I'd like to wish all of my fellow Kossacks a Happy New Year. Last night, we celebrated another year gone by with a Tennessee dinner and libations. We will share some of it with you, so all of us will have good luck next year. We plan to have the dinner again today: collards, black eyed peas, stew and rice.
Left to right: Champagne our friends gave us from the Obama Inauguration Party we threw on 1/20/2009, we won't open it, its just in the photo to impress. Good Ole' Jack and home-made moonshine from a friend, plus the two lil' shot glasses which were free at NN10 from a corporate sponsor, Salsa Labs.com
Our schedule changed, so we didn't drink any of the stuff featured above nor did we make it to midnight, but we will have a nip of it tonight. Hope we didn't jinx things. Don't need another year of bad luck.
In order to start the New Year off right, here's some southern style food we will share with you. Collards and black eyed peas bring good luck.
*Collard Greens recipe below
*Chef Folse Bayouland Beef Stew -Serve over white rice
*Sylvia's Soul Food Black Eyed Peas (the most important ingredient to ensure good fortune in the New Year). No need to buy dried beans, soak for 12 hours, etc. when you can buy better-than-homemade blackeyed peas in a can by Sylvia.
*White Rice
*White Lightning (optional, but highly recommended-Thanks Gary)
SouthDems's Collard Greens
You might think that collard greens are a completely avoidable vegetable; au contrare. Here's the recipe:
*1 bag whole collard greens
*1 white or yellow onion-diced
*1 red onion-diced
*4 cloves garlic-minced
*Your choice of meat-in our example we use Conecuh Hickory Smoked Sausage, available at Publix or Wal-Mart (you can substitute pork or beef barbecue, country ham-whatever).
*Zatarain's or Tony Sachere's seasoning
*Olive oil
*A beer or two
*And maybe some chicken or beef stock (organic of course) if you so desire. You can substitute water if you prefer.
Start by cutting the root end from the greens, leaving about two inches of the stem on the greens (you'll see why in a minute). Wash the greens and stack in the sink like cord wood with the stems all aligned and pointing in the same direction.
Dice the onions and the garlic and sautee in the olive oil for about 4 minutes or until tender in a large stock pot.
Once the onions and garlic are sauteed, take a handfull of the greens by the stem, and proceed to your cutting board. With the leaves evenly spread, start rolling the greens until you have what looks like an egg roll. Using a large prep knife, start chopping the greens along the roll (the slices will resemble a spring roll, sushi roll or something like that. Discard the stems. Once chopped across the roll, chop longways until the greens are fairly well diced.
Start adding the greens to the pot, along with your choice of beer, stock or water. Add the meat(s) and seasoning to your taste. You can also add some hot sauce at this point if you wish. A small dose of white lightning for the cook will help at this point.
Continue adding all of the greens, then reduce heat to simmer and cook for about an hour, maybe two. Yum. Not to worry if you just can't do collard greens. This recipe will work with turnip greens or mustard greens if you prefer. Some kinda good, yeah.
Sylvia's Soul Food Black -eye Peas
Chef Folse Bayouland Beef Stew
Things to make out of corn
Here's dinner:
Here's Rocky Top from our friends and good Dems- Cumberland Trio:
Bon Appetit. Happy New Year Everyone.