Flashback and Look Forward!

I'm a little late with this post in a variety of different ways. I normally post my Flashback on Thursday night, but here it is Friday night...so its a true Flashback on Friday! My topic is also a little late...I'd meant to show my New Years Day meal a bit closer to the New Year! Oh well..we are only half way through with January :-) But you know, being late with a Flashback Friday post is really kind of staying with the theme. Wait long enough to post something and it becomes a flashback! And you get a lot of mileage out of a meal that way too. Take for instance these Blackeyed Peas we had to ring in the new year.


For those of you that aren't aware, Blackeyed Peas are supposed to bring you luck for the coming year and when accompanied by greens..which they were, you are supposed to have plenty of money as well. Lets hope that one rings true. But even if its not, it was a yummy way to start 2011. I did something a little different this time with my black eyed peas. I didn't have any ham or smoked meat other than bacon, so used that and it was awesome. Great smoky flavor!

Black Eyed Peas

1 pound dry black eyed peas
1/2 pound bacon, chopped in small pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 Tbls minced garlic
1 small can green chiles
Garlic Salt, Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning, onion powder to taste
Water

Put peas on a large pot and cover with water. Bring to boil, turn off fire and let soak for an hour. Drain peas in colander. In same pot cook bacon until just getting crisp. Remove bacon and drain all but a tablespoon of bacon fat. Cook onions, peppers and garlic in fat until begins to soften. Add beans, bacon and chiles back into pot and add water to cover by an inch or two. Season to taste and simmer for a couple of hours keeping an eye on water level. I like my beans to be thick..not watery so I cook mine for a long time and let the water absorb. Check seasoning before serving and adjust to taste. Serve over rice. Also VERY good eaten with crumbled fritos...but thats just me.

Next stop for this meal....I used the left over rice from our meal to make rice pudding. Love it :-) I was running low on raisins, so used dried cherries instead. Good substitute!


Last stop for the New Years blackeyed peas...Soup! I took what was left of the peas - after a couple of days of leftovers and turned it into another full meal, part of which went into the freezer to live yet another day...so maybe I should say this was the second to last stop!


Blackeyed Pea and Greens Soup

2 1/2 cups cooked or canned blackeyed peas (I would imagine 2 cans would do it)
1 bunch of greens (I used Kale), trimmed and torn into bite size pieces
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
4 cups chicken broth
Seasoning to taste

Combine all and heat for about 30 minutes. If your beans were in a lot of liquid you may want to puree some of the soup to make more creamy. Mine was already creamy so I didn't need to. I really didn't have to add anything else since it was already well seasoned and had onions, bell peppers and garlic in the beans but if you start with canned you may want to add these.

How about a July bloom to roundout the flashback?



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I'm joining in with Foodie Friday this week over at Designs by Gollum. Check out the other posts HERE

And over at Tidy Mom's for I'm Lovin' it Fridays. Click on the icon below to go there.