What are you cooking (or, What did you cook) for New Year's Day?

[kayb]

As the only other thread I could find on this topic was from 2014 and is closed, I thought I'd start a new one. We all have our New Year's traditional foods, I'm sure; I know in the American South, no one would DREAM of passing the day without their black-eyed peas and cabbage. I'm interested in how folks prepare their peas, what goes with them, and what other New Year's Day food traditions are out there, especially from our international members.

 

My blackeyed peas -- Rancho Gordo this year! -- will get boiled with onion, drained, and then used to make a sort of cassoulet with sliced smoked sausage, shredded chicken, diced tomatoes, chiles, and assorted other spices, then baked with a bread crumb topping. I make sure the peas have plenty of moisture, maybe some added chicken broth, so I can serve them over rice. Instead of turnip greens, because I don't like turnip greens, I'll have cabbage, cut into wedges and roasted, after being brushed with olive oil, salt and papper, until it starts to get some browned, caramelized edges. I'll fry potatoes and onions, and I'll make a big ol' skillet of cornbread.

 

How about y'all?

 

 

[Anna N]

Well the tradition in my house is that one does not cook at all in ones own kitchen on New Year's Day. This is based on the frightening superstition that if there are dishes in the sink on New Year's day there will be dishes iin the sink every day of the year.  Me, I am not taking any chances.

[Tri2Cook]

I'm thinking of today more as college football bowl game day than New Year's Eve and I don't really have any food traditions for the day other than making sure it's food that can be done ahead or that doesn't require any serious work so that I don't miss any game time being in the kitchen. I steamed a couple lbs. of shrimp and started a pot of soup in the crock pot this morning. The soup is my variation on a recipe I saw on Facebook. It's a bbq chicken soup that was using a little more convenience stuff than even I was happy with (and I don't snub that stuff as much as I probably should with my home cooking) so I modified it to my liking. Dessert wasn't in the plans at all but I called an audible this morning and made a batch of butterscotch pudding. The kid's gone to a friend's for the weekend so it's just me, the food and football all day. New Year's Day will probably just be leftovers... so I guess it kinda falls in line with Anna's tradition.

[quiet1]

My mom has a pork dish she MUST have every New Year so that is in the oven now - bacon, kielbasa, bratwurst, pork chops, and all pork hot dogs browned and then braised in a slow oven in sauerkraut and shredded cabbage and onion and apple and a glug of apple cider (this year I had hard cider so I put some of that in, too.) Served with vegetables and potatoes and some good mustard and some crusty rolls for those who prefer to turn their sausages into a sandwich.

 

We will also have snack foods for sustenance while staying up watching the festivities on TV - just fresh vegetables and chips and dip and whatever other leftovers turn up that make for good nibbling.

[rustwood]

Everyone in my extended family knows that the only appropriate meal for New Years Day is fresh ham. This and Easter dinner (maybe) are the only holiday meals my mother is still cooking and hosting.  I believe the traditional meat prep is to make pockets of rosemary and garlic in the uncured "ham" before applying a heavy crust of salt and pepper.  The crust tends to precipitate ill-mannered attempts to snatch the end pieces while the roast is being carved.  Sides will definitely include sauerkraut, mash potatoes, and green beans.  I think there is some belief about it being good luck to eat sauerkraut on New Years Day (or perhaps bad luck not to).  I should pay attention tomorrow as mom never writes anything down.

[cakewalk]

David Leibovitz had a post the other day about sbrisolona, so I decided I would have to bring that on New Year's Day. But I used Gina DePalma's recipe rather than his. The recipes are so different you'd think they were two entirely different things. It's in the oven now. 

[ElainaA]

We traditionally (well, this is the third year so I figure now it is a tradition) host a brunch on New Year's Day. We, and most of our friends are at an age where staying up late New Year's eve is unlikely and what do you do New Year's day but watch football and there is plenty of that other days. This year we have 35 people coming that I know of and probably a few more. So I have been cooking all day yesterday and today. Very little is actually done but most things are ready to pop in the oven in the morning. i did ask my husband if we could get another oven delivered tonight but that isn't going to happen. Luckily I do have an adjunct refrigerator - most people would call it a garage.

We will have, for aps, gravelax with some condiments and rye bread, and a cheese, olive,salami, grapes and cracker tray. Then there will be a kielbasa, pepper and potato hash, baked French toast, 2 spinach and ricotta pies, grilled pineapple with yogurt and pistachios, citrus salad, a green salad with pears and pecans, scones, stollen (left over from Christmas), pumpkin bread ( because I had 3/4 of a can of pumpkin left over from making pumpkin caramels), rolls (not homemade but from a good local bakery),  a cranberry almond coffee cake (in the oven as I type) brownies, a cream cheese and cherry pastry braid and a plate of my holiday candy. I have tried my best to prevent guests from bringing food but I am sure some will. 

And of course there will be wine, coffee, oj, tomato juice and a few other liquids.

Any egulleters living in easy reach of Virgil NY are welcome  (you there, @DiggingDogFarm ?)- we start at 11:00 am.

