"new year" 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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So we're in the final stretch of 2007 and it's time to start thinking about what you're going to eat on New Year's Day to set the tone for the rest of your year. In the South, it is considered good luck to eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day because they are thought to symbolize wealth (because they look like little coins when cooked). They also swell when they are cooked, which is another sign of prosperity. Cabbage is also an auspicious item to eat on the new year, as it's leaves can also look like cash.

After the jump is my friend Jacqueline's recipe for a dish she calls Southern Cavier. It's a blend of canned black eyed peas, Rotel tomatoes, peppers, corn and cilantro and it just delicious. It's best eaten with tortilla chips or along side a great piece of corn bread. The first time she brought it to a potluck we all fell on it like we'd never eaten before and later begged for the recipe. It's a tasty way to get these auspicious legumes into your diet.

The Jewish High Holidays started last week. As with most holiday celebrations, a large part of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur (once you're done fasting and atoning) and Succoth is the food. My mother's family is Jewish, but of such a secular nature that there have been times when ham has appeared on the Passover table. I don't have a store of recipes that have been handed down the generations, so I often turn to others when I want to make a holiday appropriate dish.

One recipe I'd like to try and possibly add to my file of Jewish holiday treats was posted by Claire over at Cookthink. It is a delicious looking honey cake that she remembers her (recently departed) grandmother making to represent the sweetness of another new year.

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If you resolved to lose weight this year, or at least to cut back on snacking, the easiest way to stay out of the kitchen is by keeping busy. Running errands outside of the house or moving about the office during work hours will keep you from getting bored and will hopefully prevent your thoughts from wandering to food too much. For a little bit of extra motivation, however, you might want to consider a little guilt trip. The Diet Piggy is a small plastic reminder than can be placed in the fridge or pantry and will oink at you, while giving you a dirty look, if you linger in front of the open door looking for munchies.

And yes, the piggy is a bit ridiculous - but we never said that dieting had to be serious. Other things that can help motivate you to resist those cravings include keeping "trigger" foods (primarily high-calorie junk foods) out of the house, stocking the kitchen with low-calorie fruits and vegetables for healthy snacks, and making and effort to cook more slow-cooked meals. Longer cooking times and more involved meals will keep you busier longer - thinking about making food and not just eating it - and will help you to appreciate the time it took to produce the dish so you'll look forward even more to the final product.

What are you using for motivation to stick to your New Year's resolution?

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