New Years Good Luck Recipes

If you are like most people, 2012 was a pretty rough year. I am hoping to bring in plenty of luck in 2013 by having some black-eyed peas. Ma'am always told us we'd have a dollar at the end of the year for every pea we ate on New Year's Day. One year, Michael heard this, ate a bite then held out his hand expecting her to hand over the cash then and there.

Traditionally, she woud make this recipe every year with a skillet of cornbread.  She never made greens along with it, though I have heard many Southerners serve this alongside to increase the luck factor.

Half ham debrining the fridge

I got a great deal on a ham after Christmas, which is currently debrining in some water in the fridge. I have only heard of doing this to a Country (Smithfield) ham, but I tried it with a wet cured ham at Easter and found it made a great difference.  I am going to cook that up tonight and I think I will make some Texas Caviar tomorrow to go with the leftovers. Or I will use the ham bone to make our traditional recipe.

If you are in the mood for Mexican, you can try Posole for good luck tomorrow. This recipe is a quick and easy version compared with a cook all day version traditionally made in Mexico

And if you happened to overdo the New Year's Eve celebration a little, I recommend a little hair of the dog in the form of a Bacon Bloody Mary.

If you have any New Year's Day good luck food ideas, please share. I think we all need to do our culinary part to make sure 2013 is a lucky year for us all.

Update: I have added instructions to make this in the crockpot or pressure cooker in this post.

Ham Hocks and Black Eyed Peas

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Ingredients

 

• 1 large onion (peel removed and saved, and onion diced)
• 4 pound ham hocks or shanks
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 pound dried black eyed peas
• ¼ cup fresh parsley (chopped)
• 1 cup green peppers, chopped (optional)
• 1 cup celery, chopped (optional)

Instructions

 

• Put onion peels and ham hocks/shanks in a stock pot and cover with water. Put lid on pot. Bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat. Cook at a low boil (just above simmer) for at least one hour.
• Remove ham hocks from stock and save. Discard onion peel. Cool stock and skim off all fat. Put in the freezer to speed the process.
• In a large soup pot add 2 quarts of prepared stock, ham hocks/stock and all remaining ingredients. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer. Stir about every ½ hour. Cook until black-eyed peas are tender, about 2 ½ to 3 hours. Add water as needed.
• Remove ham hocks/shanks and remove meat from the bone. Return meat to the pot and serve.

Until next time, happy eating.

~Audrey