Black Eyed Peas, Greens and New Year's
It's New Year's Day and for a girl like me, raised on the Southside of Chicago with Creole heritage, that basically means one thing: a heaping meal of black-eyed peas, greens (collards, turnips, mustard) and corn bread. Now gumbo usually accompanied these dishes when I was a child but that's not part of the New Year's requirements. Tradition has it that for a year of prosperity and luck, you must down as much black-eyed peas, greens and cornbread as possible. It tickled me when I strolled into our local grocery store on New Year's Eve and spotted this prominent display pictured above, of back eyed peas and corn bread on sale as soon as I entered. For those not familiar with the custom, it probably looked like a crazy deal designed to get rid of leftover Christmas dinner dishes. But people who follow the tradition know that the peas represent pennies, the greens, dollars and the cornbread, gold. Frankly, I can't stand black-eyed peas and when m...