Hoppin John and Other Lucky New Years Foods

Have you ever had putting effort in just backfire on you? Such was the case for me on New Year's Eve day, where I had a long list of things I was going to Accomplish Before The New Year. That ended abruptly when I got slammed into from behind, so hard it shoved me into the car in front of me, and all I got accomplished yesterday was a broken vehicle and laying down the remainder of the day. Luckily I'm okay, as are the others involved, minus some soreness on my end. So needless to say, I am all about low-involvement activities and a little extra luck too on this first day of 2018.

This was my New Year's Eve, laying with one of the dogs and crocheting.

I was already planning to make Hoppin' John for New Year's Day — I even had my field peas soaking before I left for my ill-fated errands — and the fact that it's a largely hands off recipe was even more appreciated today. I followed Anson Mills' recipe for their Sea Island Red peas even though I actually only have no-name field peas in their place. There's hardly any chopping involved except an onion in half, and the bottoms and tops off of the carrots and celery.

As that neared the end of its hour and a half cooking time, I put on a pot of Carolina Gold rice that I had been saving in the fridge just for this occasion. As that neared the end of it's cooking time, I made a decision I hope will pan out just as well and subbed in kale for the traditional lucky collards.

I hate collards. They are hard to eat and feel gross in my mouth. So I pan-fried a handful of chopped Rawl's Farms kale over olive oil on high heat until the edges crisped up and browned a bit. I really enjoyed the extra flavor and crispy texture that the fried kale added as a topping for the Hoppin' John. Crispy over mushy always wins out. Now let's hope it goes that way for my wallet too, which will probably need a little extra lining with the car incident, as even the people not at fault end up losing money too it seems.

Happy New Year's everyone, and be extra careful everywhere, especially on the roads.