A belated happy new year to all of you reading this. I don’t know about you, but I was more than happy to say goodbye to 2011 – it was not a stellar year. That being said, there were some good things (successful tomato season; getting involved with the Traditional Community Kitchen; finding Linus) amongst the bad (losing my job; my beloved cat Marina passed on December 28; the general bad economy). A new start is definitely welcome.
As I mentioned on my Facebook page, we ate Hoppin John – or at least a variant on it – on New Year’s Day. Hoppin John is traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day, and is essentially rice and beans – black eyed peas and rice in most parts of the US. I mixed it up a bit by using red field peas and grits. The Sea Island Red Peas and Carolina Quick Grits were both from Anson Mills. I’d actually had them on hand for a long time, stored in the freezer, but they turned out great!
The red peas are smaller than black eyed peas, and have an earthier taste. Apparently it’s common to use these peas in Hoppin John in the Low Country of South Carolina and Georgia. I loved the grits, which I soaked during the day in water and raw vinegar, were creamy and delicious, no doubt enhanced by the big knob of pasture butter I added at the end.
The photo above I took with my brand spankin’ new iPhone and the awesome Instagram app. I look forward to taking lots of pictures with this camera, so expect to see more pictures from that device (which has a fantastic little camera in it).