Welcome to ButterMyBiscuit.com and a traditional Southern New Year’s meal!

This post is an inaugural one – and I’m very grateful that timing worked in my favor so as to unveil this new venture with the 2010 New Year! I don’t want to spoil the drama & intrigue I attempted to instill in the “About” section, but since I’m new to the blogging scene I think a quick introduction here is in order.

My name is Leslie, and I’m a Southern ex-pat residing in the heart of New England.  At the moment, it’s a balmy 28 degrees outside with snow on the way; my numerous down parkas and snow boots have taken up residence again like sloppy kids home from college. Instead of snow skiing and hiking like the natives — I’m inside planning my next meal or indulgence.  You guessed it:  I like to cook (and eat), keeping me conveniently connected to my Southern roots. Essentially, this blog marries that culinary orientation with some of my creative dabbling in photography and writing, which I hope may resonate with a few folks in cyberspace.

With that opening, let’s shift attention back to the meal at hand.  Growing up, every New Year’s day my mother always set a table of black eyed peas and greens so as to bring the family luck, served with the requisite rice, cornbread, hog jowls, slivered raw onion and sweet tea. This tradition is long associated with the culmination of the Civil War as Union troops stripped the lands of its livestock and provisions, but were likely to leave such sundries as peas and corn since they were deemed stock feed; not suitable for human consumption. Thankful for what they were left, the citizens of the Southern countryside counted their blessings at the start of the year with that humble menu of peas & greens — looking forward to a better life.

Symbolically, black eyed peas were a nod to prosperity (and coinage such as pennies) while the greens represented wealth and of course, greenbacks. My mother also served fried hog jowl (oink!), a glorified version of bacon if you will, to amp up the protein factor of the meal. What I didn’t know is that pork also had symbolic reference, as pigs root forward in their foraging – not backward. Who knew?

As I remember it, we kids were none too fond of the New Year’s meal my mother served; it was a bit too “farm-like.” The stinky odor of greens simmering for hours in the house didn’t impress kids who rather would have had cheeseburgers and fries to kick off their New Year. But with age comes wisdom (and nostalgia), and I’ve come to embrace the ritual again – though I’ve adjusted it a bit to suit my own palette. And my inner lush swapped out the sweet tea for a California sparkling wine. Not a bad way to start 2010 … and my new life as a Southern food blogger!!

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NEW YEAR’S 2010 MENU:  

• Pork Simmered Greens with “Pot Likker”
• Crispy “Hoppin’ John”
• Skillet Cornbread

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