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Everyone hopes for good luck, health, and prosperity in the New Year. There are superstitions from many different cultures to help tip lady luck in ones favor -- many of which I was completely unaware of before doing a bit of research for this recipe.

For Latin Americans twelve grapes are eaten at midnight (or during the countdown) to ensure a fruitful twelve months to come.

In Greece a special cake called a Peta is baked with a coin inside. The person who gets the piece with the treasure inside have special luck for the future year.

And in relation to today's recipe - Southern people have the tradition of eating black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread (or some variation on this theme). The peas swell as they cook, ensuring prosperity. The greens ensure plenty of greenbacks in the coming year, and the cornbread ensures a wealth of gold. Many people eat the peas on New Year's Day itself, while some Southerners insist it must be the first thing eaten after the clock strike twelve, for maximum good luck. Some don't like the black-eyes staring at them and will only eat them mashed or pureed.

Southerners have another tradition I love - opening every door and window at the stroke of midnight to let the old year out and give the new year an easy way in.

So black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread will make up the menu of my New Year's Day. I'll let you know how it goes. I thought it would be a good idea to post early in case any of you wanted to try making your own bowl of good fortune tomorrow.

In some of the early entries on this site I didn't request permission to run the recipe I was writing about from the publisher so it won't appear here. The majority of entries on 101 Cookbooks will have the recipes attached, this just happens to be one of the ones that doesn't.

From: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone Page: 306

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