Good Luck in the New Year

New Year's Eve is for chumps, I am sorry to report.   It's full of hollow promises and fake fun - everyone pretending they are having a great time, but not really.  From my high school days, when my best friend (who was cheating with my boyfriend on me) vowed on NYE that girlfriends were more important than a guy and she would dump him..which she promptly didn't do, starting the very next day...to the new millenium, where Y2K was supposed to cause an apocalypse and it didn't,   I just don't buy into any of it.   I much prefer to stay home and ring in the New Year, although we used to fake midnight when the kids were younger and pretend it was midnight at 10 pm so we could go to bed early.   They are teenagers now, so we will probably stay up until the clock strikes 12.    I do look forward to hearing Auld Lang Syne, which has got to be the most depressing drinking song ever.  This version I find particularly beautiful - by Dougie MacLean....




My parents rarely went out on New Year's Eve because they didn't drink much and we lived in a neighborhood full of raging alcoholics.   We usually stayed in and and at midnight, we kids would bang on pots and pans on the front porch.  However, I can remember one time my family went to visit our old neighbors who moved "up north" to Shelby Township, which we considered very far away from Warren and out in the wilderness somewhere.   In the 1970s, it probably was very rural, now Shelby Township is just another strip of urban sprawl.   I can remember my sister Sandy and I listening to Casey Kasem's countdown for the year.  We'd write down every song in order in a notebook while my parents played euchre or pinochle.  

There are many food traditions for the New Year, although I wasn't raised with any in particular.  So I adopted one -  Hoppin' John, which is best described as "soul food" - it's black eyed peas and considered even better luck if one eats it with collard greens.    I make Hoppin' John every New Year's Eve....because I like to eat it for lunch the first week back at work.   It's so good for you - a serving of black eyed peas has w whopping 10g fiber.  I'm going to skip the "Master Cleanse" detox fad that everyone seems to be doing these days and instead pledge to eat more legumes for the New Year.   I'm going to make mine with kale today, and kielbasa.    My Hoppin' John recipe can be found here....and my tasty collards recipe can be found here.   So instead of going out tonight, how about staying in with those you love and making some really good food?   Happy New Year!