 

Edited to add - and lots of bacon. Last year I cooked 2 lbs and it was gone in 2 minutes This year I'm cooking 3 lbs.

Edited December 31, 2016 by ElainaA (log)

[ElsieD]

19 minutes ago, ElainaA said:

 

Any egulleters living in easy reach of Virgil NY are welcome  (you there, @DiggingDogFarm ?)- we start at 11:00 am.

 

 

I wish.

[kayb]

3 hours ago, quiet1 said:

My mom has a pork dish she MUST have every New Year so that is in the oven now - bacon, kielbasa, bratwurst, pork chops, and all pork hot dogs browned and then braised in a slow oven in sauerkraut and shredded cabbage and onion and apple and a glug of apple cider (this year I had hard cider so I put some of that in, too.) Served with vegetables and potatoes and some good mustard and some crusty rolls for those who prefer to turn their sausages into a sandwich.

 

We will also have snack foods for sustenance while staying up watching the festivities on TV - just fresh vegetables and chips and dip and whatever other leftovers turn up that make for good nibbling.

 

Choucroute garnie! A friend who serves as my guinea pig when I'm experimenting in the kitchen has been asking. I experimented on him with it a few years back. Mine has reisling instead of cider.

 

2 hours ago, ElainaA said:

We traditionally (well, this is the third year so I figure now it is a tradition) host a brunch on New Year's Day. We, and most of our friends are at an age where staying up late New Year's eve is unlikely and what do you do New Year's day but watch football and there is plenty of that other days. This year we have 35 people coming that I know of and probably a few more. So I have been cooking all day yesterday and today. Very little is actually done but most things are ready to pop in the oven in the morning. i did ask my husband if we could get another oven delivered tonight but that isn't going to happen. Luckily I do have an adjunct refrigerator - most people would call it a garage.

We will have, for aps, gravelax with some condiments and rye bread, and a cheese, olive,salami, grapes and cracker tray. Then there will be a kielbasa, pepper and potato hash, baked French toast, 2 spinach and ricotta pies, grilled pineapple with yogurt and pistachios, citrus salad, a green salad with pears and pecans, scones, stollen (left over from Christmas), pumpkin bread ( because I had 3/4 of a can of pumpkin left over from making pumpkin caramels), rolls (not homemade but from a good local bakery),  a cranberry almond coffee cake (in the oven as I type) brownies, a cream cheese and cherry pastry braid and a plate of my holiday candy. I have tried my best to prevent guests from bringing food but I am sure some will. 

And of course there will be wine, coffee, oj, tomato juice and a few other liquids.

Any egulleters living in easy reach of Virgil NY are welcome  (you there, @DiggingDogFarm ?)- we start at 11:00 am.

 

Edited to add - and lots of bacon. Last year I cooked 2 lbs and it was gone in 2 minutes This year I'm cooking 3 lbs.

 

 

I'm not close, but if the kids and I left right now and drove all night...Oh, well. Guess I'll do with my peas and cabbage and fried potatoes.

[ElainaA]

19 minutes ago, kayb said:

 

 

I'm not close, but if the kids and I left right now and drove all night...Oh, well. Guess I'll do with my peas and cabbage and fried potatoes.

 

It is becoming a tradition - next year just start out earlier.

[quiet1]

6 minutes ago, kayb said:

 

Choucroute garnie! A friend who serves as my guinea pig when I'm experimenting in the kitchen has been asking. I experimented on him with it a few years back. Mine has reisling instead of cider.

 

It's a thing with a name! I thought my mom just made it up. I will have to see what she says. (It is entirely possible she got the dish from her mother, who was mostly a reluctant cook but frequently managed to surprise people by knowing odd bits of 'proper' cooking techniques and terminology. Like she taught me very young that flour and butter to thicken a sauce or gravy is called a roux, and everyone was very baffled because that was just not the kind of information anyone ever saw her collecting. She didn't read cookbooks, etc. So she could totally have picked up a French dish somewhere and adopted it and no one realized.) (I realize that now the term 'roux' is not nearly as unexpected, but this was before celebrity chefs were huge and there was an entire channel just for cooking shows, you know? My grandmother's neighbors just learned to cook from their mothers and didn't much stray from whatever dishes those were. Which generally produced acceptable food, or very tasty food even, but they wouldn't have been able to explain to you the proper terms for techniques and so on.)

 

We used to make it just with sauerkraut but I don't care for sauerkraut particularly much and my mom is on a low sodium diet and sauerkraut is not a low sodium food, so the last couple of years we've mixed it with cabbage to dilute the sauerkraut some and it works pretty well. I think the sauerkraut only works best if you have very strongly flavored sausages like a smoked kielbasa, but one of our local stores makes a fresh kielbasa this time of year that has the right flavors but isn't as assertive, and that works better with the sauerkraut/cabbage blend. Also the leftover sauerkraut/cabbage blend seems to get eaten faster than just sauerkraut, which is kind of important as there aren't that many of us but my mom only knows how to make the dish in size Fill The Dutch Oven. So we have lots of leftovers.

