Today, New Year’s Day, I kicked the bottoms of my cabinets with my well-worn pink Ugg boots in protest of unnamed circumstances, thanked the Divine for the health of my family, gritted my teeth at the things I want but don’t have my hands on, and looked into the sable eyes of a man I think loves me way too much, more than I deserve.

A withdrawn, long and disastrous, but happily-ending game of duality…I do this to myself, by myself, and really, only for myself. Then I get over it and cook something.

January 1st calls for Black-Eyed Peas. Grandpa was southern. About the time I fell in love with southern food, Grandpa was aging and I spent the rest of borrowed time each January making him black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day. I think this year I finally have a recipe that would make him proud, and that I really like.

Today when the dishes were done, bellies were full, and the bowl games were even less appealing than I thought (when does spring training start?), it was time to get out of the house.

We went to Borders. My brother-in-law always, every year at Christmas, buys me the same Jamie Oliver cookbook. It wouldn’t be Christmas if he didn’t. Leo, brother-in-law, chef and foodie knows Jamie Oliver is one of my top three (Ming Tsai and Nigella Lawson the other two) favorite chefs, and buys me a new cookbook each holiday season. Which is so sweet of him. Trouble is, Leo always forgets which one he bought me last year and keeps buying the same cookbook for me, ending up being a return to Borders or Barnes & Noble come early January. I love this about Leo. I hope it never changes.
 
At Borders I got four new books: The Culinary Institue of America’s Book of Breakfast and Brunches (I’m loving breakfast right now), I Never Met a Metaphor I Didn’t Like, Ann Lamott’s Joe Jones, and About.com’s Southern Food Guide. I have an addiction to southern cookbooks, but I am pleased with the etiology and stronghold of said addiction.

I think I’ll take on grits next. It’s one of those foods I remember Granpda eating with tons of Tabasco.

Whatever my mood (swing), there is always a food to accomodate it. And thank the Divine for that. Thank the Divine for so many things…happy faces, piquant flavors, bitter aftertastes, and the moon. Thank the Divine that I have history to cook from, food to cook, and people to cook for, especially on New Year’s Day, when I can hand over black-eyed peas and rather than saying difficult expressions, I can communicate in my own way, I Luck You. I hope this brings you good fortune, but really, keeps you loving me.

I’m going to bed tonight with satisfied cravings…and leaving a bowlful of black-eyed peas on the counter for Grandpa. Which is strange when I think about it, because two hours ago, my youngest daughter told me, “Momma, I see a ghost in the living room.”

You don’t say.

That’s just some of the luck floating around here.

NEW YEAR’S DAY BLACK-EYED PEAS
1 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 lbs. black eyed peas, soaked overnight and strained
1 ham hock
32 oz. chicken broth
2 tbsp. yellow mustard
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp. Liquid Smoke
1 28 oz. can pureed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
red pepper flakes, to taste (I use 1/2 tsp. or so)
Tabasco
3 Bay leaves
coarse grain salt
black pepper

Sautee onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat.
Add peas and the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.
Reduce to simmer for three hours, approximatelty, until peas reach desired doneness.

Serve with rice or however tradition dictates in your family.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! May the Divine bless you in 2009.