{"id":200,"date":"2012-01-01T23:13:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-01T23:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/?p=200"},"modified":"2012-01-03T00:20:38","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T00:20:38","slug":"looking-ahead-with-blackeyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/?p=200","title":{"rendered":"Looking ahead with ‘blackeyes’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Luck. Some folks believe you make your own; others think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s out of their hands. I do believe there is a magic — call it luck, fate, what-have-you — beyond our control, a force and a direction that determines what will be. That being said, I also think you have a lot of power in your own outcomes. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s knowing when to take the reigns and knowing when to let them go that is tricky. You have to do both for what I consider luck. <\/p>\n

I believe I am a lucky person, and on my best days, I believe all things that have happened to me \u00e2\u20ac\u201c both fortunate and unfortunate — have been blessings. For those of you who feel you are being held hostage by misfortune and misery at every turn, know this: you are what you believe you are; you receive more of what you fixate upon (good or bad). Luck is a mind thing. <\/p>\n

But superstition, and a good luck charm or two, never hurt anybody. As we enter a brand new year (I like the way 2012 looks printed\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6maybe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good thing), I begin with some traditions that I believe bring me luck, or, at least, route my mind into believing in luck, thus possibly generating good vibes that will draw in more good vibes, and so forth. I begin the New Year not with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Happy New Year,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rabbit! Rabbit!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, an old English (and even early American) superstition, that also encourages saying this term as the first utterances on the first day of each month for luck. Why not?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now, to lucky foods. On New Year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day for the last, oh, many years, I have made a blackeyed pea soup and some sort of green (a saut\u00c3\u00a9ed collard, a leafy spinach salad) because I have believed health, luck and fortune could be brought upon by these things. <\/p>\n

Blackeyed peas, long a Southern traditional food, originated in Africa. They are a tart, tender bean, creamy white with a black dot at their little waistlines. They are often eaten at New Year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, whether prepared as a main dish like Hoppin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 John (a rice, meat and bean concoction) or stewed as a side dish or salad. Why are they considered lucky? One theory is that they kept the South alive when Union soldiers burned all other crops during the Civil War. Somewhere I read (or did I imagine this?) that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153eyes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of these beans looked forward, and eating them would bring you the clarity to move boldly into the New Year. Whatever the case, eating them yearly in my Smoky Blackeyed Pea Soup (a recipe found through my grocery store Raley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s website), has not only provided me with a nutritious, delicious and comforting meal to kick off my year, but some instinctual sense that things will be all right. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been one lucky person in more ways than anyone would believe. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The soup is a spot-on recipe. It comes together with a little bit of chopping and simmering and stunningly, never requires seasoning adjustment upon tasting at the end of the cooking process. Turkey ham (or turkey kielbasa or smoked sausage) and onions are cooked in chicken broth alongside the revered blackeyes to render a full base flavor. Then diced canned tomatoes, celery, Cajun and cayenne seasonings are added for a bolder top note. Chopped red bell pepper is added toward the end of the cooking time to keep it firm, crisp and flavorful. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made this soup many times (even at other times in the year), and it never disappoints. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This year, I was inspired to incorporate my greens into the soup rather than beside it, adding some dark Swiss chard when I mixed in the bell pepper (Is it greens for money and blackeyed peas for luck or the other way around? No matter \u00e2\u20ac\u201c eat them both to cover all your bases). Since \u00e2\u20ac\u0153greens and beans\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is an oft-visited Southern delicacy, why not have a soup in the same vein?<\/p>\n

The greens make a good companion with the beans and the smoky meat of the soup. And they jack up the nutritional quotient of the pot, as well. I may end up making the greens a regular addition \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure one could stir in kale, mustard, turnip or collard greens and they would work well here.<\/p>\n

So I leave you with this as you ponder the year ahead: you can believe small or dream big. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s up to you \u00e2\u20ac\u201c luck and the whole damn business, and you know it. Eat your soup. Be healthy. Be happy and count your blessings. And dream a little\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6you never know what might happen.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Soup\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on!<\/p>\n

Smoky Black-Eyed Pea Soup <\/strong>
\n(From Raley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s www.raleys.com)<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a82 (32-oz.) containers chicken stock \u00e2\u20ac\u00a86 oz. dried black-eyed peas \u00e2\u20ac\u00a82 cups diced smoked turkey ham \u00e2\u20ac\u00a81 cup chopped onion \u00e2\u20ac\u00a81 (14.5-oz.) can diced tomatoes \u00e2\u20ac\u00a81\/2 cup chopped celery \u00e2\u20ac\u00a82 tsp. Cajun seasoning \u00e2\u20ac\u00a81\/2 tsp. cayenne pepper \u00e2\u20ac\u00a81 cup chopped bell pepper <\/p>\n

Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 1 hour, 15 minutes Combine stock, black-eyed peas, turkey ham and onion in a large pot. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 45 minutes. Add tomatoes, celery and seasonings; simmer for 30 more minutes, adding bell pepper during the last minutes of cooking. Makes 10 servings. Tip! Substitute no-added-salt Health Valley Chicken Stock from our Natural Foods Department. to reduce the sodium.
\n <\/strong>
\nNutritional Information:
\n130 calories, 10 g protein, 3.5 g total fat (1 g sat., 0 g trans), 14 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 6 g sugar, 20 mg cholesterol, 730 mg sodium, 3 points <\/p>\n

Bloggers note: I added approximately 3 cups chopped Swiss chard (stems removed) during the final five minutes of cooking time.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luck. Some folks believe you make your own; others think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s out of their hands. I do believe there is a magic — call it luck, fate, what-have-you — beyond our control, a force and a direction that determines what will be. That being said, I also think you have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,1],"tags":[52,54,51,53],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oantry","category-recipe-box","category-uncategorized","tag-blackeyed-peas","tag-greens","tag-soup","tag-swiss-chard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}