FOOD

Depending on your pan and the amount you're cooking, it'll take you at least 40 minutes to an hour to get onions to deliver up that golden brown sweetness. Yet many recipes claim it can be done in five or ten minutes. Who ya gonna believe, eaters? The recipe writers or your lyin' eyes?

Nancy Leson and I each got a copy of the new Hello My Name is Tasty: Global Diner Favorites from Portland's Tasty Restaurants . There's plenty in there I'm looking forward to trying, but like Nancy I went straight to the biscuits. We both made them and agree they're the best ever. Here's how:

I like lentils and I love the spicy red lentil soup recipe Nancy Leson recently sent me. Adapted from Lynne Rossetto Kasper's The Splendid Table's How to Eat Weekends , this recipe is fast and easy to make, and perfect for rainy weeknight dinners, too. For a more time-consuming, weekend lentil dish, do try the lamb shanks and lentils recipe from another Kaspar – Kaspar Donier. You'll find both recipes below. As of publication we still have not received recipes from Kaspar Hauser or Casper the

"Do you have anything new to say about Thanksgiving dinner?" I asked Nancy Leson. "No, I don't," she admitted. Me neither, So I suggested we talk turkey about our favorite waterfowl, instead.

There are any number of overused, hackneyed and just flat out annoying words at large in current food writing. My personal worst would have to be the infuriatingly infantile "veggie." Nancy Leson shares my loathing for another "-ie," the pointless and demeaning "foodie." But she doesn't stop there.

"I am a believer!" I told Nancy Leson, "In the single most useful kitchen tool I've encountered in years. " Tweezers. "I have those, Stein," Nancy said. "What's the big deal?" The big deal is that these tweezers are big – and amazingly versatile.

"Good service starts the minute you walk in the door," Nancy Leson says. "There's a certain sense of welcome. If you have it right away, even if people are busy, that's great service." I agree. A simple acknowledgment of my presence is plenty for me. No one likes to feel invisible. Even if the person behind the podium is busy taking a reservation on the phone, a smile, eye contact and a silently mouthed "Just a second" make me feel welcomed. Nancy has firm ideas on what else makes for great

I'm a guy who appreciates the virtues, however imaginary, of the quick fix. And what could be more emblematic of the QF than duct tape? Surely there's something analogous in cooking. When I asked Nancy Leson what she thought that might be, she posed the question on her Facebook page.

As I told Nancy Leson in this week's chat, "I just don't have the kind of kitchen where everything is put away nice and neat." Nance keeps her kitchen, though shinier than mine, the same way.

Alarm bells went off in my head when my wife, the Lovely & Talented Cheryl DeGroot asked, "What is all that smoke floating under the ceiling?" How could that be? The kitchen exhaust fan was going full blast. I noticed that the door on the overhead cabinet housing the fan was slightly ajar. I turned off the fan and closed it. When I re-started the fan the door popped open again. Uh-oh.