I finally gained access to the coveted Rancho Gordo bean subscription a couple of months ago. My second shipment arrived yesterday: snowcap, buckeye, marcella, garbanzo, vaquero, and lima beans, along with some Mexican oregano. I haven't ever cooked with the snowcap or buckeye beans before, so that's exciting. The marcella are my favorite white bean, so that's exciting. I use a lot of garbanzos, so that's also exciting. But six pounds of beans — no matter the type — is always a bit overwhelming.

I am an avid meal-planner, so this morning, I swapped out some of the meals I have planned for the coming weeks for a generic "basic beans and rice" entry. That'll likely change once I do the shopping for the week. But in the meantime, it gives me a chance to talk about one of the plans I have for this site: recipes on how to deal with CSAs and other subscriptions that send you food items you weren't prepared for. I'm going to share the contents of my CSAs here, and talk about how I brainstorm meals around them.

The snowcap bean, for example, apparently has a hint of new potato flavor. The recipe that Rancho Gordo offers is a chowder, with beans used in lieu of potatoes. Brilliant. Except it's spring, almost summer, and chowder doesn't seem like it'll be on the menu anytime soon. So perhaps these beans can be used in a cold bean salad, like this one from The New York Times.