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| New Year's Dinner - collards, Black Eye peas, ham & cornbread waffle |
There's quite a few positive affirmations rolling through my Facebook newsfeed these last couple of days. I love it. A new year, new opportunities, new laughs, new stories. 2012 is ending so well I have no reason to believe 2013 isn't going to be even better. To agree with Cervantes (and quite a few quantum physics enthusiasts), all of reality is an illusion, and I can tell you right now, I am bound and determined to see that my 2013 will kick ass. How's that for a resolution?
I just read a great post on Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews where she shared this beautiful thought -
"A friend told me recently that she believes the best way to prepare one self for receiving good is to reflect on all the good you’ve received before."The holidays and year-end stress, new schedule, life changes, illness and old haunts have been a bit rough on me lately. It's easy to get mired in the negative, even when it's surrounded - out numbered - by the good. To put it all in action on this first day of the new year, I'm throwing out a general Thanks to the universe for all the greatness that has happened over the past year. This blog alone has brought such peace and purpose, not to mention a few paying gigs, and new connections with like-minded people that have brought me a great sense of hope and encouragement. There have been difficult days, challenges and painful lessons. And there have been new friends and beautiful moments, generosity and sincere goodness. I'm better for it, and truly excited for 2013. To celebrate the hope and potential for the near future, my family will share this classic Southern tradition of collard greens and Black Eye peas with ham and cornbread waffles.
It is a Southern tradition to eat collard greens and Black Eye peas on New Year's day, for luck and good fortune in the year to come, with collards representing the obvious - green money. I've even heard that cornbread, another Southern tradition, is supposed to represent gold. Growing up, we always had Black Eye peas, collards and a piece of ham, cooked in the iron skillet, for dinner.
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| Collards, washed and trimmed |
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| Discarded collard ribs |
Southern collard greens are basically cooked with salt pork on low heat for a at least a couple hours, until super tender, salty and a little bit slick with pork fat goodness. These are from my garden, which my friend Mary Beth of Maple Valley Nursery in Birmingham says brings double the money when you grow your own. Huzzah. Last winter I carried a mess of these leafy Brassicas to my Grandmother's over to Perry, Georgia and she said they were the best collards she'd ever tasted.
I've cooked them in bacon fat rendered from frying bacon in a soup pot, then adding in the greens and topping of with chicken stock. I've added garlic and red pepper flakes to throw a Soul Food twist in the mix, but this year I went old school, Grandma Griffitts style, with a piece of salt pork simmered in water for about an hour, greens added and simmered for another while, about an hour. I don't like mine to get mushy. The only trick is you must remove the stems and ribs. They will never tender.
I love pepper sauce on my greens - hot peppers steeped in vinegar. The tang of the vinegar brightens the cabbage taste of the collards and the peppers add a delicious heat. My uncle Dennis gave us a bottle of his G-Deddy's Collard Tonic a while back, with a homemade label reading, "The only reason we eat greens," made from seriously hot little peppers he grew in his Byron, Georgia garden.
For the peas, soak them overnight if using dried peas, then cook for a couple hours with salt pork or bacon pieces to get that same Southern flavor as the greens. I got a little lazy this year and bought Trappey's canned peas. They're pretty good actually and super tender, which takes a long time to achieve with dried Black Eye peas especially, which can have a dirty, earthy taste to me. I'd never bought this brand before, but the flavor and texture were pretty good. G-Deddy's Collard Tonic makes them even better.
Skillet ham or pork chops are a great match, bringing that full pork flavor home, and of course you need cornbread to soak up the collard juices. I'm on a cornbread waffle kick right now, so there you go.
I hope you all have an awesome start to 2013. I leave you with one more sentiment, from author Neil Gaiman. I'm looking forward to a great many lessons and experiences with Pig&Vine;, and in my personal life as well. Here's to all the mistakes and fears to be had and conquered in the next year, and the good fortune promised by superstition, positive thoughts and a will to live well and be happy.
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.
So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”
~Neil Gaiman
