FOOD

The good news? We harvested 60+ lbs. of Roma tomatoes this year. Bad news? I'd have to puree them in my little food mill as I did last year. It's a nice enough tool but just not up to processing that kind of volume. The plates clog up and have to be removed and cleaned, then re-installed. It just takes forever. But this time around I found something robust enough for heavy tomato lifting.

Last week I received a text from Nancy Leson containing the lobster shot above and "Live @ $4.50/lb. Eat yer heart out." The surge of envy that coursed through me was powerful enough to make me drop my can of Beanie-Weenies.

What kind of madcap optimist attempts homemade pastrami? Well, uh — me. When I told Nancy Leson about the breakthrough recipe I found at Mandy Lee's utterly swell Lady And Pups blog, she had to try it too.

Run wild! Sure, if you've never made something before, it's a good idea to follow the instructions. But remember that recipes come from all-too-fallible humans, not infallible food deities. I speak from bitter experience.

I got so excited last week listening to Nancy describe her homemade tortillas that I ran right out and bought a tortilla press and some masa harina. My intention was a taco feast with homemade Mexican chorizo and salsa verde and homemade tortillas. What could go wrong?

"Why would you make your own tortillas when they're available in every store?" I asked Nancy Leson . "Because I can. Because it's fun. And it's easy!" And, she claims, better than store-bought. Read on for Nancy's tortillas, the book they rode in and actual live footage of La Leson wielding her tortilla press.

Nancy Leson was just over the moon about the Persian cooking class she'd recently taken from cookbook author and teacher Najmieh Batmanglij. I took one look at Batmanglij's site and immediately found recipes I had to try.

Nancy Leson is the first to talk up the virtues of the produce on sale at l ocal farmers markets, but she was wowed by the tomatoes she saw at Eugene's Lane County Farmers Market. Her only regret? "I just wasn't in a position to take home a box of San Marzanos that were just unbe-LEEEV-able." I had thought San Marzanos were the same thing as the Romas I'm growing. I was half-right.

"Hey Nance," I asked Ms. Leson . "Mussels or clams – which wunna dese?" "Of dose?" she Philly'd. "I like 'em both, but it would have to be mussels. Especially in the summer." Here's why.

As a guy who excludes fruit from his diet, I have no business pointing a finger at anyone else's food phobias. But I will, anyway. How can my wife, the Lovely & Talented Cheryl DeGroot, a generally omnivorous woman, hate grits? And she'll have nothing to do with Pisum sativum , either no matter how I beg her to give peas a chance. Nancy Leson's husband Mac won't eat the cheeses she finds so pleasing. This week Nance and I commiserate on our spouses' food phobias and offer recipes for stuff