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Traditional New Year's Day food 2012


heidih

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I spent years in the camp that required black eyed peas and greens for New Years Day. That evolved into some kind of beans and greens. This year and last it was just a simple green soup. Onion and garlic sweated with some butter, loads of organic chopped spinach (Trader Joe's), about half that amount of flat leaf parsley from the garden, a handful of frozen peas for sweetness, plus many grinds of black pepper. I whiz it with the immersion blender till mostly smooth, adjust taste and serve with some feta and/or cottage cheese stirred in for a bit of creaminess and tang. I refer to use water rather than stock to keep the flavors clear.It feels and taste and looks like a vibrant beginning to the new year.

What are your traditions or evolutions thereof this year?

Edited by heidih
Add the peas and the water (log)
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We have a mixed marriage: Yankee (he) and Southerner (me). After having it my way, hoppin' john for years, I have caved and am making pork and sauerkraut today. I'm cooked out from the holiday feasts, so I'm not doing beans, too. I hope we're not doomed now.

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We always had cold cuts, cheese and crackers and the kids would be challenged to finish off the Christmas cookies. But my mom had access to a Norsk butcher shop hence the cold cuts included rolle pulse (veal and pepper and totally delicious). As an adult, sans rolle pulse, I usually try to make split pea soup. This year, I'm happy to have some leftover beef stew and not planning on doing a thing except to heat it up. The couch and I are bonding...:)

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Typically we have guests and make Coq au Vin on New Year's Day, but this year we are having Cheatin' Heart Chicken as part of a border meal; and that would be the Louisiana-Texas border. The cheatin' part is because I have leftover turkey gumbo sauce and I'm going to cook chicken in it for an incredibly easy dish over rice. Along with this will be buttermilk slaw and vegetable pickles (very fiery as it turns out, due to an unusually hot batch of jalapenos), both from the Homesick Texan cookbook (great gift, thanks hon!), chard in the manner of collards, and cornbread. For dessert there will be a very high-class jello mold (anything molded counts as southern, right?): fresh pure blood orange juice mold (nothing in it but gelatin and a coupla Tbsps of sugar) served with brandied whipped cream and chocolate cookies. Ooh, maybe I should sub bourbon for the brandy?

There will be cheese straws and edamame for simple apps, so that's how the beans get in.

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I've never been a fan of the traditional ham hocks and black eyed peas. I have friends who eat it every New Year's Day "for luck".

I say make your own luck. I really enjoy corned beef and cabbage and thought why wait until St. Patty's Day to eat it? That has become my New Year's Day meal for good luck. My slow cooker makes it so easy to prepare for the lazy day that New Year's Day has become.

Hey, traditions have to start somewhere. :cool:

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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In my family, it's whatever one has in the fridge. This year, that meant mushroom caps stuffed with chicken sausage, pureed potatoes, cream cheese, and topped with mozzarella, with a side of more chicken sausage fried up with some caramelized onions, and a bagel.

After one fights one's way through the fug of exhaustion and possible hangover, that is. Breakfast is normally whatever can be scrounged, often the eve dinner's leftovers.

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

My eG Food Blog (2011)My eG Foodblog (2012)

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I got my Hoppin' John and greens fix at a friend's place this year. I made two batches of a Fujianese New Years specialty... fried wontons in the shape of a goldon ingot --- traditional, but a new one for me (described here):

http://egullet.org/p1855612

With the lunar New Year so early this year, I'm getting ready for more New Years food in just a few weeks.

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Oh shoot, other new years! In that case, the tradition around my house is to make Momos and curried daal and potatoes, and then feed it to the entire barrio (they love it). On Western new year's day, though, we do as I said above.

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

My eG Food Blog (2011)My eG Foodblog (2012)

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I went back to traditional Hoppin' John this year, after a few years of using black-eyed peas as if they were beans in a prep similar to red beans and rice. It was good; never anything wrong with tradition. Topped them with a heaping spoonful of sweet chow-chow. For cabbage, I was hankering for German red cabbage, so that's what I made; in the past, I've sauteed green cabbage with garlic and ginger, then added coconut milk to braise until it's tender. Or sometimes I just do coleslaw. We had brats, just skillet-fried, to go with the cabbage.

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

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We always do hoppin' John, not really for luck but just to keep the tradition alive. We do have cornbread, but we skip the traditional collard greens (DH doesn't like). Instead we have our favorite salad - mixed baby greens from the garden, sliced pear, crumbled blue cheese and toasted walnuts, with a dressing of light oil and tarragon vinegar shaken with a splort of mustard.

I'm not sure any of my family back home (Tennesee & Georgia) bother any more with hoppin' John, but I love it, and I love the tradition. I always make far too much - can't seem to help it!

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