Fabulous First Day Feasting

A feast is typically a celebration with an abundance of good food--a sumptuous meal. The tradition in most countries has favored New Year's Eve for the feasting, leaving the first day of our new year for recovering from deliciously excessive celebrating and socializing. The eve of 2021 was a bit different. 

GrecoSoCo Black-Eyed Peas with olive oil, garlic, onion, tomatoes, and oregano

On the last day of our troublesome 2020, most people celebrated at home or with a good friend or loved one. Some managed to party with their "bubble" of "safe" friends, those who they've trusted to follow all prescribed Covid protocol. Dewey and I fell into the first group, alone together by the fire with a sampling of charcuterie, cheeses, and stuffed mushrooms. We tried, but even with Manhattans and the streaming of two favorite films, The Last Magnificent (about the incomparable chef Jeremiah Tower) and Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy, Dewey was done around 9:00 pm and I faded nearer to 10:30 pm. Nothing unusual for us. We never go out for New Year's Eve and we're usually in bed no later than an hour prior to the ball drop at midnight.

Chasing midnight with Manhattans

Our feasting is usually reserved for the first day of the new year. We usually celebrate the tradition of my Dewey's family, which is to eat black-eyed peas and collards for luck with financial matters in the new year. Being the blended cultures couple that we are, however, the preparation of the traditional foods is a bit different. We do it GrecoSoCo style! Collards are stewed using the traditional Greek Heritage Cooking method, as are the black-eyed peas using a soup recipe that I learned from my Aunt Polly. Besides the required vegetables, we always have a small Boston butt of pork that cooks in the slow cooker all night long. This year, my Dewey had squirreled away half of a vacuum-sealed smoked butt that I thawed the previous day and heated on low in the slow cooker for three hours. It was still smoky and juicy and provided the perfect balance in our First Day Feasting trifecta. Happy new year!!!

Today's lunch (dinner, as we say here in South Carolina)

The printable recipe for GrecoSoCo (or Greek-Style) black-eyed peas can be found at this link.

Vegan deliciousness Greek-style

For the GrecoSoCo collards recipe, click here.