Happy 2013!

Happy New Year to all! We are starting this New Year off right...how about you?

It is said you will enjoy a good year ahead, based on what you eat on January 1st. Here are the Good Luck foods we try to include...and why:

1. Pork is eaten in the American South to promote prosperity in the coming year. Why? It is said that pigs are "fat and happy," and that they root for their food, continuously moving forward, making progress. Unlike chickens and other fowl...who scratch the earth and move backward when searching for food.
2. Round fruits (apples, oranges, grapes, cherries, etc.) are considered lucky due to their round shapes...reminiscent of coins...and their sweetness. Many cultures say to eat 12 of a particular fruit...and if the 4th one is very sweet, say, then the corresponding month (April) will be a particularly sweet month in the coming year.
3. Black-eyed peas are another Southern good luck food, due to their resemblance to pennies...and their abundance in gardens. When combined with onions, carrots, peppers, celery, etc., then cooked with pork (usually salt-pork) and served over rice, the dish is called Hopping John.
4. Greens (collards, turnip, or some combination) are considered lucky due to their appearance: green like US money. Other cultures considered cabbage (and kraut) the green to eat. We'll have both...for good measure.
5. Cornbread, with its gold color, represents money, too.

Menu here at Casa 3917 today includes: brown sugar-braised pork chops with apples and carrots; Hopping John; broccoli; collards and turnip greens (all three from the garden...pictured) for me/cabbage slaw for Mr. T...who won't touch "greens;" cornbread (pictured below...made with stone-ground yellow corn meal from the fabulous Old Mill at Guilford near Oak Ridge, NC); and cherry pie. Think we covered enough bases?

Doing all we can to ensure a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2013!