Day One 2012

Hard to believe it is 2012 ~ time flies when you're having fun, and now that I'm retired and love hooking, I am having fun.  When I worked the days didn't fly by that fast.  I take that back, the weekends flew by but Monday morning sure rolled around far too fast for my liking.... and the 8 hour work day?  It crept along at a snail's pace.

New Year's Day has some cultural and regional traditions as far as food goes.  Living on the east coast my family always cooked up black eyed peas for dinner as it was to start the new year off being frugal and was to bring good luck for the remainder of the year.  My girlfriend Shari, of Lancaster, PA cooks the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch meal of pork and sauerkraut.  I'm sure each you have traditions as well.

My plans were to have black eyed peas for dinner last night and being heated up for tonight's dinner would make them taste even better.  So, Friday I soaked the dry beans over night so the cooking time would be reduced. 

I thought I'd try a different recipe other than the one my mother made, just to try it out for a little different flavor.  And, this recipe called for the use of a crock pot and I wouldn't have to spend as much time watching and making sure the bottom didn't stick.  Hey, easy peasy ~ no muss, no fuss....right down my alley. And, since the black eyed peas had previously soaked over night the recipe called for a 4 hour cooking time in the crock pot on high, so I put the ingredients in the crock pot around 12:30 p.m. and if it took a little longer would still have them done for dinner last night.  Uh, not.

Perhaps I should have cooked them on the stove because at 6:30 p.m. they still weren't tender enough to eat.  So I made myself some steamed zucchini with pasta sauce, which is a staple of mine.  Oh, and some Cabernet wine.  Here is the recipe I used except I didn't put in jalapeno pepper.




Ready In:
4 Hrs 25 Min


Ingredients

• 4 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 pound dry black-eyed peas
• 6 cups water
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Place the bacon in a large, deep skillet, and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until evenly browned, about 10 minutes.
2. Place the dried peas, water, onion, tomatoes, jalapeno pepper, garlic, and chili powder into a slow cooker, and stir to combine. Stir in the bacon and bacon grease, and set the cooker on High. Cook until peas are tender, about 4 hours. Season to taste with salt, and serve.

But, the black eyed peas will be my dinner tonight and am sure it will be yummy.

Again, Happy New Year ! ! ! ! !