Hoping on some Southern good luck foods to boost our luck, we convened at Rancho Winslow for the annual New Year’s Day Luck Feast (me, CBoy, Di, Jules, Havie, Connor, and Scarlet -- Robert was a no-show). I got there early to chill down the Anna de Cordiniu Brut Rosé Cava and start the cooking, and Jules was there to ably assist. CBoy showed up with a ham to bake; we decided on scoring the outside and baking it at 325° for 2½ hours (the last 30 minutes would be uncovered, and it would get basted throughout the course of its ride in the oven), and I threw together a glaze of brown mustard, apple cider, brown sugar, garlic, cayenne, dry mustard, with some clove, and it turned out to be quite delicious, even if it looked a little weird from being scored with a cleaver.
The black eyed peas had some celery, onion, garlic, carrot, thyme, bay leaf, and chicken stock, and missing the ham bone, we used some bacon and a little leftover ham to pork it up. They came out mighty tasty.
The collards were the standard issue Mick’s collards: bacon, onion, and garlic, collards, balsamic vinegar, sugar, chicken stock, black pepper; Di had some really nice thick balsamic from Spicewood Foods that was really yummy. Truth be told, collards are good luck and tasty as hell, but they are almost worth more to me as potlikker, to soak my cornbread.
Jules made the cornbread using my Mile High recipe and I had brought my two cast iron cornbread pans over with me. The cast iron gets preheated in the oven and lubed before the batter goes in, and it develops an amazingly nice brown crust; I finally remembered to get a shot of the cornbread as a slice, and tried to include a fork to show how high the cornbread rose while baking.This batch had corn, jalapeños, scallion, garlic, and month jack.
the cheese gets sprinkled on when the top is just starting to set-up.....
...so it ends up looking like this:
Other than some fresh strawberries and pineapple and the aforementioned cava, that was the meal. Mike dropped by with some Ranger Mesquite Porter (from San Antone) that was really nice, and a sample of his boudin balls and his seafood and andouille gumbo (he went Acadian for New Year’s); both tasty Creole nibbles, and the porter is delish.
the whole shebang...eat you heart out Robert, and don't blame us for any bad luck in the coming year..
Southern, simple and tasty on day one, and hopefully blessing us all with prosperity, wealth, and good health in the coming year.
For recipes, link here:
http://gustidude.blogspot.com/2012/12/good-luck-eats-for-new-years-day.html
For more on good luck foods, link here:http://www.austinchronicle.com/food/2008-12-26/718923/
Mick Vann ©
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