combining an omelet with fried rice cooked in ketchup …well, none of us have ever tasted something like that before, which is why the second round goes to Colette."
"Well, you just heard it, folks, looks like we're going to the third and final round, like we all were secretly hoping." Lois cheered enthusiastically.
"Looks like you won," Ramon commented to Colette, who smirked at him. "Having any regrets or second thoughts?"
"Just one," Ramon muttered, "I wish I could have somehow snuck a bite from one of your plates. I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast."
"Could you at least try to take this the least bit seriously?" Colette asked, though it looked like she knew what Ramon's answer would be as she turned away and walked back towards her station.
"And just like that, we're back with the final countdown. Each chef only has an hour left to prepare a dessert good enough to secure them a shot at victory, and from what we've seen, it seems that neither Ramon nor Colette has any intention of giving it anything but their best!"
--[Ramon POV]--
Listening to Lois' narration as I walked back over to my station, I mentally reviewed what was left for me to do, which turned out to be very little. 'All I need to do is take the cheesecake out of the oven and set it in the fridge to chill while I make the lemon whipping cream.'
I nodded to myself, feeling confident in my chance to take home gold, until I opened the oven and found the last thing I wanted to see, 'Shit.'
Reaching into the oven, I took out my cheesecake and stared at the large jagged cracks ruining the smooth marble pattern I had painstakingly layered when pouring the batter. 'I knew it was a risk not using a water bath, but I never got any cracks this big when I was testing this recipe…it has to be the oven. The ambient temperature must have been too high after the pot roast, and it didn't have enough time to cool down, even with me lowering the temperature.'
Staring at the cracks, I let out a frustrated sigh, 'I could do patch them together with a hot knife and water, but that will mess up the pattern even more, and the cake won't have enough time to set properly after all that effort. Meaning I either go through with it and serve a half-assed cheesecake…Or I could try something completely different.'
Before I even realized what was happening, I was opening the fridge and putting the cheesecake inside to chill, all while thinking about the half-baked plan in my head, 'The chance that this works out how I want it to is slim, but if it does…'
A small grin worked its way onto my face, 'It might actually turn out even better than my original idea.'
Modifying my recipe on the fly, I grabbed two bags of lemons from the fridge and dumped them into the sink to thoroughly wash them. I made sure the skins were as clean as possible since they were now the stars of the show.
Then, after grabbing my sharpest pairing knife and a cloth, I began the painstaking process of peeling each lemon, paying special attention to exclude any pith. While not bitter on its own, the pith, when eaten with the peel, would create new compounds responsible for the extremely off-putting bitterness.
But with a bit of patience, I managed to skin each lemon, leaving me with several long lemon peel spirals, which I threw into a pot of boiling water. Instead of fully cooking them, the peels were blanched for only two minutes before being immediately dunked into an ice bath to stop them from cooking. While they cooled down, I prepared a baking sheet with a wire rack, so I could carefully lay out the peels and ensure all sides were exposed to the oven's scorching heat, helping them dry out properly.
Standing back up, I dreaded checking the time, expecting to be horribly behind schedule, but found that I had over thirty minutes left, "I might actually pull this off.'
Grinning to myself, I grabbed another saucepan and combined a cup of water with two cups of sugar, mixing them together over medium heat until everything dissolved. Once I reached that point, I turned the heat up to high and took my hands off and stared at the pot watching the clear sugar solution bubble and boil, 'I only got one shot at this, better make it count.'