Happy New Year!!!

Can you see the future?

May it be bright

And full of beauty.

For Luck in the New Year

Greens to put money in your pocket and hog jowl and black-eyed peas for luck . . .

Like walking in the first snow, getting wet in the first rain of May, knocking on wood, or throwing a pinch of spilled salt over my left shoulder -- I don't really believe in these things  -- but I do them anyway, honoring the past and the beliefs of my forebears. I like that kind of continuity, I suppose.

But there are a number of beliefs and traditions, customs and habits we inherited from our forebears that are not nearly so harmless.  I needn't attempt a list -- just anything that makes a person feel that their personal beliefs trump anyone else's -- I'd like to see these hangovers of a less enlightened past discontinued and obliterated.

Here's to 2018 -- May it be a better year for this poor broken world...

Greens and Pork and Black-eyed Peas

On New Year's Eve we enjoyed filet mignon with Bearnaise sauce (yes, I'm cooking again) along with baked potatoes, broccoli, and salad. Also bubbly. 

Last night we had the traditional New Year's Day good luck meal of pork, black-eyed peas, and greens -- along with rice and sweet potatoes.  It's a meal from my childhood - though my grandmother didn't sprinkle Ras al Hanout seasoning on the sweet potatoes the way I did (and heartily recommend.) 

Nor did she serve bubbly but we figured 2017 may need all the help it can get.

A special feature of the meal was that the greens were fresh from our garden -- planted back in September and lightly touched by frost -- I was amazed that they had come through the drought of October and November.

 They were tender and delicious -- may 2017 be the same!

Here It Comes!

Happy New Year - 1/1/11 !!!

As the sun peeks over the ridge on the first day of 2011, I hope you have your black-eyed peas and hog jowl for good luck, as well as collard greens to put money in your pockets. . . or that you have the necessary accouterments for whatever tradition you follow -- be it first footers, Christmas tree bonfires, picnics on the beach, fireworks . . .

May it be a good New Year for all of us on Spaceship Earth!!!

 

New Year's Day

And time to cook the traditional collards, black-eyed peas, and smoked hog jowl -- another of my Alabama-bred grandmother's traditions. The collards, simmered in chicken broth with onion, hot pepper, and slices of the smoked pork, are eaten "to put green money in your pocket" in the coming year. The fatty hog jowl is for good fortune, probably coming from a time when any sort of meat was scarce and fat was a source of energy, not a scary taboo.

The black-eyed peas, also cooked with the hog jowl, bring good luck. Some folks say you need to eat 365 peas (366 on Leap Years), to ensure luck each and every day. We make ours into Hoppin' John , a savory mixture of rice and onions and peas, whose name may derive from a creole dish made with pigeon peas -- thus au pigeon.

May your New Year be full of good things, whatever tradition you follow!