Week 1: January 1 - 3

The Plan:
Rice and Black-eye Pea Soup with cornbread muffins

On New Year's Day, it is traditional to eat black-eyed peas for good luck for the coming year. According to wikipedia:
"The "good luck" traditions of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud (compiled ~500 CE), Horayot 12A: "Abaye [d. 339 CE] said, now that you have established that good-luck symbols avail, you should make it a habit to see Qara (bottle gourd), Rubiya (black-eyed peas, Arabic Lubiya), Kartei (leeks), Silka (either beets or spinach), and Tamrei (dates) on your table on the New Year." A parallel text in Kritot 5B states that one should eat these symbols of good luck. The accepted custom (Shulhan Aruh Orah Hayim 583:1, 16th century, the standard code of Jewish law and practice) is to eat the symbols. This custom is followed by Sepharadi and Israeli Jews to this day. The first Sepharadi Jews arrived in Georgia in the 1730s and have lived there continuously since. The Jewish practice was apparently adopted by non-Jews around the time of the Civil War.

These "good luck" traditions date back to the U.S. Civil War. Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General William Tecumseh Sherman, would typically strip the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock and destroy whatever they couldn't carry away. At that time, Northerners considered "field peas" and corn suitable only for animal fodder, and as a result didn't steal or destroy these humble foods. Many Southerners survived as a result of this mistake.^[1]"

The Recipes:

Rice and Black-Eye Pea Soup: (adapted from Cookshelf Soups by Carole Clements)
9 oz. dried black-eyed peas
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, or 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1 bay leaf
4 cups vegetable stock
1/2 c. brown rice

- Soak the beans according to the package directions, but do not cook them. Drain and rinse the beans. Put them in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover them, and bring it to a boil. Let the beans boil for 10 minutes, and then remove from the heat. Drain, and rinse well.

- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently, until just softened. Add the other veggies, and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

- Add the beans, thyme, bay leaf, stock, and water. Bring it to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour, or until the beans are just tender.

- Stir in the rice, and season with salt and pepper, if needed. Continute cooking for 30 mins, or until the beans and rice are tender.

*Notes: I didn't read the recipe very well when I made this, and I thought it could have been better. First, I cooked the beans completely before adding them to the soup, so by the time the rice was done, the beans were overdone, and not as flavorful as they could have been. Also, I didn't add any salt to it at all, so each bowl was seasoned according to the eater's taste. Mine was pretty bland. It could have used more thyme, and I could hardly taste the onion or garlic. Perhaps a better stock would have made all the difference. If you know your veggie stock is on the bland side, you could either add more onion/garlic, or use some onion powder when you add the rice and salt.

Vegan Cornbread Muffins: (adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen)
1 Tbsp. honey
1 c. soy milk (or rice, almond, or hemp milk) + 1 Tbsp. vinegar
1/3 c. unsweetened applesauce
1 c. yellow corn meal
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
3 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

- Beat together the honey, soy milk, vinegar and applesauce.
- Mix well together all dry ingredients.
- Combine all ingredients, including oil, and mix well.
- Spoon into greased muffin tins, and bake at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until a toothpick/knife inserted into the center muffin comes out clean.

*Notes: I forgot the salt, and it definitely needed it. Also, you could potentially add a smidge more oil, and it would help the muffins stay moist. These muffins would be good with soup over them, or with more honey. I cut the honey down because I used applesauce instead of an egg, so I didn't think the sweetener was necessary. I still don't think I'd use a full 1/4 cup, but I'd use a little more than I did.