Happy New Year!

Auspicious that we should start to climb out of our recent frigid temperatures on this New Year's Day. For lucky foods to start off the new year, look to the post just below this one. Our tradition is Mark Bittman's stewy and green veggie-laden rif on Hoppin' John, black-eyed pea soup with ham and greens. A couple of days ago, the Whole Foods store on Pearl had a huge display of fresh (but quick cooking) black-eyed peas and organic collard greens at the front of the produce department, perfect for this. I remember the organic collards were a great price at $1.50 a bunch. Don't remember the price on the containers of peas, but those were reasonable too.

Happy New Year!

Lucky Foods For The New Year

Traditions abound around the world as to what foods eaten for New Year's, especially tomorrow on the Day, will bring good luck for the year. Whether they do or not, the prevalence of things like legumes and winter greens makes them attactive for menu planning. And you can get really picky by looking into things like whether certain shellfish might bring bad luck because they swim backwards. Here are a few guides to help you out: Lucky Foods for the New Year from Epicurious, A Buffet for Luck: New Year's Foods from Around the World from Whole Foods, Lucky Foods for the New Year from Martha Stewart, and 10 Foods That Will Bring You Good Luck in the New Year from Bon Appetit.

Have a fun and safe New Year's Eve!

Lucky Foods For The New Year

There are traditions around the world regarding foods said to bring good luck for the New Year, as well as some foods thought to do just the opposite. Here's the link to one of my prior posts regarding lucky foods for the New Year. I've been making a form of Hoppin' John on New Years Day for several years now, so it's probably time to give that one a rest and move on to something else.

Lucky Foods For The New Year

I've been collecting articles regarding lucky foods for the new year for quite a while now, and here's a link to last year's post that brought several of them together.  Probably time to move on to something different!

Best Wishes For 2013

Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and productive 2013.  I hope it's auspicious that, among the many gorgeous sunrises we have here in Boulder, this morning's was particularly beautiful.  Last night's creamy lobster pappardelle was delicious, thanks to those Maine lobster tails from Whole Foods, and I hope tonight's black-eyed pea soup will bring good luck for the New Year.

Weekday Dinner Ideas, Including New Year's

With the holiday, this is no ordinary weekday, but time still remains awfully tight.  Tomorrow night being New Year's Eve, we'll do a special dish I've been wanting to try from the November issue of Cooking Light, creamy lobster pappardelle.  Whole Foods has beautiful lobster tails from Maine on sale for $6 each right now, which is my motivation for the dish.

We need some lucky food for New Year's Day, and our usual is Mark Bittman's rather healthy spin on hoppin' John, black-eyed pea soup with ham and greens, from the New York Times.  I take his suggestion to increase the meat and greens to make it a stew, and usually make my own corn bread to go one the side (although the corn bread you'll find at Whole Foods is pretty darned good too, in a pinch).

We'll simplify for Wednesday, just sauteed pork chops ($2.99 a pound at Sprouts through that day), with microwaved russets and some big green veggie on the side.

Then we'll reprise the soup that really is a stew for Thursday, making life even easier.  It will be a week of salads, too, since they'll be on the side for everything but Wednesday.  Last time I looked, organic spring mix was still a steal at Sprouts at $3.99 a pound.

Have a safe and enjoyable New Year's Eve, and beware the possibility of snow and wackos out on the road.

Weekend Dinner Ideas

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day make for a pretty big weekend of dinner plans. But before we get to the holiday stuff, the really big shrimp that Sprouts has for $6.99 a pound are making me think of something fun and a little festive for tonight, smoky shrimp and grits from Food and Wine magazine. Although the recipe calls for medium shrimp, we'll make it special with those gigantic ones at Sprouts.

Moving on to New Year's Eve tomorrow, there are many temptations out there. Both Sprouts and Sunflower are pushing surf 'n turf, with lobster tail sales and a multitude of steak sales. Then there's the Alaskan golden king crab sale at Whole Foods, too. I've decided to bypass all that to try a new recipe in the January issue of Bon Appetit, linguine with crab, lemon, chile, and mint. Of course I could cook and shell those crabs on sale at Whole Foods myself, but I just don't think it's worth the effort when you can spend a little more to have it already done for you with prepared crab meat (provided it's very good quality). To start the evening off, I'm thinking about smoked salmon rolls with ricotta and chives. Together, that's plenty of effort for an evening that will also include champagne.

We have a tradition of eating something "lucky" on New Year's Day, and in this house, that's Mark Bittman's spin on Hoppin' John, black-eyed pea soup with ham and greens from the New York Times. I'll adjust the amounts to be sure there will be some left for later in the week. I'll also increase the greens, which will probably be a combo of spinach and collards, to make it more like a stew, as Bittman suggests. There will definitely have to be homemade cornbread to go with this, and one of my favorites is green onion corn bread from Bon Appetit. With a salad on the side, we'll hopefully get 2012 off to a great start!

Lucky Foods For The New Year

Are you starting to think about what to eat on New Year's Day, something "lucky" to get a good start for 2012? There are traditions around the world about foods to bring you good luck, and Epicurious has a nice roundup of them in the article, Lucky Foods for the New Year.

P.M. Update: here's a new list of lucky foods just out from Bon Appetit. This one includes the Hoppin' John I'll be doing a riff on Sunday. But you probably won't find me smashing pomegranates on the floor.