My family, steeped in Italian tradition, broke with their sausage
and lentils ritual after moving south from New England.  My mother, an outstanding cook, routinely integrated the cultural dishes of the south with the meat and potatoes that was my Dad’s heritage and the Italian sauces and pastas that were my Mom’s traditions.  For New Years, they preferred to prepare their celebratory feast southern style, ham hocks, black eyed peas and greens.   I, a vegetarian, opt out of ham hocks but a little luck in the New Year would be kind of nice so hence to Google for me in search of lucky foods.

We all want to rid ourselves of unwanted and uninvited events of
our lives and what better way than with the ritual of “breaking bread” to focus our prayers on a positive outcome.  In my quest I was struck by the fact that first, there are dishes  designed in every culture for the purpose of cleansing out the unwanted in preparing for the new year. And, that the common ingredients that comprise the meal tend to be greens and beans and a variety of ways to prepare them to enourage an auspices year.  That these rituals of cleansing and welcoming are universal apparently says there have been trials and tribulations for a very long time and we all get our dose.

What intrigued me more than the thought that we collectively feel the need to “out with the old and in with the new”, was a what not to eat list found in ww.epicurious.com under Lucky Foods for the New Year lest you encourage an undesirable year ahead.  In my effort to pass on this note of caution so you all may have the year ahead that surpases your expections  - avoid the following:

•  Alas, lobster because it walks backwards.
• Chicken, a party staple for sure, out, because it scratches backwards.
• Both because they will encourage past regrets.
• Winged fowl for any of you who cook winged fowl (Turkey? Can’t fly not sure about scratching).
• The obvious is that luck can fly away.

For my future good luck meal for 2011, I settled on a recipe that
will satisfy the criteria needed without meat – stewed tomatoes, kale and black eyed peas – noodles to fatten the pot (taking care not to break the noodles before they enter my mouth as in Chinese tradition), and crusty bread to top it off.  Yum.

I’ll let you know next year how it worked out.

Peace, Lynne

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