Happy New Year!

I hate black-eyed peas. Matter of fact, I hate peas in general. It's a texture thing. I have issues. In my proactive efforts to avoid bad luck, gray hair, the flu, or a local avalanche, I traditionally force myself to eat a spoonful of them on January 1. This year, however, I decided to be a good wife and whip up a fancy black-eyed pea recipe for the husband and I. I found a recipe for Hoppin' John from The Pioneer Woman's website. Here it is. You need to write it down. Now. And cook it tomorrow. (But please do not compare my food photography to PW's.)

I did change a few things. The grocery store had absolutely no green bell peppers. I still don't understand how a grocery store can be out of green bell peppers. I did understand why they were out of canned black-eyed peas, but bell peppers? So I used a red one. Not only was it delicious, it also added some color. I like my food colorful. Don't you? PW uses a white onion, and I used a purple one because I already had one in the fridge. (Again with the color perk.) I didn't have any white vinegar, so I didn't do that number. I also used bacon instead of a ham hock. Mostly because I don't know what the heck a ham hock is. PW uses cayenne pepper, but I, like any self-respecting Mississippi girl with a daddy who grew up in Louisiana, used Tony's. Duh.

I served it up over white rice with a side of chicken. The chicken was my back-up in case my Hoppin' John turned out to be a disaster. Fortunately, it turned out to be a raging success. I might even like black-eyed peas now. It was SO good, y'all! The rice kind of covered up the weird pea texture that I have those issues with, and the flavor was incredible. (How do you like those awesome TV trays? They're at least 20 years old.)

I didn't make any cabbage because, well, I don't have the slightest idea how to cook cabbage. And I don't really like it very much, and I just couldn't eat TWO things for dinner that I don't like. Even though it probably would've been okay because I DID like my peas! Oh well, this is the year I finally get a real job, so even if we don't end up wealthy, we'll end up better off than we are now. Hip-hip-hooray for TWO salaries!

In my family, we never put a coin in the peas, but I think I kinda want to start. I'm a sucker for a good tradition. In Matt's family, they always say that for every pea you eat, that's how many dollars you'll earn (or something like that), and one year he ate so many peas he got sick. Haha. I mean that's funny. We won't teach our kids that one.

Did you know that if you have leftover Hoppin' John, it's called Skippin' Jenny? I just learned that. I think it's funny. Hope you have lots of luck in twenty-twelve!