Every year of my life that I can remember, I HAD to have black eyed peas on New Year’s day. Now, why is it that my mother insists on this tradition? I have no clue whatsoever. Apparently it has something to do with bad luck. Somehow, someway, if I don’t ingest black eyed peas on January 1st, some terrible something will befall me. Lucky for me, I just so happen to love black eyed peas, and Mama always makes them with some deliciously unhealthy hunk of meat, and I always like to eat them with a piece of onion, but that’s just me.
But thinking about Mama’s superstition about the peas, it got me to thinking about other things she and women of her generation had a superstition about. I remember vividly when my oldest niece was born and my mother was horribly paranoid about our cats being near the baby. When I asked my mother why she was so afraid she said it was because the cat would “suck the breath out of her.” I wanted to know how, since the cat’s mouth didn’t seem designed for such a task and Mama answered it the way she and many other mothers always do with the standard, “it just does!”
Only God could save you if you broke a mirror, walked under a ladder, or opened an umbrella in the house around Mama or our grandmother. I always thought this superstition thing was confined to the two of them until I started meeting other people’s mama’s and heard all sorts of things such as the whole black cat across the road, don’t tickle a baby’s feet or it will stutter, and don’t let a baby under a year old look in the mirror. These all seem ridiculous by today’s standard of common sense, but I suppose for them it was a way to feel like they had some control over their own destiny, and that magical thing called luck. I guess it’s really not any sillier than buying a lotto ticket or taking you chances with online matchmaking for that matter.
Well, one thing that doesn’t require luck, just a little bit of skill, is this black eyed pea recipe. This is how Mama does hers, and I hope it brings you some luck this new year.
- 2 lbs of black eyed peas (may be fresh or frozen)
- 1/2 pound of bacon (you could also use a smoked turkey wing)
- 2 tsp of salt (more or less to taste)
- 1/2 tsp of black pepper (again to your taste)
Fry the 1/2 lb of bacon and crumble into medium size pieces. In a large pot, fill it half way with water, then add your salt and pepper. Add peas and cook on medium heat for 30 minutes. Then lower the heat and cook the peas until tender. When the peas are tender and the water is mostly absorbed, the peas are ready. When they are almost ready, gently fold in the bacon. Since this recipe doesn’t have exact water measurements, if you feel like you need more or less water according to your pot, don’t be afraid to add and take away as needed. If you read this blog regularly you will find that most of Mama’s recipes aren’t really exact in measurement because she has been doing it for so long it’s pretty much second nature.
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009, 10:31 pm | 
Blazing Hot off the Presses. | 
RSS feed
| 
Respond | 
Trackback
July 17, 2010 at 8:43 pm