Chicken tacos with purple pickles

Taco night can be so colorful. Red tomato salsa, orange hot sauce, yellow rice, green guacamole (and/or salsa verde). You could even throw in blue corn tortilla chips to try and round out the rainbow. 

How about some purple pickles for a crisp and tangy topping? Don't be scared. You're about to add the very texture and flavor that will take your tacos to the gourmet taco truck level you've secretly been striving for all this time.

Pick your own favorite taco recipe, or find one of the 30 zillion recipes online. You don't need me to tell you how to make shredded chicken in the slow cooker.

But then, when you're getting everything ready, maybe 15-20 minutes before you plan on serving, toss together these purple pickles. It's easy! And delicious!

Ingredients

• Purple cabbage
• Salt
• Lime juice
• Optional: red onion
• Optional: radish

Thinly slice the cabbage and any other purplish veggies. Put sliced veggies in a bowl and give them a moderate sprinkling of salt. Add a couple of tablespoons of lime juice -- depending on the quantity of veggies, the juice of half a lime might be enough.

Stir!

Let the veggies sit there a short while you do other things, and then come back and stir again! Keep occasionally stirring to let all the veggies have their turn in the salty lime juice.

By the time you're ready to dish up your tacos, the veggies will be quick-pickled. 

These are good leftover for a few days (store in the fridge), and you could make them earlier in advance. The longer the pickles sit, the more the purple from the cabbage (and from outer rims of the onions and radishes) will leech into the lime juice, staining the white parts of the onions and radishes. They'll taste limier (i.e. induce more pucker) and will become less crisp than the day you made them.

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Big plans, small plans -- make some positive 2022 plans

Can we all live like Rob Greenfield? Of course not, you think. And then you ask, Who is Rob Greenfield, anyway?

He's an activist and a humanitarian. He lives extremely simply and sustainably and encourages us to do the same. He shows us that it can be done and why it should be done. The real question isn't, Can we all live like Rob Greenfield? because the answer is, Yes, a human being can live like that, as Greenfield himself is proving every day. It's unrealistic, though, to think everyone can take on the same level of activism when our society isn't built around it, and we have a diverse array of priorities competing for our time and energy.  

The real question is, What parts of Rob Greenfield's lifestyle could you incorporate into your own so you can be some of the change you want to see in the world? If you can't live off the grid with just 44 possessions and forage or grow 100% of your food, what less extreme steps could you take to reduce your impact on the planet and improve living conditions for people less fortunate than you?

Greenfield recently announced the big plans his nonprofit organization, Regeneration, Equity and Justice, has for 2022, which include traveling the country to:

• Kickstart 10,000 gardens for those who lack access to healthy food.
• Plant 1,000 community fruit trees in public spaces.
• Start 100 community compost programs.
• Produce 50+ original videos featuring people changing the world for the better.

The organization's work is inspiring, and I'm looking forward to following their progress. In the meantime, I recommend you go to Greenfield's website, robgreenfield.org, and check out the Resources menu, where he's broken the many facets of his sustainable living into smaller, more doable pieces. You might find you can follow in his footsteps for using less water (something I've talked about), staying sane in the digital world, being a positive influence on others, or reducing food waste in your home and your community, to name just a few.

You may not agree with all of Greenfield's views or choices, and most of us would find it difficult to do everything he's doing, but it's obvious he's making positive changes in the world around him, and that is something we can all do in one small way or another.

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Two experiments in one! Instant Pot French onion soup with failed meat bread toasts

This recipe was born of a very, very, very cold day and the impetus to use things up from the fridge and freezer.

French onion soup bowls under the broiler.

I typically approach with skepticism recipes for the pressure cooker and even slow cooker for foods traditionally made low and slow in the oven or on the stovetop. I still do approach them, however, because I am appreciative of convenience and speed, and I'll give these recipes a chance to prove themselves. This time, it was French onion soup, and I'd be conducting two experiments with this recipe. 

