We turned artichokes, we split spring onions, and we kept on baking. This week in the test kitchen was a testament to spring, and we're showing you some of our favorite outtakes. 

Congratulations to Rivka, whose Vanilla Rooibos Tea Cookies won the contest for Your Best Vanilla!

Once again, we want to give a big thanks to all of our volunteer recipe testers for your thoughtful comments and for helping us continue to strengthen our recipe recommendations. You can read the winning headnote and tester's comments by clicking through to the Community Picks recipes — the comments are at the top. And even if the recipe you tested wasn't chosen as a CP, please feel free to leave your testing notes in the recipe's comments section. Constructive criticism is always encouraged!

In the midst of Thanksgiving preparation, the test kitchen provided us a breath of fresh, turkey-free air.

It's that time again -- help us pick the contest finalists for Your Best Vanilla!

We're giving vanilla some well-deserved time in the spotlight. 

We're doing something a little different with our Your Best Recipe with Vanilla recipe contest. Thanks to our friends at Heilala Vanilla, now in the Food52 Shop, we're thrilled to be offering our contest winner a gift bag of fantastic vanilla products -- beans, extract, paste, syrup, and sugar!

You'll be hearing from the staff at FOOD52 every week in Too Many Cooks, our group column in which we pool our answers to questions about food, cooking, life, and more.

It's a question that's as personal as it is difficult: What's your favorite ice cream flavor? But we knew that in honor of Ice Cream Week, we had to tackle the issue. Read on to hear our existential waffling about our true favorite flavors -- which for the record, we define as "the flavor you could eat every day, any time, for the rest of your life" -- and comment with yours, too.

Our new favorite striped accessory: ice cream cones.