  Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 1761 Registered: 11-2006 |
That's funny Gaz! We are kind of in the backwoods as it is. We are tired of ham too. And I'm semi-tired of cookies. Back to the "old food" question: What about orange juice and tomato juice? And Stoneybrook Farms Vanilla Yogurt? How can you tell if they are spoiled? Even after the 'sell by/use by' date the stuff looks and smells fine. Who has the answer to this query? I may be throwing food away that is perfectly fine. | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 2775 Registered: 08-2007 |
Sell by date is the last date you can sell it. Presumably it has some shelf life after that. I keep things unless they are moldy. You can cook with things that have been around longer than you like but still look good. OJ and tomato juice have so much acid, nothing much will happen to them. | ||
Carolcb Member Username: Carolcb Post Number: 2339 Registered: 11-2006 |
Anyone have their favorite New Year's meal? I am going to make some black eyed pea salad....and buy some pork.. | ||
Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 1775 Registered: 11-2006 |
When I was younger my favorite New Year's Day meal was a Big Mac, french fries and huge Coke. Helps cure a hang-over. Now I don't have one. No over drinking on New Years Eve. We stay in. Getting old. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 5259 Registered: 04-2005 |
Does anyone know why pork it traditional on New Years day? I was just thinking about that when I read Carolb's post. We usually have a pork roast, but I have no idea why. | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 2787 Registered: 08-2007 |
We always have Hoppin' John. It was pea soup and Johnny Cake when I was at home with my parents, though. I think that is what I will make this year. I have the perfect hambone. Fast and Easy Hoppin' John. Make a pot of rice. Fry up some nice thick bacon, not too crispy. In the grease, fry up some onions and green peppers. When this is all hot, throw in a bag of frozen black eye peas. You can use canned, too. A can or two, maybe. Add tobasco sauce to taste. When it's all hot, stir in the rice, and mix everything together. Add a little water if it is dry, and scrape up the pan drippings to mix them in, too. That's it! I have to dig up my mom's Habitant Pea Soup recipe. | ||
Carolcb Member Username: Carolcb Post Number: 2342 Registered: 11-2006 |
JCole, I don't know why - but the pork and the black eyed peas are supposed to bring good luck. I forgot to make it last year.....I won't make that mistake again. ( - ; | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 2788 Registered: 08-2007 |
Here is a bit from Wikipedia on the "good luck" tradition of black-eyed peas: The "good luck" traditions of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud (compiled ~500 CE), Horayot 12A: "Abaye [d. 339 CE] said, now that you have established that good-luck symbols avail, you should make it a habit to see Qara (bottle gourd), Rubiya (black-eyed peas, Arabic Lubiya), Kartei (leeks), Silka (either beets or spinach), and Tamrei (dates) on your table on the New Year." A parallel text in Kritot 5B states that one should eat these symbols of good luck. The accepted custom (Shulhan Aruh Orah Hayim 583:1, 16th century, the standard code of Jewish law and practice) is to eat the symbols. This custom is followed by Sepharadi and Israeli Jews to this day. The first Sepharadi Jews arrived in Georgia in the 1730s and have lived there continuously since. The Jewish practice was apparently adopted by non-Jews around the time of the Civil War. These "good luck" traditions date back to the U.S. Civil War. Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General William Tecumseh Sherman, would typically strip the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock and destroy whatever they couldn't carry away. At that time, Northerners considered "field peas" and corn suitable only for animal fodder, and as a result didn't steal or destroy these humble foods. Many Southerners survived as a result of this mistake.[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B lack-eyed_pea | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 5269 Registered: 04-2005 |
OK, here's what I found about lucky New Year foods. I highlighted pork because that was my original question: "Lucky foods for New Year's feasting Pick a country and run with it or create a menu from the whole list. Avoid anything that moves backwards, such as chicken, turkey or lobster. You don't want to start the year moving backwards. *Black-eyed peas - A favourite for New Year, simmer them with hog jowls to make a dish called Hoppin John and eat with rice. African slaves survived on these legumes, making them a potent symbol of survival. *Cabbage - Braised and buttered or used as a wrap, cabbage and collards are meant to resemble money and bring fortune in Denmark and the southern United States. *Pork - Roasted is best and a symbol of prosperity. Pork is a staple of New Year's dining in Austria, Germany, Portugal and Spain, plus any country any of them colonized (i.e. all of South America). *Fish - In China and northern and western Europe fish is traditional and a symbol of fertility. In Japan, eat herring roe. *Jaiozi - These Chinese dumplings are sometimes made after supper to eat late in the evening. They symbolize wealth. *Grapes - In Spain, Portugal Italy and South America 12 grapes are eaten to ensure future prosperity. Ditto for pomegranate. *Shortbread, oat cake, fruitcake - In Scotland these are given as gifts when first-footing, the custom of being first through the door in the new year." | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 3338 Registered: 08-2007 |
