New Year's Day Food Traditions

[Uncle Bob]

Hoppin John......is just your favorite 'black-eyed" pea recipe that is served with/over rice...greens (trunip, mustard, collards) are alot of times served with or in the dish as well...The peas are "coins' the greens, "cash" the corn bread (made with yellow meal) the "gold"...assuring you wealth through out the new year....

 

[Loprraine]

Ham, scallopped potatoes, cole slaw. But, this year I'll be in Baltimore, so it will probably be crabcakes.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Our traditional New Year's Day dish is "Cassoulet", made with a mixture of chicken, turkey sausage, & whatever we have leftover from the Xmas Roast Goose.

While I like "Hopping John", husband doesn't, so I usually just cook some up for myself during the week, since fresh black-eye peas are plentiful in the produce departments around here this time of year.

Between the Hopping John & the Cassoulet, I certainly start off the new year with a goodly amount of fiber in my system - lol!!!!!

 

[Constance]

Around here, ham'n beans and cornbread is the tradition. Some people cook up a mess of cabbage to go with.
Bagna Calda is another favorite New Year's treat in our area, introduced by our many Italian Americans. It's a yummy emulsion of butter, olive oil, anchovies and garlic, into which steamed vegetables or crusty bread are dipped. One word of warning...you will exude garlic from your pores for several days after eating bagna.

 

[ChefJune]

Peas beans and lentils all are traditional as bringers of coin in the new year, the greens are for the dollars!

I always fix black eyed peas and rice for new years... sometimes with ham hocks, sometimes a vegie version. Depends upon what else is on the menu.

In Andersonville, the neighborhood of Chicago where I grew up, the New Years Day tradition was pickled herring in sour cream.

 

[goboenomo]

We do not have any New Years day food tradition. Every near years eve we have a party. So new years day is our hangover day.
But I think I'm working on both days.


Does anybody know if christmas eve is time and a half? Or just boxing day?
Same with New Years?

 

[boufa06]

In Greece, New Year's Day coincides with St Basil's Day. Incidentally, St Basil is Santa Claus for Greeks and in the not too distant past, this was the day for exchanging gifts rather than Christmas.

For our area, the traditional New Year's fare is stuffed rooster. Contrary to the stuffed turkey, the rooster is prepared in the pot and served whole on the table. The liquid left in the pot is used to make a soup which is the first course. Of course there will be the usual salad and some appetizers like grilled pork or sausage over the coals.

The highlight of the event is the cutting of the Vasilopita. This is a special breadlike cake which is quite elaborate and decorated with designs, the most prominent of which is the year (2007 for the one coming up). As usual it will be prepared by yours truly. A coin is buried in the dough. It symbolizes good luck and wealth for the whole of the new year. In older times, additional items would be buried in the dough along with the coin such as a tiny piece of an olive branch, symbolizing the obvious, a similar bit of a vine, symbolizing the family's vineyards, and even a small piece of stone (properly wrapped!) symbolizing the house. At the end of the meal, the head of the household will cut the Vasilopita into pieces. There is a strict order in giving out the pieces. The first is always for the house, the second for the head of the household and thereafter according to seniority. Some even include a piece for Jesus Christ.

It's fun to take part in the hunt for the coin! Usually by this time no one can eat anymore but curiosity as to who the lucky one for the year may be will almost always take the best of people and create a big mess at the table as Vasilopita pieces are frantically torn to shreds in search of gold!!

 

[BreezyCooking]

Boufa - the coin for good luck is also a very British tradition, put into the Xmas pudding.

In fact, one of my very favorite British tv mystery shows - "Midsomer Murders" - had a Xmas episode where the star played a joke on his insufferable father-in-law by rigging a metal-detector to sound as though the father-in-law had accidentally swallowed the lucky coin.

 

[Candocook]

Don't forget the greens--collards. That's for the money!!
We are headed to the beach that day with visiting friends from MN in tow. I'm thinking of making something to just have when we get there--or we may just go eat oysters and have our "traditional" NYDay meal the next day when the other of our guests arrive. Might have to be a braised pork loin with flageolets and turnip greens--upscale Southern.

 

[Opiñanita]

In New Mexico on New Year's Eve, it is traditional to eat posole. Even though I'm not going home this year, I think some of my New Mexican friends and I are going to make it here in New York anyway, for the sake of tradition.

 

[Shunka]

Breezy, I love that series too!!! I remember that one!! We have started having Bagna Cauda since a good friend shared her recipe with me; hubby loves it to put on his sandwiches. Otherwise, it is whatever the two of us are hungry for since it has been many years since we had any company for New Year's.