Experiment #1 was using the Instant Pot for this soup I've only ever made on the stove. Experiment #2 was swapping the baguette slices that traditionally top this soup for some failed meat bread I'd made for Christmas (but still wrapped and stored in the freezer because the failure didn't make it inedible or unsafe, so I wasn't about to just trash it). 

I started with this Instant Pot French Onion Soup Recipe from Simply Recipes, mainly because it was one of the first that came up in my search, and it lived up to the website's name, seeming simpler than the other recipes at the top of the list.

Below is my adapted version, the point of which is to encourage you, too, to wing it. But first, some answers.

What on earth is failed meat bread? Meat bread, when it is not a failure, is the name I know for a loaf of white bread with forcemeat (a seasoned, slow-cooked mixture of meat -- you might also call it a pâté) rolled up inside like a jelly roll. It requires a blog post all its own, and so let me just jot that on my to-do list. For now, a quick summary: Meat bread is a family tradition, and this year, I made two batches, because my first batch failed. The loaves did not rise. I hypothesize that I either killed the yeast with water too hot, or the meat mixture was too soggy and weighed down the dough, or both. But, I didn't throw out the failed meat bread! I was not going to waste good meat or the six or so cups of flour that went into it. It was edible. The meat part still tasted great. The bread part was just... stodgy, like a very heavy dumpling.

Meat bread should not be this squat.

Why did I use both apple cider vinegar and brandy instead of sherry? Common substitutes for sherry in a French onion soup are dry wine or vinegar. My stovetop recipe uses port. If you use wine, the addition of brandy approximates the fortified nature of sherry. I had no sherry or port or good dry wines at home, but I had brandy and cider vinegar. I didn't want to use an entire quarter-cup of the brandy just for soup! At the same time, I didn't want the vinegar alone to give the soup too much tang. So, I split the difference.

All other substitutions can be explained by this: That's what I had on hand, and it was certainly close enough. Also, the original recipe says it makes 6 servings -- I'd call it a solid 4 servings. It's so good, you don't want just a small bowl.

Ready to make Instant Pot French onion soup.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 5-6 medium onions of any kind (but preferably some sweet variety included), halved, peeled, and sliced 1/4-inch thick
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brandy
• 4 cups beef broth (I used 4 beef bouillon cubes and 4 c. water)
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 1-inch thick slices of hearty white bread (like French bread or a failed homemade white loaf with meat rolled in, like mine)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 4 slices Swiss cheese, any variety.

Directions

1. Select the high sauté setting on your pressure cooker, which may default to a cooking time of 30 minutes. You will need at least 30 minutes to sauté the onions. (See my note in Step #3.)
   Add the butter to the pressure cooker. Once it has melted, add the onions, sugar, and salt and stir with a wooden spoon, separating the onion layers and coating them with the butter.
2. Cover the pot (but keep lid unlocked or at least vented) and let the onions cook, without stirring, for 10 minutes.
3. Uncover the pot. The onions will be softened but not brown yet. While wearing an oven mitt, hold the rim of the inner pot in place, and stir the onions vigorously. Continue to stir the onions every 2 minutes, making sure to scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot, which will begin to develop more and more as time passes. Do this until the onions are caramelized and golden brown, around the time your pot's 30-minute sauté cooking program has ended and the pot turns off automatically.
   Note: I needed to hit the sauté button again and continue cooking and occasionally stirring for another 15 minutes or so, perhaps because my Instant Pot is a smaller one and so my onions were piled higher.
4. While the pot is off but still hot, and the onions are sizzling, add the cider and brandy. Use the wooden spoon to thoroughly scrape any remaining brown bits from the pot bottom. Then stir in the broth, Worcestershire, thyme, bay leaf, and pepper. 
5. Secure the pressure cooker lid in its sealing position, select pressure cook, and set the time for 5 minutes at high pressure.
6. When the cooking program ends, let the pressure release naturally for at least 15 minutes, then vent any remaining steam. Discard the bay leaf.
7. To make the toasts: Preheat the broiler on your oven. Place your sliced bread (meat or French) on a baking sheet and toast, a couple of minutes on each side, depending on your broiler and your preferences -- just watch the bread closely and flip when it's as toasty as you like. 
8. To finish the soup and serve, place broiler-safe serving bowls on the baking sheet, ladle soup into the bowls, almost filling them. Spread the toast slices very sparingly with Dijon mustard (1/4 teaspoon per slice) and place them on top of the bowls of soup. Lay a slice of cheese onto each baguette slice. Broil the soups for 3-5 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.