My grandma from Pennsylvania always did a pork roast. She would fry up shredded cabbage and onions and cook out egg noodles flavored with lots of butter and salt and pepper, and mix those together. She said that her mother and her grandmother always served that on New Year's Day. They were from Yugoslavia. That is what I'll be fixing tomorrow. My cousins in the south always do the Hoppin John - Black Eyed Peas and cornbread. | ||
Carolcb Member Username: Carolcb Post Number: 2349 Registered: 11-2006 |
I am doing the pork roast too - assuming I can find one that is not ziplocked in one of those bags and treated with all that stuff - sorry I am not being that clear. I just want the old fashioned piece of meat, I don't want it tenderized or whatever. And I am making the peas, peppers- green, red, hot, onions....with oil and vinegar and some salt and pepper. I made more M&M cookies last night with the half price Christmas candy....and I am going to buy a pomegranite too. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 5277 Registered: 04-2005 |
I've got the pork roast defrosted, and the pomegranate in the fridge. I'll probably peel garlic and make slits in the roast and stuff the garlic in there. It really flavors the roast well. Then I'll rub the outside of the roast with sage and thyme. We'll have garlic mashed potatoes and probably cauliflower au gratin. | ||
Carolcb Member Username: Carolcb Post Number: 2353 Registered: 11-2006 |
All of a sudden I feel like I am starving and all I have is this yogurt..... | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 5278 Registered: 04-2005 |
^^^Close your eyes, and concentrate 'Pork, this is pork' | ||
Carolcb Member Username: Carolcb Post Number: 2354 Registered: 11-2006 |
I just remembered I have an M and M cookie. It is not pork, but it is butter. ( - : | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 3341 Registered: 08-2007 |
Yes Jcole - garlic cloves stuffed into the pork. That's the way to do it. We love it that way. Hope that cookie worked for ya Carol!  | ||
Bigb23 Member Username: Bigb23 Post Number: 3047 Registered: 11-2007 |
I bought my Pork loin at Meijer. I hope the luck factors in for the new year. It didn't for Babe. Oh well, everybody has to take a hit. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 5294 Registered: 04-2005 |
Get yourself a pomegranate, some black-eyed peas to go with the pork loin and fry up some cabbage. May as well cover all the good luck bases while you're at it. Babe was expecting it, I'm sure. Hopefully, he will be tasty, and not have given his life in vain. | ||
Bigb23 Member Username: Bigb23 Post Number: 3048 Registered: 11-2007 |
My superstition beliefs go to about the end of my arm. The Pork Loin was on sale. So I'll start a new belief, that whatever is in my pantry right now, will bring good luck for all of the villagers here. Let's see - Raman noodles, no bean chili, wax beans, something from 1985, and some empty herb bottles. Only kidding ? Have a Happy New Year. | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 5847 Registered: 02-2004 |
Bought a pork roast, garlic, cabbage. Covering all bases. | ||
Classicyesfan Member Username: Classicyesfan Post Number: 417 Registered: 04-2008 |
"My grandma from Pennsylvania always did a pork roast. She would fry up shredded cabbage and onions and cook out egg noodles flavored with lots of butter and salt and pepper, and mix those together. She said that her mother and her grandmother always served that on New Year's Day. They were from Yugoslavia." Eriedearie, my family has always done pork & sauerkraut roast for New Years Day, only they have an added feature of a coin wrapped in foil placed in the serving casserole. Whoever finds the coin will have luck throughout the year. My family is from Somerset, Pennsylvania but are of the Swiss/German/Palatinate descent (Amish!). To me, that is one of few dishes in which sauerkraut tastes really mellow, sweet, and good. Ahhhhh, to be Pennsylvania Dutch during the holidays! Oh, the Christmas cookies and pastries.... (Message edited by classicyesfan on January 02, 2009) | ||
Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 1789 Registered: 11-2006 |
