Black Bean & Caramelized Onion Tacos

This recipe is easy, fast, and doesn't heat up the kitchen too much in the dead of summer.  Mostly chopping and stirring, with just a bit of time in a skillet.  Happy (and healthy) Taco Tuesday!

Black Bean & Caramelized Onion Tacos with Lime Marinated Zucchini

Ingredients:
1  can black beans
1  large sweet onion
6  flour tortillas
1 Tbsp taco seasoning (or a mix of chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, cumin, cilantro, & Mexican oregano)
1  lime
1  zucchini
1 Tbsp  light brown sugar
2 oz  aged sharp cheddar cheese (or vegan cheese substitute of choice)
¼ cup vegan sour cream substitute (or real sour cream if you want)
1 avocado
olive oil
salt & pepper

Directions:
Start by remembering that today is Monday, aka your husband's D&D night, and that you need to have made [i]& finished eating[/i] dinner by 6:00 pm, so he can go slay demigorgons or something.  Decide that vegetarian tacos are the way to go, and pull out the ingredients.  Realize that you're going to need some help to get this done on time, and put on some James Brown to help get you moving.  I recommend "Get Up Offa That Thing". 

Prep the ingredients:  Zest the lime, then slice in half.  Quarter the onion, then slice about 1/4" thick.  Halve the zucchini lengthwise; then cut into thin half moons.  Grate the aged cheddar cheese on the large side of a box grater.  Drain and rinse the black beans.

Start the filling:  In a nonstick skillet, heat a drizzle of olive oil on medium.  Add the sliced onion and season with salt & pepper.  Cook, stirring occasionally, 3-4 minutes.  Lower the heat to low, add the light brown sugar and cook for another 3-4 minutes, until golden and soft. 

While the onions caramelize, place the zucchini in a bowl with a light drizzle with olive oil, the juice of half the lime, and season lightly with salt & pepper.  Stir every few minutes, while getting on with the rest of your taco goodness.  You are the queen of multi-tasking. 

Realize that your James Brown song has ended, and ask Alexa to play you Brick House by the Commodores.  Heck yeah, you are kicking tonight's butt!

Go back to the skillet of onions, and add the beans, 1/2 cup of water, and the taco seasoning. Increase heat to medium-high, and cook, stirring occasionally and mashing the beans lightly with the back of a spoon, 7 to 9 minutes, or until thickened and the beans have slightly broken down. Turn off the heat; season with salt & pepper to taste.

While the beans cook, in a small bowl, combine the sour cream substitute, lime zest, the juice of the other lime half, 1 Tbsp of olive oil, and season with salt & pepper to taste. 

Wrap the tortillas in dampened paper towels and warm in the microwave for 15-30 seconds.  Or warm them in another skillet if you dislike microwaves.  But I for one, ain't got time for warming individual tortillas or washing extra pans!  [i]The crafts, the crafts are calling....[/i]  Finally, slice the avocado at the last minute, because you almost forgot about it.

Assemble the tacos: place a schmear of the lime cream on the bottom of each tortilla, then a scoop of the the black bean & onion filling, tuck the avocado slices along the sides, and top with the shredded aged cheddar. Serve with the marinated zucchini on the side.  Watch your meat-eating Midwestern husband happily destroy his veggie tacos, and know you are victorious.  Wish him luck in his D&D game, while not seeming like you are shoeing him out of the living room so you can crochet & Netflix with your puppy. 

Scrappy Shawls for Alice's Embrace

The awesome ladies of the Crochet Shawl-Along have inspired me to stash bust out a few scrappy shawls from my bits and bobs of Lion Brand Homespun.  The pattern is the Yarrow Triangle Scarf.  These two will go to a charity called [url=http://alicesembrace.org/]Alice's Embrace[/url], that provides shawls and lap blankets for Alzheimer's patients.  Bonus: Now I have an entire yarn drawer free!

Celtic Tree of Life Sun Catcher

Recently I had the good fortune to be partnered with Wulf in the Use the Good Beads Swap.  My initial idea was to make him a Tree of Life art quilt, but after some discussion, Wulf revealed he didn't actually have any wall space for hanging one, but suggested that he did need a table mat for his dining room.  So I went off on that adventure.  But there was also a throwaway comment he made, about not wearing jewelry, which is one of my favorite crafts to make, and it stuck in the back of my head.  How could I, a jewelry maker, make him some sort of jewelry for his HOME, rather than for him personally?

This started to ferment in my brain, spiced with a bit of the previous desire to make something with the tree of life, and resulted in the idea to make him a sun catcher for his dining room window.  The tree was created with artists jewelry wire in light gold, bronze, & copper, with silver wire used to fill the dead space between the branches and roots.  Hanging amid the branches is a Swarovski crystal crescent moon.  Above and below the tree are emerald green Czech glass rose beads, and at the bottom is a Asfour crystal pendant.

I thought this would be a quick last-minute addition to the swap package, but it actually took much longer than I planned.  The wire I used was made of two strands of wire twisted together, resulting in thicker wire, that was a bit harder on my fingertips as I twisted it around the metal ring, and twisted it into the truck and branches.  As for technique, I read several tutorials online, then mixed them all together to get the effect I wanted.  I forgot to measure the finished piece, but the tree is either 5" or 6", the green roses are about 1", and the prism pendant is just over 2" long.

