Tuesday, January 01, 2008


New Year's, originally uploaded by hannahcooks.

I got for Christmas from my brother-in-law Gregg, and I was eager to try the black eyed pea fritter recipe that I saw when skimming it. However, Delta took a few days getting our luggage back to us, so I grabbed the first black eyed pea fritter recipe I could find.

Now, I am usually a canned black eyed peas heated up with some leftover ham person, because it is easy. But I could not find any canned peas, either, so I got some fresh ones that they now sell in the produce section. (America!) However, I did not think that maybe I should cook them before pulverizing them for the fritter, so my fritter batter was more like fritter crumbs and they deep fried into, well, crispy fried bits. I totally blamed the recipe but in retrospect it would have been fine if I had cooked the beans.

(The whole New Year's Eve dinner was a disaster- I could not decide what kind of sauce I wanted with the pork chops, and wound up messing that up, too. Rarely is the frozen dessert from TJ's the high point of a meal for me, but last night that Peppermint Joe-Joe Cheesecake was the meal.)

Today, on New Year's proper, I was glad to have more fresh black eyed peas on hand for a second go round. I cooked them, this time, and served them with parsley and marjoram and tomoto and feta and a lemon vinaigrette. Jeff, who does not like black eyed peas, loved it. I do not normally like bean salads, but this was so light and fresh tasting. We ate huge bowlfuls this afternoon and will hopefully have good luck all year. But I suspect there are always a few kitchen disasters ahead, no matter how many black eyed peas I eat today.

(The second recipe was from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, which is also the cookbook I have resolved to use more often this year.)

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