The verdict: Delicious. 

Experiment #1: The soup itself tasted fabulous. The Instant Pot recipe didn't skip the time you need to caramelize the onions, but it sped up the second half of the recipe where a long, low simmer would typically infuse the broth with flavor. I think my selection of 3 different onion types contributed to the complexity of the broth, and also, the combination of brandy and cider added the right amount of flavor depth and tang. Yes, I would make this Instant Pot French onion soup recipe again.

Experiment #2: The savory blend of pork and beef in the meat bread matched the flavor profile of the soup so well, you almost didn't notice it was in there... which arguably is a reason not to use meat bread as your toasts -- you're losing the star of the bread into the soup. However, it was an excellent way to use the failed meat bread slices, which, eaten alone, offered only the meat as a redeeming quality. Here, the bread soaks up the soup and holds the cheese like a good crouton should -- you'd almost never know it was a failed bread. Almost. I'll give myself a pat on the back for judicious use of a near-useless food item, but I would not make meat bread my first choice in French onion soup crouton, because: Why hide the meat bread (unless it was a failed loaf)?

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Upcycled Panda Purse

This is the story of a panda purse.

My niece is into pandas right now. She's also into drawing, so she sometimes carries around a little notebook and pen. What better Christmas gift for her, then, than a panda purse? (I.e., a purse that features a cute panda face, not a purse made from a panda, of course.)

And so it was, on December 27, I spent a good portion of my day off work bringing this panda purse into existence. Because I like to salvage scraps and upcycle old things, this purse would require no new purchases -- just my time and anxiety.

I started with a black and white tote bag that was a bridesmaid gift from my sister's wedding ten years ago. From it, I cut the main body of the purse and a rectangle for a pocket. It also had straps, which I detached to reposition on the new, smaller purse. 

I nabbed a zipper from a black backpack that was falling to pieces (the backpack was falling apart; but its zippers are still in great shape, like they were designed for a much more durable bag). Here's a tip that may seem obvious: You can always make a zipper shorter. 

The panda's facial features came from my supply of felt and spare buttons, including two little white buttons that were spares to my wedding dress.

It all sounds rather perfect, doesn't it? Well, you know me and my improvisational sewing projects. Even if I do plan it out on paper and make patterns to cut certain shapes, I'm still sort of winging it, and so no project is ever finished until I've used my trusty seam ripper to pull something apart and start all over again.

I started smart by sewing on the pocket and the panda's face first. Then I assembled the purse's pieces inside out and stitched them together by machine, going around twice for reinforcement... 

When I turned the thing right-side out to gaze upon my finished project, I realized I'd sewn the panda's ears to the inside of the purse instead of the outside, and the straps were on the wrong side of the zipper so that they actually had to be tucked inside the purse for the zipper to close. Also, I should have used white thread for the zipper instead of black, because even though the zipper is black, the part of the purse to which it's attached is white. Dagnabbit.

Discouraged and annoyed, I carefully seam-ripped the top half of the purse, repositioned the ears and straps and pinned them into place, restitched the zipper, and then hand-stitched the straps and ears to the outside of the purse.

Voila!

OK, I'm not 100% satisfied with some of the finishing details, like, I should have folded under and ironed a neat seam around the pocket edges instead of sewing it on flat ragged, but it's still a cute purse, and I hope my niece likes it and uses it.

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