This showdown's been brewing ever since Nancy Leson claimed she could make perfectly good bagels, start to finish in one hour. Naturally I scoffed, but Nancy swears they're good. We and about ten other guests finally got a chance to do a comparison tasting last weekend. The results surprised me.

Mayonnaise is Chile's favorite sandwich spread. It's a must for the famous Chacarero (farm style) beef, tomato and green bean sandwich. I made one recently and, in the process, discovered a whole new use for both mayo and my gas grill.

“Seattle restaurants are so uncomfortable that it’s driving me crazy,” Nancy Leson beefed. Nancy’s main complaint is fundamental. “Isn’t the definition of 'restaurant' to restore? How restored can you get when your tush is numb after a half hour?”

When I confessed that I was finally ready to mail order cooking and baking supplies, Nancy Leson pretended to be surprised. "What?" she gasped. "You don't sit online all day and order things?" I've always avoided shopping cooking ingredients by mail because, just like the electric car I'd love to have, I could never get it to make any economic sense. The for-instance I gave Nancy was first clear flour, unobtainable in stores around here. It's traditional in old school New York deli rye. But at

After a recent trip back east, Nancy Leson is reassured that sometimes you really can go home again.

To: Nancy Leson From: Stein Hey Nance! How about this for the blog pic? You in a ratty bathrobe and face cream in a darkened kitchen, standing in the light from the open 'fridge with a wad of salami in your hand. What woman would agree to be photographed like that? Nancy Leson; that's who. What a trouper! That photo is in reference to the love of late night cold-cuts she expresses in this week's FfT. "I will just take a piece of smoked ham or salami and eat it just straight." It all started

Restaurants are definitely louder these days. That's not usually a problem in the joints I frequent where the loudest noises are the screams of the wounded. But it's been different for Nancy Leson.

People have loved and eaten rice for the past 5,000 years; but these days, many don’t love the idea of cooking it. Up until recently I thought I knew how. How wrong I was. “Forget everything you thought you knew,” I told Nancy Leson. “I have discovered a method that makes the most perfect rice.” “Okay, Stein,” she said. “Share the wealth.”

Stein’s not big on sushi, but I eat enough to make up for his lack of interest. Sure, he’ll humor his wife — the lovely and talented Cheryl DeGroot — when she’s got the sushi jones. That’s when they’ll head out to Fujiya in Tacoma where she can go all raw fish and he can eat something fried. I think the next time the L&T wants sushi, Stein should stay home and make his famous shrimp and lobster sauce and Cheryl should drive to Seattle and let me take her on a multi-day sushi crawl. In fact,

Nancy here. You know how they say, “It goes so fast” (whoever they are)? They’re right. One minute I’m sending my only child off to kindergarten with a brightly colored lunchbox (as I wrote here), and next thing you know — Poof! — he’s blowing out of town for college.