Beyond the Bunny

Before I get into the meat of today’s newsletter, I’ll confess that I’m in the midst of another “Not now, Pastabot” moment—struggling with my continued desire to share lighthearted, fun content in an increasingly-infuriating social climate. I’m not great at political oratory and trust that I’m largely preaching to the converted here, so I won’t spend too much of your time on it.

Rather, I’d say that—in the words of Fred Rogers—it’s a time to look to the helpers.

Many readers here are already well aware of the long-running efforts of Spencer Hall and Holly Anderson of the Shutdown Fullcast podcast/Channel 6 newsletter to raise money for New American Pathways, a refugee resettlement services charity based in Georgia. For those of you who might not be aware, they’re nearing the end of their week-long “Charity Bowl”—an annual fundraising competition that helps this vital organization continue its work even as federal funding is slashed.

Donations can be made in the name of college sports rooting interests, or a number of other categories—it’s good fun for a great cause, and if you’re feeling down about the state of things, why not throw a few bucks their way? Even the smallest donation matters.

Now, on to today’s newsletter.

—Scott

I gotta be honest with you: we shortchange the Easter Bunny.

My wife and I have spent years meticulously managing the illusion of Santa Claus, carefully crafting our household lore so as to avoid being caught in a contradiction by curious children. We have crafted a story that is consistent, well-thought-out, and strong enough to stand up to thorough cross-examination.

Then Easter comes around, and well… we don’t give it nearly the same mental effort.

Don’t get me wrong—we still fill the kids’ Easter baskets with candy and books and all sorts of fun stuff, and I’ll still be out in the backyard well after dark the night before hiding eggs with a headlamp—but in terms of the story? It’s pretty thin.

“Hey Dad, where does the Easter Bunny live normally?”

[shrugging] “I dunno. Tampa?”

As I thought about this the other day, I realized that I didn’t even know how we got the Easter Bunny tradition—how a bunny that brings eggs (?) got grafted onto the holiday that celebrates Jesus’s resurrection. So, I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Originating among German Lutherans,

Okay well I suppose I should have seen that coming. Most contemporary American holiday traditions came from collaborations between 18th-century Germans and post-war 20th-century department store owners. That’s on me for not realizing that up front. That said, it’s a pretty good tradition! I like bunnies, and they deserve the good PR even more than some weird omniscient elf. Heck, I think we should assign benevolent animals to more seemingly-unrelated holidays. A Valentine’s Day fox! A Flag Day beaver! An Administrative Professionals’ Day capybara!

Earth Day is next week, and it’s usually an afterthought—wouldn’t more people care about it if a mythical crow brought shiny things to people who recycled?

In conclusion, I think we should let more animals run holidays.

I am not a crackpot.

Friends, it’s Friday again at The Action Cookbook Newsletter.

If you’re of the Easter-observing type, it’s also Good Friday—let’s take a moment to revisit two of my favorite Good Friday-related posts ever:

1)

2)

Of course, here at the ACBN, they’re all good Fridays, and today’s no different.

In this edition of the Friday Newsletter, I make a grown-up taco salad, celebrate Ohio Valley Greatness, and share a cocktail, a book, a movie, some great music, and more!

Let’s hop to it.

You don’t win friends with salad, but you can win salad with friends.

I fell backwards into this week’s recipe.

Last week, friends texted to ask if I had a good recipe for a michelada, the Mexican beer-and-chile cocktail. Off the top of my head, I did not—but I was inspired to check Asada: The Art of Mexican-Style Grilling, an excellent cookbook by Bricia Lopez that I’ve sang the praises of here before. She had one, I made it, I invited our friends over, and we drank micheladas. (They were good.)

The next day, I realized I’d overbought ingredients, and I remembered a recipe I’d made from the book before that used store-bought michelada mix to marinade skirt steak. I reasoned that a tweaked version of the homemade stuff would play well on chicken too, so I whipped up a second batch, marinated some chicken thighs in it, and then brainstormed a taco salad around it.

Now, when I say “taco salad”, I don’t mean the ground-beef-and-cheddar-in-a-tortilla-chip-bowl food-service staple—though I love those—but I’ll fully admit this is still gringo cuisine.

It’s just a little bit nicer than the cafeteria version, that’s all.

Chicken Taco Salad

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1 batch Michelada Marinade (recipe below)