In the South where I live, it's traditional to serve some kind of Black Eyed Peas dish on New Year's Day. Though I'm not from the South, I've lived here long enough that I've adopted that tradition as my own, and as we speak a pot of Hoppin' John is simmering on the stove. What's Hoppin' John? Basically a big pot of bean soup/stew, consisting of black eyed peas and ham hocks and other flavorings, served over a bowl of fluffy rice, with corn bread and greens and salad on the side. From wikipedia: In the Southern United States, eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is thought to bring prosperity in the new year ……. Another suggested beginning of the tradition dates back to the Civil War, when Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General William Tecumseh Sherman, typically stripped the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock, and destroyed whatever they could not carry away. At that time, Northerners considered "field peas" and field corn suitable only for animal fodder, and did not steal or destroy these humble foods.[4]….. "Hoppin' John", made of black-eyed peas, rice, and pork, is a traditional dish of Southern United States……. In the Southern United States,[5] the peas are typically cooked with a pork product for flavoring (such as bacon, ham bones, fatback, or hog jowl), diced onion, and served with a hot chili sauce or a pepper-flavored vinegar. The traditional meal also includes collard, turnip, or mustard greens, and ham. The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion.[6] Cornbread also often accompanies this meal. I won't be making the turnip or collard greens this year. I've been a bit under the weather, so I'm making things easy on myself. The soup's simmering, cornbread's made, rice is prepped for making shortly before the family arrives. The only other New Year's Day Tradition I personally have involves pedestrian and boring things like office and file stuff. :-? This is the day I clean out all my old files and retire them, and make fresh ones for the new year. I update my new calendar and transfer all the birthdays, anniversaries and other yearly dates I need to keep track of (like when the dogs get their shots etc.) And I also have a birthday list that I keep prominently displayed right by my monitor so that I never lose sight of it…with all these grandkids of mine, I sure don't want to miss a birthday. But that birthday/anniversary list also includes the numbers I don't want to forget….ages of the grandkids this year, number of years married for anniversaries etc. The one last thing I try and do every New Year's Day, but that sometimes gets put off till later is that I go through my Contact List that I keep on a spreadsheet program on my computer, updating everyone's contact information if new info has come to light in their Christmas cards…sometimes there's a change of address, or a new phone number or email address etc. I'll do all that paperwork stuff later on tonight. Right now, I have one more meal prep thing to do, and then I get to sit back and play with my camera till the family shows up. What about you? What are your New Year's traditions?
Interesting Ronni--It sounds delicious. Sorry to hear that you are (still) under the weather. My bride had that sort of illness this past year and was not well for more than a couple of months. The thing that bothered her the most was the cough...it just went on and on and on and on... Actually, she still has a bit of a cough I hope that the meds help, but of course with viruses--it is a question of time. At any rate, I hope that you have a delightful day today and feel up to eating a bit of that Hoppin' John. Hang in there.
Thanks for the lesson on the new year's day food. Although I knew that black eyed peas were for luck and greens for money, I didn't know why pork was the meat of choice. Interesting stuff. Hubby's sister brought dinner last night which included the peas and cabbage, but instead of pork she had a turducken. And of course cornbread. And we've been eating ham since Christmas, so I'm sure I have enough pork to make up the difference. I'm not really planning on doing a big meal today, maybe put some pork steaks on the grill and cook some brussel sprouts. Although, hubby might have different plans. I know that pork bone is destined for a pot of beans, so that might be done. Now... for tradition.... mine is pretty much like one of your's Ronni... list all the birthdays, etc on the new calendar.
On New Year's Day we un-decorate the house, remove the outside decorations, and take down the tree (gosh, is the cat mad at us--we took away her sleep under tree!). I also take down the previous year's calendar and put up a new one. Then I total up the eggs from the previous year--2013 gave us 1,517 eggs. We also got about 85 pounds of honey from the spring and fall flow. For dinner we are having Hunter's Stew--which has pork, apples, potatoes, onions, carrots, and garlic in a rich broth. Then tomorrow it's back to leftover ham!
Cornbread, collard greens and Hoppin' John. Traditional Southern New Year's Day food. With bread pudding for dessert. Mmmmm…..even if I do say so myself, it was yummy.
Looks great. I love bread pudding, but you know, I've never made it. Gonna have to try it next time I'm hungry for it.
Our tradition is to watch football... all day... Yea, getting a little tired of the brutes knocking each other around, but oh well. Our team won. I made chili and watched snow fall. Did get out in the COLD for a walk in the fresh freezing air.
Hi Ronni, very appetizing dishes,..i feel hungry again,.. and i had my dinner just an hour ago. Family tradition for us was for a change away from roasts so it was an Irish Stew,..meat of course was Lamb,..dishes vary otherwise as to veg ingredients. Irish Stew==Recipe. Irish Stew. ( photo / image / picture from Philip Nulty's Garden )
Philip, that Irish Stew recipe sounds just delicious! As an Aussie, with English parents, I grew up eating a lot of lamb and rabbit because both were plentiful in Australia, and my Mum was a wonderful cook! Lamb is very expensive here in the US, but I'm most definitely going to try that recipe next time I find a lamb sale. I just have to convert the measurements into something I can understand!
On New Year's Eve we all gather at our oldest sister-in-law's place and stuff ourselves with turkey, taters, sauce and waldorf salad. Then we collapse for a while before topping up with coffee, cloudberry cream and cookies. Finally we all go outside and shoot off some nice fireworks before popping the champagne and finally crawl home, too full to even think about next day's dinner. We like halibut on New Year's Day.
