Happy New Year 2014!

We had a nice first day of 2014. Nothing to crazy. Just time together as a family and some work. Jason was super excited to use his disc tiller this morning. Getting it unloaded from the trailer was a bit tricky. I kept praying for the Lord to help us and make sure no one got hurt. I kept having images of it dropping and slicing feet in half...

The kids and I watched Harry Potter 2. We started last night but it was too scary so we turned on Despicable Me 2 instead. But in the light of day the kids all wanted to watch it again. It was fun to lounge around and spend time together.

I made a traditional New Year's Day southern dinner tonight. It was a ton of work, but super yummy, except the collard greens. Both of our Elders are fairly new missionaries and I thought it would be fun for them. Supposedly collard greens and black eyed peas represent wealth, cash and coins. But I did read in Southern Living that the tradition started after the Civil War. All the was left to eat were dried beans in much of South, and greens grow almost year round here. They are inexpensive and mature quickly, so the greens and peas represent how communities in the south survived the period after the war by helping each other and sharing what little they had. I like the second version of the tradition better!

I tried a fancy way of sauteing our greens. They were still super bitter. Next year I will make something more mild like chard.

 This is Hoppin' John. It is a rice and black eyed pea dish traditionally eaten on New Years. It was good, much better then I expected. The Elder's has seconds and thirds. You are supposed to make enough to always have leftovers. The next day it become Skippin' Jenny and you eat it to show your frugality and you are supposed to be prosperous.

I was super brave and made pork chops.I have never cooked them before. We were going to have BBQ chicken but Jason told me he heard on the radio that it was bad luck to eat chicken on New Year's Day because chicken's scratch backwards. You are supposed to eat pork or beef, both animals that move forward as they forage! It took me a bit to believe him. I thought he was teasing me. But we went with it. I still don't love pork chops, but they were ok. 

Whats left of the caramel cake. I sent a big chunk home with the Elder's too. This frosting is SO good! It is from Jason's grandma Poulsen's cookbook. It is the only frosting I make that you have to cook because it is worth the extra time and effort!