 

For my mom this year we had some leaner pork chops in the mix, since sausages and hot dogs and bacon are all rather inherently salty, and the blander pork as a foil to the stronger flavors of the sausages is nice, but I think would have worked better with a fattier cut of pork, or with the pork added later in the cooking. Wasn't bad, though. My mom had hers with a baked potato to further reduce the total salt content of her meal, and apparently it was very nice. I have a photo but my phone died so I will have to share it later.

[Martin Fisher]

3 hours ago, ElainaA said:

Any egulleters living in easy reach of Virgil NY are welcome  (you there, @DiggingDogFarm ?)- we start at 11:00 am.

 

Thanks for the invite but I can't make it. 

I don't drive and SO has to work.

[sartoric]

9 hours ago, ElsieD said:

 

I wish.

Me too.

[sartoric]

I kept up the fine Australian traditions of "what can I be arsed with" and "really, it's just another day".

So, there was a ham and cheese sandwich. I don't want to raise culinary expectations too early in the year.

[Shelby]

18 hours ago, Anna N said:

Well the tradition in my house is that one does not cook at all in ones own kitchen on New Year's Day. This is based on the frightening superstition that if there are dishes in the sink on New Year's day there will be dishes iin the sink every day of the year.  Me, I am not taking any chances.

  My sink is full of dishes as I type.  I'm in deep trouble.

 

I'm not exactly sure what I'm making.  I must have black eyed peas.  I have some lovely country ham that I will probably put in with them....or maybe I will use some wonderful thick cut bacon.  Will do them in the IP.  I have city ham which may make an appearance.  I have a bag of frozen collards from the garden that might come out....or I might save them for when I make red beans and rice....  I have a craving for cornbread so that will happen later.  I want deviled eggs, but I'm dangerously low on 'em and my doggie needs to eat them more than I do.  Maybe mac and cheese????  

[liuzhou]

Growing up, New Year dinner had to be ham. But that was decades ago.

This year I boiled an egg for breakfast, ate lunch in the local noodle shack and went for dinner with with a local family as detailed on the Dinner topic.

 

Back to cooking tomorrow (actually today now. It's almost 1 am Monday morning.)

[Porthos]

My FIL is in a care facility not far from his home. He asked to go to his house to watch the Rose Bowl on his large-screen TV. The game will be played on Monday, so that is the day we will fix a "New Years" Meal.  Rib-eye steaks SVed at 132.5F, then seared in a cast iron skillet. A side dish casserole called a bean pot and buttered green peas; my FIL loves him his green peas.

Edited January 1, 2017 by Porthos (log)

[Porthos]

20 hours ago, Anna N said:

Well the tradition in my house is that one does not cook at all in ones own kitchen on New Year's Day. This is based on the frightening superstition that if there are dishes in the sink on New Year's day there will be dishes iin the sink every day of the year.  Me, I am not taking any chances.

 

I am willing to take the chance. Dishes in the sink means there is food to be eaten.

[Maison Rustique]

Already cooked, but will be having black-eyed peas later. I forgot to order them from Rancho Gordo, so have Melissa's fresh.

[rustwood]

On 12/31/2016 at 5:03 PM, rustwood said:

I believe the traditional meat prep is to make pockets of rosemary and garlic in the uncured "ham" before applying a heavy crust of salt and pepper. 

 

Sides will definitely include sauerkraut, mash potatoes, and green beans.  I think there is some belief about it being good luck to eat sauerkraut on New Years Day (or perhaps bad luck not to).

 

Apparently I was confusing my mother's pork roasts: "never rosemary and garlic when you are having sauerkraut with the pork."   Makes sense to me.  It is definitely good luck to eat sauerkraut on New Years.  Apparently one is also supposed to eat fish on New Years Day because, "it makes you smart all year long."  I am not going to think too much about the fact that fish was not served today -  nor on any other New Year's Day that I can recall.

 

[suzilightning]

NYE is Johnnybird's and my Christmas celebration.  Nothing fancy but snacky type things.  This year was shrimp cocktail, Buffalo chicken tenders with blue cheese dressing, turkey sausage in blankets, sliders and for dessert ambrosia.  We opened stockings and scratched lottery tickets.

Normally we go birding on NY day but this was the first nice day we had so stayed here and got the animals out of doors.  Had to have greens and black eyed peas and ham of course...  now just boiled up some gluten free pasta and made a sauce with capers, olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes and roasted chicken breast for John to eat after I go to bed.(Did I mention he is a vampire?  He considers sunlight an abomination and feels he works best from 10 pm to 3 am....I am ready for sleep by 1030 pm and am up and ready to go by 6 am).  

 

[Toliver]

My own tradition of normally making corned beef and cabbage on New Year's Day was waylaid by a Christmas gift of smoked brisket  from my oldest brother. He did this last year, as well. If he keeps this up I may have to start a new New Year's Day dining tradition. Whatta rough life I have... 

[Cyberider]

My first two breakfasts of 2017 were black-eyed peas with little pieces of ham cut up into them and corn bread with butter.  Probably tastier than my usual breakfasts so shouldn't save them just for New Years. 

 

Best wishes to all for a safe, healthy, and happy New Year.