2021 New Year ~ Better times are coming (?)

I was looking online for some ideas of different (to me) Southern traditional dishes for New Year's Day and I came across this bit of information:

What Not to Eat on New Year's Day

As much as you might want to go all out with a seafood dinner on this holiday, it may not be the best idea. Some believe that lobster could cause bad luck because they can swim in a backwards direction, which could mean setbacks in the year ahead. For the same reason, eating chicken could be bad luck. The birds scratch backward, plus they're winged so your luck could fly away.


I have a 'menu' set for New Year's EVE when neighbor Jim is coming ~~~ A bunch of appetizers are planned:

Butter Poached Lobster
Grilled Beef Tenderloin Bites w/crostini
Hot Crab Dip w/bagel chips
Shrimp Cocktail

Using the referenced New Year's Day warnings it could just be the 'perfect' menu to keep the bad luck in 2020 and not allowing it to dampen the New Year!

LOL

I had to do a change of plans for New Year's Eve.

I originally planned on an appetizer evening. I thawed out the leftover king crab leg meat that I had saved in the freezer from the times Jim bought crab for our dinner. I had 12 oz. and it looked really good. I was going to make a big dish of crab dip with cream cheese and seasonings.

I mixed it up and decided to try just a bit in a custard cup ~ it was fishy tasting when heated in the toaster oven. Not what I expected or wanted. So, it got tossed.

Changed the menu for Jim ~ it will be the last of the beef tenderloin roast (this piece is a full 1 lb.) that I'll have with mashed potatoes and asparagus. He'll be a happy camper.

New Year's Eve supper: Restaurant style served lobster & beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, asparagus & French bread:







I found a peach pie in the freezer so we had dessert!

Happy New Year to all

thanks norm.....   same to you!

It is quiet here. Tina on the recliner..... me in the kitchen in the corner.
Maria and Lenny chilling out. He just came home from working in Philly.

God bless everyone.

See you all next year! ..... hahahahahahaha

This was supper. Sausage & Meatballs....

Gee, Jimmy ~ seems your memory is slipping.......

"This was supper. Sausage & Meatballs.... "




(( NO pic inserted ?????? ))

Hahahahahahaha

bethk wrote:Gee, Jimmy ~ seems your memory is slipping.......

"This was supper. Sausage & Meatballs.... "




(( NO pic inserted ?????? ))

Hahahahahahaha

NO! .... it is this computer that couldn't find the picture.

Lucky Southern New Year's Supper:



Ham (pork) is lucky because pigs root forward, the collards represent green money, the black eye peas represent coins and the hoe cakes/cornmeal cakes represent gold.

We had the same thing we always have on New Years Day and even though we only have it once a year, we are both getting tired of it. Maybe next year I'll try Hoppin' John instead. Charlie likes rice and beans so maybe he will like Hoppin' John.  Charlie really dislikes blackeyed peas by themselves so I made them as a dip for corn chips and he did like that. He ate almost half of it.  We had collard greens, ham hocks, and navy beans instead, cooking them instead of blackeyed peas with the ham and collards.

Norm, your hocks look amazing! The only kind I ever find have a thumbnail amount of meat, the rest being bone, skin, fat & gristle ~ good flavor but no meat to speak of.

Nice meal!

Thanks Beth. It is hard to find HAM hocks. Most stores have pork hocks and the only claim to the word pork is that they came from a pig, not that they have any more than a bite of meat. Mostly skin, bone and fat. Last year I asked the guy at the meat counter if he had any ham hocks and he pointed to the ones like you and I usually find. I told him those weren't ham and he said they were the same thing. I picked up a pork chop and asked if this was a ham steak. It took a while but he finally got the point. There is a smokehouse in Missouri that makes country hams and this year I found some ham hocks (shanks actually) made by them. They are Burgers Smokehouse.

Had corn beef hash, shrimp, and scallops.
Fruit cake for dessert.

I did something a little different (for me) when cooking my black eye peas this year.  I'll probably use the same method for any dry beans I cook from now on.

It was something I read on some internet site talking about the pros & cons of soaking peas/beans overnight vs: quick cook.  As Norm has mentioned before, I've found that there's not a lot of advantage to an overnight soak.  The beans get tender just by cooking.

But what I did differently this year was to bring the black eye peas to a boil using plain water for about 5 minutes, stirring them around.  I noticed there was a lot of 'scum' on the top of the pot and the water was really muddy looking.  I drained the pot and rinsed it a couple of times, each time removing some of the hulls that had already released from the beans.  It was as if all the impurities were drained off and the peas were lighter in color (it could have been my imagination......but I'm stickin' with a lighter color).

After a couple rinses I returned them to the pot and cooked them in my ham stock & added the rest of the veg (onion, jalapeno & thyme) and bits of chopped ham to cook until tender.  I did have to run to the store for a can of Rotel Tomatoes & Peppers as I found there wasn't even one can in my pantry.  We do like that little bit of tomato in our peas.