I'm not superstitious. Many in the south, however, will tell you that if you don't eat your Peas and Cabbage on New Year's Day you will have no luck in the coming year. The black-eyed peas are for luck, and the cabbage is for money. Like I said, I'm not superstitious...but I love me some cabbage and black-eyed peas.
Nutmeg also loves her some cabbage.
For the black-eyed peas, I started out by sauteing an onion in my pressure cooker along with some diced carrot, celery, green bell pepper, and a couple cloves of garlic. While that was going on I sorted and rinsed the dried peas. I'm always tempted to skip the sorting part, but considering that I found a rock in with the peas this time, I'm glad I didn't. I added some bay leaf, thyme, chili powder, and a touch of allspice. Then the peas and about 6 cups of water. I let these cook under pressure for about 20 minutes. They get soft before that, but I like 'em starting to fall apart. Then all they needed was lots of salt and Tabasco.
I decided to do the cabbage a little differently than I usually would. I sliced it into sections, and set them in some vegetable broth in a covered skillet to steam. Once they were tender I moved them to a baking sheet. I sprinkled on a little dill+salt+some grated soy cheese and put it under the broiler until the cheese was browned. This turned out better than I expected. I highly recommend it.
I wanted cornbread. I didn't have any cornmeal. Walgreens is a block and a half away. No cornmeal, but there was Jiffy. Cool, that will work. WRONG! I didn't think to read the box until I had poured it's contents into my mixing bowl. I now know that Jiffy contains lots of animal shortening. For some reason it just didn't occur to me that this could be the case. So that was wasted. BUT!! ...I made a modified batch of Deborah Madison's Basic Buttermilk Muffins, and they turned out great. So in the end we were happy, and at least I can say everything was homemade.
Luck inducing? Maybe not...but tasty.
11 comments:
dang, that looks good.
Looks lucky--and yummy--to me. Nutmeg is gorgeous!
We have been gluten free for a while and it can be difficult to find anything without gluten, canned broths even have it. I made my stuffing for x-mas and upon buying the cornmeal for it found that some cormeal actually has small amounts of white or wheat flour in it. The flour we use is made from fava and garbonzo beans and it is yummy, anyways. All ths to say, It can be very frustrating shopping for your own diet, so my sympathies for the corn muffins! Thought the ones you made looked scrumptous! wow this was a letter...
wow, your blog makes me hungry and guilty at the same time- guilty cuz despite my best intentions, my cooking always ends up un-healthy :(
-veronica (friend of the Seiberts and from the midwest, too! Not that that is necessarily a good thing, but, yea...)
I've been reading about this black-eyed peas tradition in several blogs now, and just love the idea (I'll have to do that next year, I guess!).
BTW, what's Jiffy? The only Jiffy we have up here is peanut butter.
As a suggestion re: the cornmeal, you might consider cream of wheat next time as a substitute (though of course, who'd have cream of wheat in the house, either??).
I am a Nutmeg fan!
Hey Everyone!
Mags-I hadn't noticed that with cornmeal before. Now I'll be checking the labels of every brand just out of curiosity...
Ricki-There is a boxed cornbread mix around these parts called Jiffy. I grew up eating it, and remembered that you added the wet ingredients...so I just assumed that would include oil. But no, they are so helpful adding the shortening in already...Thanks for the tip on the cream of wheat.
I did indeed tell Amzie and he thought it was "cool":) Mmmmm,jiffy, not as good s I remember as a kid, i buy so little packaged stuff anymore that when i do indulge, it just isn't like it used to be....
Hey Jenny,
I was mistaken. I clicked on one of the links--Where's the Revolution?--and assumed it was part of your blog too. Now I see that those are other veg. blogs. Anyhow, I love your blog--it's very Jenny--and think you should pursue opening a veg. restaurant. Make something tasty and "purty" with the hummus I donated and post it! This is a veg. chef challenge! Ciao and Love!---Lyyyynda.
Lyyyynda-I am now going to say your name like this whenever I see you. And thank you! Hummus project coming up.
p.s. I've already got plans for my future restaurant. A small place...sandwiches, soups, baked goods...called The Peanut Butter Jelly Deli. Probably never happen, but I can't get the name out of my head.
Those black-eyed peas look great! And based on the sound of this delicious recipe, I might have to start incorporating a bit of superstition into my New Year's holidays from now on!
By the way, I love your bunny! That picture makes me want to reach out & pet him :) Oh, & the name Nutmeg is completely adorable!
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