Black-Eyed Peas, Collard Greens, and Cornbread.

Happy New Year!

LeeLee and I have a few traditions for how we spend Jan. 1 each year – some go back in our families for decades, and some have begun in more recent times.  First of all, we always wake up and put a “sausage”-egg casserole in the oven (I like to make it a day ahead and keep it in the fridge until breakfast time), which we eat while watching the Tournament of Roses Parade out in Pasadena.  Then, brunch done and coffee consumed, we’re fortified and ready to tackle the afternoon event: Our annual hike at Theodore Roosevelt Island!

We’ve been making this trek each New Year’s Day (and other times throughout the year, too) for seven or eight years, and now we wouldn’t dare miss it.  Some years it’s cold and drizzly, some years unseasonably warm.  Today, it was a perfect winter day – sunny, crisp, and cold.  Many other hikers had the same idea, too – we had to wait 10 minutes for a parking space to open up!  But as usual, the hike was worth the wait, and the day was so lovely that we lingered longer than usual, taking trails we usually skip just so we could spend a few more minutes in the fresh air.

Then we came home, caught up on some this-and-that around the house, and before too long it was time for the main event: Our New Year’s Day feast!

Being Southerners, there are some foods that are simply staples of the Jan. 1 meal.  So I wasted no time in getting right to work.  I heated a pot of black-eyed peas, stuffed another deep pot full of collard greens, and mixed up a batch of cornbread in the cast-iron skillet.  Half an hour before dinner was ready, I added some rice to the rice cooker, and five minutes before dinnertime, I heated up some Tofurky Andouille sausage in a pan – which was, by the way, amazing (we’d never tried it before!).

As far as serving goes, LeeLee and I go about our plates a bit differently.  I like to stack every component one on top of the other – first rice, then collards, then black-eyed peas, and finally the sausage on the side – while LeeLee likes to keep each part of the meal separated.  Different strokes, I suppose. :)

Both of us applied a liberal amount of Cajun seasoning and hot sauce, however, with a little pat of butter to complete the scene.  Some things you just can’t live without!

Paired with a viewing of the Rose Bowl, our first dinner of 2014 was indeed complete.  I can’t think of a better tradition! 

In related news, I had a post all written up and ready to go for yesterday’s New Year’s Eve feast – but in the hustle and bustle of entertaining our dinner guests, I neglected to post it!  So look for it below. :)

Here’s to a great year!

:)