Tuesday - Food for Thought and Luck
Jan. 2nd, 2007 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninanevermoreToday on my drive into work, I was thinking about the fact that New Year's Day is over, and I don't have to eat either blackeyed peas or cornbread for another whole year if I don't want to. It's a Texas tradition, and I was obliged to eat them yesterday if I wanted to be wealthier in 2007 than I was in 2006, and to have any semblance of good luck. I've followed this tradition all of my life, and every year so far I've been a little better off than I was the year before. I could tempt fait by not eating them, but I'm not that brave.
The peas and the cornbread are simple Southern fare, and I've read sources that say the tradition is to remind those who follow it to be humble and not expect too much. I suppose if you don't expect much from life, then whatever good fortune comes your way has to seem like a blessing. I, personally, consider it a blessing that my New Years meal isn't a whole lot worse than it is. In other Southern states that aren't Texas, I've heard people have to eat collard greens as well. It makes me grateful to be from where I am, because I have tasted collard greens and I like them even less than I like blackeyed peas.
The cornbread doesn't bother me. I like cornbread, especially if it's sweet. I wish all lucky foods tasted as good. Baked in a cast-iron skillet, hot from the oven and smothered in butter and possibly honey, cornbread is as tasty as good luck gets. It's the peas that vex me - those bland, nasty blackeyed peas. If you happen to like them, good for you. I don't and never have. I don't even like your grandmother's age-old secret recipe that is supposed to be so sublime. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am, not even boiled with onions, herbs and ham.
For many years, I opened a can of blackeyed peas on New Years Day, choked down one spoonful of them and tossed the rest of the can in the trash. Then one year I accidentally grabbed a can of peas that were seasoned with jalapeño peppers and discovered, to my surprise, that jalapeño peppers make blackeyed peas palatable. Not exactly good, but actually editable. Why people haven't been eating them this way all along is beyond me. To any other blackeyed-pea hating Southerners out there trying not to gag on the traditional food of your ancestors this time of year, you've got to try them this way. I can attest that jalapeños will make the New Year much happier.
If you live somewhere where you have to eat collard greens, though, I can't help you. If you don't like collard greens already, nothing in the world that I can think of will make them taste good to you. I suppose that if you're desperate, you could try adding some jalapeños in the collards. Who knows? They might help, and as far as I'm concerned nothing can make collard greens taste any worse.
If that fails, the best I can recommend is that you use the trick that worked for me with the peas for many years - hold your nose and swallow one bite of them without chewing. After all, it's for a good purpose. Good luck and prosperity are hard to come by in this life, and at least once a year you must take whatever means are necessary to attract them, at least if you're Southern.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ # ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
The peas and the cornbread are simple Southern fare, and I've read sources that say the tradition is to remind those who follow it to be humble and not expect too much. I suppose if you don't expect much from life, then whatever good fortune comes your way has to seem like a blessing. I, personally, consider it a blessing that my New Years meal isn't a whole lot worse than it is. In other Southern states that aren't Texas, I've heard people have to eat collard greens as well. It makes me grateful to be from where I am, because I have tasted collard greens and I like them even less than I like blackeyed peas.
The cornbread doesn't bother me. I like cornbread, especially if it's sweet. I wish all lucky foods tasted as good. Baked in a cast-iron skillet, hot from the oven and smothered in butter and possibly honey, cornbread is as tasty as good luck gets. It's the peas that vex me - those bland, nasty blackeyed peas. If you happen to like them, good for you. I don't and never have. I don't even like your grandmother's age-old secret recipe that is supposed to be so sublime. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am, not even boiled with onions, herbs and ham.
For many years, I opened a can of blackeyed peas on New Years Day, choked down one spoonful of them and tossed the rest of the can in the trash. Then one year I accidentally grabbed a can of peas that were seasoned with jalapeño peppers and discovered, to my surprise, that jalapeño peppers make blackeyed peas palatable. Not exactly good, but actually editable. Why people haven't been eating them this way all along is beyond me. To any other blackeyed-pea hating Southerners out there trying not to gag on the traditional food of your ancestors this time of year, you've got to try them this way. I can attest that jalapeños will make the New Year much happier.
If you live somewhere where you have to eat collard greens, though, I can't help you. If you don't like collard greens already, nothing in the world that I can think of will make them taste good to you. I suppose that if you're desperate, you could try adding some jalapeños in the collards. Who knows? They might help, and as far as I'm concerned nothing can make collard greens taste any worse.
If that fails, the best I can recommend is that you use the trick that worked for me with the peas for many years - hold your nose and swallow one bite of them without chewing. After all, it's for a good purpose. Good luck and prosperity are hard to come by in this life, and at least once a year you must take whatever means are necessary to attract them, at least if you're Southern.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 05:31 pm (UTC)The good news is they both go good with pork chops. ^_^