New Year's Day

It has been the traditional New Year’s Day at our house.  The tournament of Roses Parade was being broadcast while I cooked our traditional Southern Dinner.  I cooked black-eyed peas for my husband but since I grew up in upstate NY, they don’t appeal to my palate. 

  My plate has Great Northern Beans cooked a bit like Baked Beans.  Folklore has many explanations for eating these.  The one that was told to me by my mother-in-law was eating them on the first day of the year brings prosperity for the rest of the year.  The black-eyed peas represent coins so the more you eat, the more coins you’ll accumulate. 

Reason then expanded to include cooked greens with the meal to represent paper money.  

 

  Many people cook collards but since I don't like them, we have boiled cabbage.   My husband likes them but he's not doing the cooking.  However, he does like cabbage, too.

 

This year we put a new slant on an old tradition for cooking the cabbage.

I made Chicken & Apple Stew from the Slow Cooker Recipe book from Prevention.com.   Their recipe website is pretty neat because on many of the recipes, you can change the amount of servings you want to prepare and it will automatically change the measurement of the ingredients.  How cool is that?!!

It was going to take a while to find this exact link so basically here it is.

In a 4 qt crockpot, layer

1 lb boneless chicken  (they use dark, I used white)

1 lb carrots (sliced)

2 cups shredded green cabbage

2 Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced

1 onion, chopped

Mix these liquids & spices together & pour over above ingredients.

1 can (14.5) oz chicken broth

1/2 cup apple cider

1 Tbsp finely chopped sage (or 1 tsp dried)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

Cook on low 6 hours or on high 3 hours.

If you want, you can thicken some of the liquid into gravy in a separate saucepan when the stew is done.

I want to make it again.  It was okay - - but I forgot the chicken broth (DUH to me) and it would have upped the flavor to very, very good!!!  The preparation is extremely easy - - - for those who can read and double-check!

You crown the year with your good blessings,  and you leave abundance in your wake.   

^{Psalms 65:11}

(This is from the NET Bible.  I found it on Beth Moore's Blog.)