fireworks2

Out with the old–in with the new!

ByCapt. Wendy

Fireworks

Or Happy New Year to all of you near and far!

I spent the last day of the year fishing.  Yep.  Fishing and fishing with two other women and not a whole lot of catching.  After four hours, we went home with about six speckled trout, which is better than being “skunked”.

And now I’d like to know what your New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day traditions are.  Granny Sue has quite a few interesting traditions over at her blog in West Virgina.

I’ll share ours and would you kindly share yours with us, too?

Typically, bayou folks cook a special meal tomorrow that will hopefully bring them good luck throughout the coming year.  And they say wherever you eat your meal that day is where you will eat throughout the year!  If that’s true, then I think I’ll take my food and go eat out back on the site of where the new house will be built!!!

New Year’s day menu boasts pork roast, served with smothered cabbage and black-eyed peas  over rice.

The cabbage represents monetary fortune, but you have to take a leaf and put it in your wallet with your paper money (and remove the old one from last year!).  The peas represent good luck, I think.

Thank you all for making this year a great one for blogging here about Life in the Louisiana Wetlands.  Your continued visits and comments keep this blog going for all of us.

So please share your New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day traditions with us!

Happy New Year,

BW

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8 Comments

  1. Smoked ham, Black eyed peas (no rice), steamed cabbage and cornbread are the usual fair for New Years Day here. However, this year I’m adding a new dish as well. Cabbage Jambalaya. Hubby and I like it, but the rest of the family hasn’t had it yet. I hope they do like it, because the recipe makes a lot. We ended the last week of the year eating leftovers, I really don’t want to start off the new year eating leftovers.
    “Eat poor on New Year’s, eat fat the rest of the year.”
    I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!

    Reply

  2. My wife and I are both from the Pennsylvania Dutch area in PA. New Year’s Day means a tradional meal of pork and sauerkraut wit hmashed potatoes. I don’t know what teh significance is, but it’s the way we start the year!

    Happy New Year to you all, and I wish you all a great 2009

    Wolfy

    Reply

  3. We always have blackeyed peas fixed some way. They are for good luck throughout the year. We will also have collard greens for prosperity, the greens represent green money. We always have pork on New Years and turkey on Christmas. You scratch out the old year (turkey), and root in the new year (pig).

    On New Year’s Eve we stay at home with company or go to some of our family’s or friends home. We drink champagne and play cards. At midnight we go outside and set off fireworks (BIG ones) and the kids beat on pots and pans and scream Happy New Year. My dad use to step out with a gun and shoot it at midnight.
    Lot’s of fun.

    Reply

  4. No peas this year. First time since probably 1986 or so when went to a New Year’s poker game at a Tennessee transplants house. Black eyed peas served at midnight.

    I did however partake in some mustard greens the other day. Some South Carolina version with sesame seeds in it. All I can say is, it came to pass.

    My dinner today was lamb chops and rice pilaf. No ice fishing today but headed over toward the big muddy Mississippi tomorrow for second try at historic Hennepin canal bluegills n such.

    Cabbage Jambalaya, that close to keilbasa n cabbage us yankees live on.

    Reply

  5. Thank you everyone for sharing your traditions! And Steffi will have to share that recipe with us. I might be able to get more folks to eat cabbage if it were disguised in jambalaya!!!

    Reply

  6. I wonder if that cabbage jambalaya is like Mom’s cabbage casserole I loved so much as a girl. Mine just doesn’t taste like hers did.

    We had a conglomeration of red beans & rice, chili, fried wild hog breaded pork chops, blackeyed peas, coleslaw and rice. Oh, and Mexican cornbread and homemade sourdough bread. And I didn’t have to cook any of it! I could go with that for the rest of the year!

    Happy 2009 Everyone!

    Reply