Spouse fell in love with Rancho Gordo's premium dry beans, and got a subscription.

We're now swimming in beans, but I'm not a bean lover - they usually taste bitter to me unless huge amounts of spice and vegetables are added. I prefer Asian cuisine flavor profiles, and dry beans don't seem to figure in much Chinese, Thai, or Vietnamese cookery.

But I'm game to try anything - please hit me with your favorite bean recipes. Vegetarian or vegan for preference, but I'll look at recipes that include animal products for flavoring and come up with my own alternatives.

This is a question I've been wondering about for a while as a home baker and amateur food scientist. Why do recipes for whipped, fluffy desert components like whipped cream or buttercream icing always seem to call for powdered sugar? If I want to add sugar to a something, why would I also want to add the anti-caking agent (usually starch I think) for powdered sugar as well? Is that starch actually something beneficial for a whipped desert? Because as far as I can tell, the only time powdered sugar makes sense is when it's dusted on top of something or incorporated into a desert that is being mixed by hand and doesn't have the shear of a mixer to dissolve or emulsify the granulated sugar. And I've never had any issues just using regular granulated sugar and honestly prefer it to powdered sugar for icings, whipped cream and the like. If a recipe calls for powdered sugar, but it's being combined with a mixer or beaters I just use regular sugar and the results are great.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience as to what I'm overlooking? Or is it just a hold over from a time when electric mixers weren't common and you needed a finer sugar to incorporate the sugar by hand?

I was wondering what people use for finding recipes and meal planning when they have less "standard" dietary restrictions. I find that a lot of these tools have options for vegetarians, vegans, paleo diet, keto diet, low carb; or for common allergens like peanuts and soy. But I haven't found a way to limit more specific things (especially things, like fiber, that are generally regarded as beneficial, or things, like fructose, that are everywhere). I suppose just manually searching for and then looking through a bunch of recipes is an option, but that can also be challenging given that nutritional information on recipes isn't always complete. I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions that people have for this sort of thing because I like to eat but right now food is making me very sad.

(also sorry if ~health was a better place to put this, I wasn't sure exactly where it should go)

I am looking for ideas or recipes to make with chicken thighs. I bought some for a barbecue chicken recipe that I really liked, but no one else in my family enjoyed. It seemed to be the different texture of the dark meat. Now I have several pounds in the freezer I eventually need to use for something.

I have been looking online, and most chicken thigh recipes are some variation of cooked chicken thighs whole, baked or fried, with some kind of sauce on them.

I am wondering if anyone has recipes that use them in a way that the texture of the meat is less obvious or maybe ways of preparing them that would make them less chewy. I love the richness of them, and they are cheap, so I hope I can find ways to keep making them.

I don't think this one is uniquely British, but Yorkshire Puddings are one of my favourite Sunday Roast parts. There are probably 200 different ways to make them. I thought it would be a fun thread to post for the best recipes, if you're so inclined.

If you've never cooked or eaten one, do so, you're in for a treat. They go perfectly with veg and gravy.

My very basic recipe:

*200g plain flour
*3 eggs
*300ml whole milk

Place all in a mixer, whisk it for a solid 3 minutes. Chuck it in the fridge for 15 minutes in an easy pour jug.

Fire up the oven to 200C. Grab a 12 space muffin tin. I know, crazy me, eh!? A muffin tin for Yorkshire's!

Put 1/2 of a tea spoon of vegetable oil into each muffin section (spot the non-chef, not sure what they're called). Put it in the oven to get hot.

Once the oven is at temperature and the oil is bubbling, take out the muffin tin and put the mixture evenly into each section. Put it straight back into the oven and do NOT open the door again for 25 mins. At that point, they will be done. If you do open the door, they will fall flat.

That's it, perfect basic Yorkshires. Put them on your roast dinner and fill it with gravy.

Over to you good folk!

A few questions for those who have tried homebrewing (and general thread on homebrewing in general)

• Have you ever tried homebrewing?
• What were lessons learned?
• Did you regret the up-front investment?
• Do you bottle or keg?
• What are your favorite recipes?
• What is your setup like?

Feel free to answer only one question, all of them, or none of them and share an anecdote!

My theme for 2024 is to work on creative avenues, one of which is cooking. I want to expand my recipe book to include more show-off-y meals from a variety of regions. Are there any recommendations for recipes to try out?