A brief #introduction: I'm Crystal (she/her)! I'm a researcher at MIT working at the intersection of social justice x computing, which includes stuff about social media misinfo, data vis, tech + disability.
When I'm not doing research, I'm at Mozilla working on the Responsible Computer Science Challenge, which thinks thru critical approaches to CS pedagogy.
I also have a dog named Laika who will make frequent appearances here. 🐕 Ask me about veg cooking + my obsession w Rancho Gordo beans!
@crystaljjlee
Welcome! Also, I am unfamiliar, but now incredibly curious - what is a Rancho Gordo bean, and what makes them awesome?
@PhDMarie Also to be up front, they’re an incredibly bougie bean, but if you compare how many meals you’d get from a bag vs. how much you’d spend buying meat, it’s a much easier trade! I think seeing beans in a new light has been an unexpected side effect of cooking more vegetarian meals — it really has expanded my culinary vocabulary in ways I really appreciate.
@crystaljjlee
The way you described them, I think I love them already! I've been trying to do more vegetarian meals in our household too, but I'll admit that I am less than creative (or skilled!) in the kitchen. I'm going to have to give these a try!
@crystaljjlee @PhDMarie welcome aboard Crystal. I'm not a vegetarian but am trying to make more family meals veg based. Thank you for kindly sharing these recipes. Looking forward to getting more ideas from you. 🤗
@Bigbreakfast_Irl @PhDMarie thanks for following, and looking forward to learning from you too!! To be totally up front, I'm not vegetarian either but my partner is, so it's just easier to cook one meal :)
@PhDMarie thanks! So RG beans are ~heirloom~ and fresher than ones in most grocery stores, so they cook more quickly / evenly but importantly are MUCH more flavorful. Here are the two I bought most recently (below is the Christmas Lima bean cooked) — I wouldn’t have believed it, but just cooking the beans in plain water and half a sautéed onion gives you an inky, heady, most unctuous broth. Bean broth: who knew?!