"Eat poor on New Year's, and eat fat the rest of the year"

There was nothing poor about this meal!

I, of course, am an educated man. I have degrees from accredited and respected institutes of learning. I am a science teacher. I am not superstitious.

But why tempt fate?

Above you will find photographic evidence of my wonderful New Year's Day lunch, prepared expertly by my beautiful and brilliant bride.


My storytelling friend, Tersi Bendiberg, has reminded me via Facebook, of some of the delicious traditions for the first day of the year in several posts including a link to the (gasp) New York Times -- I guess Damn Yankees also have some concern about fate. Tersi also reminded us of wonderful storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham, who left us during the past year. Tersi tried to excuse her superstitious cooking as a tribute to Kathryn, but we're not fooled, Tersi.

Well here's our menu --

• Cornbread muffins. Cornbread is a mandatory accompaniment to the other dishes. It would be the height of folly to face the New Year without this quintessential American bread. Sheila used very little oil substituting apple sauce for some of it. They were great. No apple taste though. (The girl is trying to spare my ticker.)
• Turnip greens with carmelized onions. The greens represent the folding money you can expect for the next 365.25 days. Ours was crisp and fresh when it was chopped, and, I believe, in high denominations. What a great way to enjoy fresh greens. Just a little olive oil to grease up the onions. And of course I added a bit of hot sauce at the table.
• Hoppin' John with turkey sausage served over brown rice. The black-eyed peas represent the coinage available for the coming year. I choose to believe the rice kernels represent correctly cast votes this election year. (You know I couldn't avoid that!)
• Plain cold water to drink. The water represents our wonderful planet and reninds us of our need to be good stewards.

 I led a grace and we sat at the table, for a change. We are bad about gathering around the evening news to eat, which cannot be good for digestion. We all enjoyed it, though Lil is not fond of the slightly sweet aspect given to the greens by the onions. I loved the bitter/sweet combo of greens and onions.

An absolutely delicious meal. I had extra helpings of everything, just to be safe. I'm expecting those riches this year, but even if it doesn't work in that fashion, it was a yummy All-American way to get 2012 underway.

 "Eat poor on New Year's, and eat fat the rest of the year?" Nope. I ate rich today.