Remember when I was having trouble making decent coffee and asked for suggestions? Eriedearie said this: "Have you run the coffee maker through a cleaning cycle lately? That might have something to do with it. Every once in a while I'll put 1/2 cup of white vinegar in the water basket and fill it the rest of the way with cold water. Run it through the cycle, empty the pot and repeat. Then I run through two cycles with just fresh cold water. Just a suggestion." --------------------- That suggestion was the ticket. Only, I filled the reservoir half with vinegar and half with water. Oh yeah, I am a firm believer that if 1/2 cup is good 6 cups is better! Also bought 8 O'clock brand coffee beans and ground? grinded? them. Two mornings in a row with amazing coffee. YIPPEE! A simple suggestion that I had forgotten about. Thanks Eriedearie! K | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 3364 Registered: 08-2007 |
Hey Classic! Yeah, grandma would do a pork roast with sauerkraut sometimes for a Sunday dinner. Another dish she would make was cabbage rolls - She would spread sauerkraut on top, and then lay some strips of bacon on top of that and bake it in her very large and heavy duty turkey roaster. I do that sometimes too. I inherited that roaster and still put it to good use. Ever have baked pork chops and sauerkraut with caraway seed? I used to make that quite often when all the boys were at home. Put some potatoes around in the pan - good stuff! Amish cookies - OMG! I've got this recipe that makes like 6 dozen cookies - no mixer involved - of course, everything mixed by hand. So easy and just delicious! | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 3365 Registered: 08-2007 |
Hi Zarks - You're welcome! Glad that worked for you - Oh I can almost smell that freshly ground 8 O'clock coffee right now! | ||
Bigb23 Member Username: Bigb23 Post Number: 3150 Registered: 11-2007 |
Bump - I just want a Cc comment on here. I'll say Cc hits his magic 18,000 @ 5:26 PM on Thursday. Any one giving odds ? | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 2807 Registered: 08-2007 |
Not on the FOOD thread, Bigb, why spoil our appetite? Tonight was soup night, Pea Soup and Johnnycake, which my mother used to say "Make a Frenchman's belly ache." Pea Soup 2 cups dried peas (Habitant Pea Soup uses yellow peas, but green work just fine) Pick them over and add them to a pot with 10 cups water. Add a nice meaty hambone or ham hock and the following: 1 good size onion, chopped 2 chicken bouillon cubes or a couple of spoonfuls of chicken base 1/2 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove garlic, minced 1/2 tsp black pepper, fresh ground if possible 1 bay leaf Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 1 1/2 hours. Now, add the following: 1 1/2 cups sliced or chopped carrots 1 cup chopped celery with the leaves if you have them Continue simmering, uncovered 2 to 2 1/2 hours until the soup is nice and thick. Stir it up from the bottom every so often. At some point, remove the hambone, cool it a bit, chop the meat and put it back in the soup. Serve with cornbread, aka Johnnycake. Preheat oven to 400, and grease an 8 or 9 inch pie pan. 1 cup flour 1 cup corn meal 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp flour 2 T sugar Stir the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Next add: 1 beaten egg 1 cup milk 1/4 cup oil Stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Pour into pan and bake 25 minutes. | ||
Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 1817 Registered: 11-2006 |
Split pea, my absolute favorite soup! Nothing better in my book. I can never believe it when people turn their noses up at it. How can you not LOVE split pea soup? Blows my mind. | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 2808 Registered: 08-2007 |
They don't know what they're missing. It's perfect for a cold snowy night. Lots of crashing and colliding going on out there! | ||
Lugotown Member Username: Lugotown Post Number: 29 Registered: 02-2008 |
i think i've read this whole thread so if this recipe is here, please forgive my question. has anyone eaten the crushed lentil soup at cedar garden restaurant at 9 mile and mack in st. clair shores? does anyone know how it's made. i have been to many middle eastern restaurants over the years and theirs is the one i like best but i wanted to try to make it myself. i have googled it and none of the recipes i've found are similar to the taste and look of it. | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 5867 Registered: 02-2004 |
I think a pot of that pea soup is in my future. I braised a pair of turkey legs the other night. Rub legs (the turkey legs, silly!) with salt pepper and poultry seasoning, brown in dutch oven, all over, then throw a cut onion, carrot and abut 15 whole cloves of garlic in pan. Big glug of red wine and a can of tomatoes. Black pepper on the top, slap the lid on, 350 oven for about 1 1/2 hours (long enough to read email, have a drink and chill). Eat with sliced baguette soaked in the incredibly rich and garlicky pan juices. Heavenly. Come on over, Tony, I got a turkey leg for you (humana humana humana). |