Sari Silk Ribbon Bowl

After making a Mandala Tablemat for Wulf in the Use the Good Beads Swap on Craftster, I was feelign guilty about having ben the swap rules.  Technically the yarn to make the mandala didn't coem from MY hoard, so I used one of the yarns that was in my stash to crochet a bowl.  It's made from a ribbon yarn, created from recycled silk saris, keeping textiles out of landfills and at the same time giving fair wages to women & girls in India & Nepal, allowing them to work from home.  Both the yarn and the pattern are available from Darn Good Yarn.  

Wulf's Mandala Tablemat

I recently had the fun of being partnered with the wonderful Wulf, in the Use the Good Beads Swap.  The emphasis was to use your most treasured craft supplies that you've been hoarding for years, always saying 'I need to wait till I have the most perfect, special use for them!'  In talking to Wulf, he mentioned needing a mat for the center of his dining table, so I turned to my stash of silk sari yarn.  Sadly, none of the yarns in my stash were working just right for what I wanted to make, so I actually bent the swap rules, by doing a yarn trade with someone on Ravelry.  So I did use a precious material that had been hoarded, it just hadn't been hoarded by ME.  (Don't worry, I made up for it with a second project, a fiber bowl that will be posted tomorrow.  My inner Hermione is still afraid I'll be expelled from life for breaking an arbitrary rule.) 

I actually wrote my own pattern for this one.  It's crocheted with 1.5 skeins of silk sari yarn from Darn Good Yarn.  It's made by recycling worn out clothing (saris), keeping the textiles from ending up in a landfill, and at the same time giving fair wages to women & girls in India and Nepal, allowing them to work from home.  It might look tiny, as doilies are usually made with delicate lace weight yarn, but this one is actually a heavier worsted weight, so it actually measures 17" across.

Summer Drop Shawlette

It's miserably hot here in TN in July, but I can't take my new shawlette off!  It's so soft against my skin, and blocks the drafts from the AC vents so nicely.  The pattern is called the Summer Drop Shawlette, and it is free.  The yarn is Darn Good Yarn's Silk Retreat, in Morning Glory.  I received 1 skein (275 yards) in their monthly subscription box, and initially tried to make the shawlette pattern that they sent with it, but wasn't happy with how it was coming out.  Later curiousfae offered to trade the same skein she received for one I had from a previous month, so I'd have enough to do something with.  (I love the generosity of Craftster peeps!)  A quick search on Ravelry found me a pattern that would work well with the fingering weight silk, but would also be done with a larger 6 mm hook, saving my hands which were tired from working on a lace weight shawl with a tiny 3.25 mm hook.

It's a very long and skinny, and wears more like a long oddly-shaped scarf.  It's incredibly soft on the skin, and strangely enough, the yarn smells amazing.  Not perfumed or anything, just clean and lovely.  It even made my hands smell nice while working on it!  For size reference, my dining table is 36"x60".

The colors are beautiful, but I'm considering dyeing it, since I don't really wear pastels.  Maybe a nice indigo?

Scissor Fobs & Stitch Markers for Shawl-Along Friends

I've mentioned the Shawl-Along on Craftster a few times now.  It is absolutely one of my favorite threads there, and I love how supportive everyone is of one another.  A few weeks ago sheepBlue mentioned she had run out of a yarn halfway through a shawl, and was having trouble finding anymore of it in her area.  I checked online and found that my Joann's had it in stock, and it happened to be on sale, so I offered to pick it up for her.  Since I was going to be mailing it, I decided to add a few goodies to brighten her day. 

I started with a scissor fob, so no one can try to run off with her snips.  It was obviously inspired by her Craftster username, sheepBlue, with various shades of blue glass beads, and an adorable sheep charm.  

Next I put together a set of stitch markers, featuring some of her favorite things, including a gun and skull for her love of the My Favorite Murder Podcast, another blue sheep, an old tv for her favorite shows, buttons, dinosaur, skeleton key, book & reading glasses for her book club, embroidery thread for her awesome embroidered Teesha Moore style patchwork bags, a little artist, and an eye.

About a week later, I received my new subscription box from Darn Good Yarn.  It was a beautiful fingering weight silk in the color Morning Glory, along with a shawlette pattern.  I was game to try it, but found that I was going to run out of yarn, so Curiousfae, another member of the Shawl-Along offered to swap yarns with me.  She'd send the Morning Glory, and I'd send her a skein from a few months previous that I hadn't used yet.  

Since I had just sent a box of crochet goodies to sheepBlue, I obviously had to send one to Curiousfae too!  So she also got a scissor fob, this time of a little fairy leaning forward to peer at something.

And a set of stitch markers too, including a deck of tarot cards, a camera for her love of photography, a gnome, a caravan for her love of glamping, the Frog Prince, a K for her initial, a fae, paw print for her pup, rose, miniature fairy or gnome house, and a heart.