Two channels I follow both released separate videos of the collaboration they just did together at Alton's studio, that I thought others here might enjoy seeing as well.

Alton's channel: Alton Brown Cooks Food | Episode 16: Guga!
Guga's channel: I finally Cooked Steaks with My Culinary HERO!

There's a lot of stories of people getting off caffeine and documenting the changes and benefits they experienced. But I'm wondering if anyone has gotten on caffeine as an adult and could share what benefits, if any, they gained. For reference, I've never consumed much caffeine and have been debating doing so. In terms of actual work and school, I've never found the need. But, I'm generally a bit lethargic/slow paced by nature (have trouble getting up in the morning, inefficient with my time especially when I don't have much going on) and maybe a light jolt and ritual in the morning would be worthwhile.

Sadly, I think I need to reduce my coffee intake. I only ever had a cup a day, but I've always been in to light roasts... roasted within walking distance of my house*... super fancy shit. Anyway, I'm trying to nail down some health things, so coffee has to go for a time.

I am now a tea person. I don't really like it, but I need something like that in the morning. I've started with Lapsang Souchong. This is pretty much the only tea I've ever had. I don't have any dairy in my diet, either, which seems to be a big part of tea-life.

Any top tips for getting into tea? I was just mocked for weighing tea... I guess that isn't as important in this scene.

* not joking about this :)

edit: thanks everybody! the first round of teas are:

• Lapsang Souchong
• Hojicha
• Irish Breakfast
• Margaret's Hope

so far so good!

Food highlights for the year?
Favorite meals?
New baking breakthroughs?
Hilarious cooking disasters?
New restaurants in your area?
Delicious snacking?

Let us know how all about your food for 2025 and what eating/cooking/baking/snacking was like for you.

These days, it's been difficult for me to figure out what to make for dinner. I scroll through recipes on TikTok and various other recipe pages that I've come across, but I can never seem to figure out what exactly I want to make. It gets to a point where I just give up and eat out somewhere... which is a convenient option but not very cost-effective especially for someone who's going on one year post-grad and trying to make more home-cooked meals.

Do you plan your meals throughout the week? How far ahead do you plan out what you're going to make? Do you meal prep and, I guess as an extension of this topic, how does one start getting into the habit of meal prepping? Would love some help trying to get back into the rhythm of cooking.

A few years ago I started shopping at Lidl and came to really like their bakery.

I noticed over time that their bagels became smaller.

Smaller than the bagels at Giant supermarket, and two real bagel shops I eventually found. Currently "everything" bagels at Lidl are 79 cents each. At the real bagel shops "everything" bagels are $2 each.

The Lidl bagels are smaller, the "everything" bagels don't have salt or nearly as much. I like them better than the bagels from one of those two "real" bagel shops.

Thankfully, the smaller Lidl bagels have fewer calories!

I remember a few years ago I saw several articles about bagel places scooping out some of the bread for people watching their weight.

Duh, they should have just made them smaller.

The Lidl bagels are still large enough to make decent sandwiches.

Hoping this fits, because... well, it is about eating.

I swear my mouth is more sensitive to physically hot temperatures than other people's. I burn the roof of my mouth with pizza multiple times a year while others with me can eat it just fine, and I have burnt my tongue on metal spoons just as often. Just last week my mom asked if I was going to eat my soup because I'd been sitting at the table for 5-10 minutes, and I was waiting for it to cool down because the spoon had already burnt my tongue. I even use a disposable plastic spoon for eating ramen, but obviously that's not good for the long-term.

So we tried to look for silicone spoons to use for eating... except apparently they might not exist? I can find silicone cooking ware, baby spoons, and some really hideous spoons that have a weird shape I automatically loathe, but not a single regular-shaped spoon for eating. Cursory research suggests some other non-metal silverware sets exist made of materials besides silicone, but I have no idea where to begin.

So, can anyone recommend some spoons that aren't metal and made for dining?