Dear Reader:

The other night when I went to Anne’s for supper this attractive bowl with the beautifully vibrant “greens,” overflowing from its sides, caught my attention and I snapped this photo. I told her it looked like a holiday floral decoration with the bright red and green colors.

Anne laughed and said that the collards (for the hoppin’ johns) were looking a little “puny” so she had decided to soak them in some water and that big bowl was the only container large enough to hold them. Beauty has a way of emerging from man’s random actions, doesn’t it?

I love hoppin’ johns….I really do…I just don’t like collards. Now pile on the cabbage and I am one happy eater….black-eyed peas with rice, cabbage, and cornbread (a few beets on the side) and my stomach smiles with happiness!

Cindy Ashley found this article on the  Civil War history behind hoppin’ johns and how eating it and having good luck came to be. (Again thanks Cindy for sharing…I loved this article.)

“Lucky New Year’s Foods”

If you’re a born-and-raised U.S. southerner, as I am, you might not dream of passing New Year’s Day without eating at least a few black-eyed peas. At some point, it occurred to me to

wonder why this food – plus greens and cornbread – are considered lucky for New Year’s. I found out that this deep tradition of the U.S. South dates back to the Civil War, when William Tecumseh Sherman made his “March to the Sea” in the fall of 1864.

Sherman’s soldiers lived off the land. They stripped the countryside of crops, robbed food stores and killed or carried away livestock. But they apparently passed over the “field peas” – black-eyed peas to us – a food whose first domestication probably occurred in West Africa and came to the U.S. during the slave trade of the early U.S. colonial period. The soldiers must have thought these legumes were useful only for animal feed.

Southerners, left with black-eyed peas to eat, were said to have felt lucky and it was this “accident” that helped many southern civilians survive that first winter following the devastation of the South.

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Pork. Pigs are considered a lucky New Year’s food because they root in the ground while moving forward. They’re fat, a worldwide symbol of prosperity. Collards are green and represent money and rice is the symbol of abundant stability…if there is nothing left to eat…rice is there for you.

When I was in Copenhagen for a  teacher exchange program several years ago, Benedikte Christensen’s mother-in-law baked and made a traditional New Year dessert (that I found written up in this article) for me…even though it was the spring of the year. It made me feel very special and even more so after reading the following excerpt. ***Kaitlyn and Tommy…I thought of both of you when I saw the picture and story.

Denmark is the place to go for New Year’s Eve, where marzipan is the key ingredient in a dramatically tall, ringed cake called Kransekage. The cone-shaped pastry is constructed of ever smaller concentric circles and is the classic dessert for weddings, birthdays and New Years. It represents the circle of love within the circle of life. 

Here is the link to the entire article….really interesting!

Lucky New Year’s foods

So until tomorrow….Happy New Year Everyone and don’t forget in all the celebrating to say “Rabbit” tomorrow! (But eat pork!)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

TONIGHT is the NIGHT! GO CLEMSON TIGERS! Maybe I should put orange food dye in with the cabbage….ugh…or maybe not! I am personally wishing Clemson the very best of luck….I hope Coach Dabo is giving those boys their hoppin’ johns early…before the game for good luck!!!!!

*2016 will be the year that Eva Cate can say a sea lion fell in love with her. John and Mandy took Eva Cate and Jake to the Columbia Zoo last Monday and when they went in the sea lions exhibit…almost immediately one sea lion swam over to Eva Cate and started nodding at her and rubbing its head again the glass.

If Eva Cate walked in a certain direction the sea lion swam in that direction following her…soon the crowd began to realize what was happening and started reacting to it. When they finally had to leave the sea lion was shaking its head sadly trying to entreat her to stay.