What's in an (online) name?

"Action Cookbook" is, all things considered, a pretty decent name for what I put out online. Over the years, I've worked to curate an image of myself as a guy who likes to cook silly things and (more importantly) eat silly things. I've shared hundreds of recipes in the seven years I've been operating this newsletter, and dozens more definitely-not-trolling pictures of the Skyline Chili I consume.

So, yeah. The name fits.

The only thing is, that's not why I chose it at all. In fact, I picked "@actioncookbook" as my online handle because it was (at the time) a complete non-sequitur–something that had nothing to do with anything else in my life.

[Marge Simpson voice] This story begins in that unforgettable autumn of 2012. "Gangnam Style" struck a blow for Korean hip-hop, a young John Mulaney taught us to laugh, and Scott had a Twitter account with just a few hundred followers.

My wife and I had stumbled across a British TV program called The Supersizers Go..., a send-up of the (now-questionable) 2004 documentary Super Size Me. In this show, restaurant critic Giles Coren and comedian Sue Perkins (later of The Great British Bake Off) attempted to recreate the eating and drinking habits of people in various eras of British history–the Edwardian era, the Restoration, wartime, and so on.

In the episode that covers the 1970s, they mention a 1965 cookbook written by spy novelist Len Deighton–a cookbook geared toward bachelor men, a novel concept at the time. The Action Cook Book. This name delighted me so much that I logged into Twitter right then, changed my handle from the previous, boring one I'd had... and well, the rest is extremely-niche history.

(If you skip to around 49:00 in this video, they discuss the book's borderline-terrifying guidance on how much booze to procure for a party. The '60s and '70s weren't playing around.)

(Also, a bunch of the episodes are on YouTube and the show is a hoot, you should watch it.)

ANYWAYS, I've told this story before, but I bring it up today because Len Deighton passed away this week at the age of 97, a heck of a run for anyone.

I also bring it up because it allows me to pose a question to you:

What's your online handle (if different than your own name), and how'd you end up with it?

I want to be completely clear about something here, too: I don't mind if you make up a story. In fact, I encourage it.

While you construct your backstory, I'm going to start the show.

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

We're mere hours away from the spring equinox (10:46am EDT today!), and I'm ready to dance on winter's grave. Today, I'm bringing you:

• Another attempt at breaking the relentless monotony of lunch!
• A cocktail that's so last summer!
• Things to read, watch and listen to, pets, and more!

Let's hit it.

Once again I am forced to consider lunch

Several months ago, I took to these pages to lament the ongoing problem that is lunch:

The mere idea of planning lunch exhausts me. This newsletter stands as evidence of the fact that I love trying out new foods, but I have to stress: I love trying out new foods for dinner. When it comes to my weekday lunches, I am a creature of extreme habit. When I am on a good routine of grocery shopping and meal prepping, I eat the same salad for weeks at a time: arugula, grape tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumber, shredded carrots, beets, chickpeas, crumbled feta, grilled chicken and balsamic vinaigrette. If it were the 1920s, I could get that salad named after me like Robert Cobb, Caesar Cardini or the Waldorf Hotel. It is very good and I have eaten it hundreds of times, BUT: I have found that I get extremely sick of that salad if I eat it more than two workweeks in a row, which leaves me at a loss until I have a reset week.

In that particular newsletter, I shared a recipe for a Peruvian-inspired chicken salad that I'd whipped up to break my green-salad monotony. This week... well, I'm also sharing a chicken salad. Is this the start of a pivot into a fully chicken-salad based newsletter? It's too early to say, but I bet there's a market for it, done right.

Nevertheless!

This week, I'm staying with the British vibes established in the intro and making a take on Coronation Chicken Salad, the lightly-curried dish first invented for the 1952 crowning of Queen Elizabeth II. The classic version incorporates dried apricots, but I'm mixing it up a little bit.

Coronation Chicken Salad

• 20 ounces cooked chicken, pulled or chopped (once again I am using Costco's canned chicken breast, it's good enough for lunch)
• 5 ounces full-fat plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 3 tablespoons apricot preserves (I am, as always, partial to Bonne Maman)
• 1/2 bunch cilantro leaves
• the middle part of 3-4 green onions, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• black pepper, to taste
• Optional: a little bit of habanero hot sauce (I used Yellow Bird)

With a whisk or a food processor, combine the Greek yogurt, curry powder, lemon juice and apricot preserves until mostly-smooth, then fold this mixture in with the chicken, cilantro, green onions and almonds. Season with black pepper and habanero hot sauce, if using. (You could, theoretically, put the hot sauce in at the whisking step, but I didn't want to overshoot so I did it to taste at the end.)

This met my exceedingly-high bar for lunch, which is to say that I enjoyed it the first two days and I did not dread it by the fourth day. (Getting to a fifth day of enjoyment is like the elusive sub-2:00 marathon. Maybe someday it'll be done.)

I drink to th' general joy, and to winter, whom we will not miss

The turn of seasons calls for a spring-like cocktail... with an assist from last summer?