"auspicious" news and stories

About a week and a half ago, I wrote a post about my mother's hunt for a yeasted lemon bread recipe. It was one that a neighbor used to make to ensure a prosperous New Year and while she had gotten the recipe from that neighbor, in the intervening 35 years, it had disappeared. Lucky for us, several of you offered up recipes you thought might be similar to what we were looking for in the comments section. My mom thought that the recipe for Vasilopita (Greek New Year Cake) that Jamie posted seemed pretty darn close to what she remembered and so, a couple of days ago, she whipped up a batch.

From the pictures she sent me, it appears to have turned out very well (unfortunately she had both loaves earmarked as gifts, so she didn't actually taste it). She did alter the recipe slightly, including the add-ins she remembered being in the batches her neighbor would bake and changing the amount of flour that gets added in the beginning. The recipe that resulted from her changes in after the break.

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I realize that it is now January 3rd, which might be too late to be writing about all those lucky New Year foods. However, I've really been enjoying reading about all the things that people prepared for themselves to ensure an auspicious New Year and thought I might share a couple that I particularly liked with you all.

The video you see above is from Chris and Michelle, who decided to make pork chops and sauerkraut to commemorate their New Year (an Italian tradition). They also made some delicious-looking mashed potatoes and homemade applesauce (I love it when people make their own applesauce, as it is just so easy and so much better than the stuff that comes out of the jar). The sauerkraut song that they used as background music is also totally infectious.

Over at the Perfect Pantry, Lydia posted a recipe from Arlo, one of her readers, for Boullets, which is a New Year's meatball soup, traditional to Arlo's Cree and Metis roots. It consists of a large pot of meatballs (the size depends entirely on you) in a broth. The post explains that there is no definitive recipe for this dish, that it changes depending on who is making it. It was always made in large quantities for the New Year, so that every visitor who stopped by could be welcomed and fed.

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