[Sca-cooks] New Year's Eve/Day repast

[Kingstaste]

Last night was very quiet here.  I went to a friend's house earlier in the
afternoon as they were getting ready for a kid-friendly NYE party.  I took a
card table and some games, everyone was quite amused when I pulled out my
Yahtzee game and one of the pads had my name and scoring on it from when I
was about 9 or 10.  I played another game using the same pad, and everyone
was passing it around, fascinated by comparing my handwriting almost 40
years later!  LOL - simple things will amuse us, won't they?

I was home by 8:30, and spent a quiet night putting finishing touches on the
ceremony I am performing today - I became a Minister through the Universal
Life Church so that I could marry some friends of mine today.  It should be
fun!  While I was writing, I was cooking a pot of mixed greens and another
pot of black eyed peas.  (See Stephan?  We're out here, peas and greens are
everywhere!)  When I moved here from Michigan in the late 70's, I thought
that the tradition for eating these foods must stem from the idea that if
you ate them on New Year's, it could only go up from there!  Since then, I
have found that they can be quite good, and I embrace it fully now.  

I started making greens after researching foods for a Viking feast, and now
I follow something like it every time: mixed chopped greens, this batch has
a package each of frozen turnip greens and greens with chopped turnips, some
frozen spinach, LOTS of garlic, I had a shallot that got chopped up and
added in, and I have a few other more tender greens like some red watercress
and parsley that I will chop up and add when I reheat them.  I like to use a
leek as well, but didn't have one this time.  When they are reheated and
served, they get a drizzle of flax seed oil on them, which makes them
oh-my-god-good.  I will make some brown rice and I want to try my hand at
some gluten-free cornbread (made with a gluten-free baking mix, rather than
simply making it with straight cornmeal).  

The wedding is at 2 and there will be appetizers, and if we are lucky the
hostess will have made some more of her wonderful chocolate truffles.  

I have a friend of Asian extraction who's birthday is in a couple of weeks,
we are planning a combination birthday party, moms-day-out (she has two
toddlers), and Oriental New Year's Feast, so the big food for us will be
then rather than now as well.  Reports to follow!

Happy New Year to all, 
Reverend Christine ;)