Oh boy does THAT sound like fun!

I make my black eyed peas the way my mother did. Cook 'em plain then add lemon, oil, garlic powder, cumin and salt. Mix that all up and eat, soaking up extra juices with some toast. Wonderful.

Sounds like some good eating too!

I've gotten in the habit of putting red wine vinegar in mine so I bet the lemon would taste good too. Blacked eyed peas that is. I'm going to cook them Annie's way with the crock pot too.

And no sugar (or flour) in the cornbread here either..

Beth

I always put pickled jalapenos in my black eyes. I bet vinegar or lemon would be good too. I also always like them over rice with more hot sauce. This year I'm trying a Cuban recipe if I can just find some banana leaves for sale somewhere.

The winery linked above has some fabulous wine!! It's not terribly far from where I live. Whenever I go by there I always pop in for a glass of one of their whites. I can never remember the name of it but it is so crisp and refreshing. It's not far from Fredericksburg.

Lars, I'm with you;
sugar in the cornbread just ain't right.

I love hotwater cornbread with jalapenos.

On New Year's Day, I have black-eyed peas (for luck) with diced stewed tomatoes & jalapenos, over rice or cornbread.

One of my great-aunts used to make "Hopping John", seems like it was something like what I have today, but she included salt pork.

I like cornbread all ways. If I'm just having a muffin for breakfast, I like yellow cornbread with some sugar, and I like honey on it, or jam. If I'm having cornbread salad or cornbread with beans, I like it unsweetened, with white or yellow cornmeal, doesn't matter to me.

My favorite cornbread is a little sweet with bits of crunchy crumbled bacon and canned green chilies in it.

I cook black eyed peas like I cook all beans, with some celery/carrot/onion, water to cover, a smoked pork hock or ham bone if I have it, bacon if I don't, or sometimes no meat at all. Put in the crockpot on high all day while I'm at work. Salt and pepper to taste after they are cooked. Elery likes his with sweet relish and diced raw onion on top, I like mine plain.

Annie

I think I might try cornbread with some bacon in it, and I will have to decide which way to make the blackeyed peas. I would really rather have split pea soup, however! I hadn't made cornbread for a long time until I went back to Texas, and I had forgotten how much I like it. I do like it very plain, however. I ate at least one third of one of the cornbreads I made before I ever started making the dressing. I used an 8" diameter iron skillet for each batch. I don't remember what sizes I have here, but I think they go from 9" down to 7". I don't remember having an 8" iron skillet. I might want to get some smoked turkey to sub for ham. My sister had a smoked turkey (that she got as a gift) for her day-after-Christmas dinner, and it tasted like ham to me. It was a bit salty, but I ate it with a casserole dish that was mostly rice and broccoli that had no salt at all, and so they balanced each other out. Unfortunately, the broccoli casserole had some milk (or other dairy product) that really upset my stomach. It may have had some soft cheese in it. I tend to fall off my no-lactose diet at holiday times, but then I find out that there are a few things that I expect to bother me that actually do not.

Lars

I'm making BEP's tomorrow in the crock pot for NYE. I make mine with chicken broth instead of water, carrots, onions, garlic, and a ham bone. Then into the crock pot all day.

Making white rice to go with them and two kinds of cornbread; sweet and not sweet.

I'm thinking of making a black-eyed pea and kale soup with this recipe from my CSA

Here is a link that might be useful: black-eyed pea and kale soup

I like my cornbread on the sweet side & favorite way to eat it is crumbled up & covered w/ cold milk. Eat w/ a spoon for breakfast, a snack or, as much as I love it, for dessert. :)

I first had this at a New Year's open house about 10 years ago and really enjoyed it.

BLACK EYED PEA AND HAM SALAD (20 servings)

1 1/2 lbs. black-eyes peas
2 medium onions, peeled
2 medium carrots, peeled
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 3/4 lbs. smoked ham, cut into 1/4" cubes
3/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp. hot pepper sauce
Oil and vinegar dressing (below)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups diced seeded tomatoes

Soak peas over night or by quick-soak method; drain. Place peas, onions, carrots and garlic in a 6-qt. pot. Add water to cover by at least 2 inches and bring to boil. Lower heat immediately and simmer until peas are tender but not mushy, about 45 to 60 minutes. Remove vegetables and set aside. Drain peas, discarding any visible shells.

Cut onions and carrots into fine dice. Mash or finely chop garlic. Mix these ingredients with the drained peas. Add the ham, parsley, hot pepper sauce and dressing and season with salt & pepper. Stir gently to distribute dressing. Refrigerate until well chilled, overnight if desired. When ready to serve, gently stir in diced tomatoes.

OIL AND VINEGAR DRESSING

1/2 cup good-quality olive oil
6 Tbs. vegetable oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 to 2 tsp. sugar
2 Tbs. whole-grain prepared mustard
4 cloves garlic, halved
1 1/2 Tbs. fresh basil, chopped, or 1 tsp. dried
1 tsp. dried oregano

Mix all ingredients together with whisk and let garlic marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Remove garlic and pour over salad.

Finally, yesterday, I tasted Texas caviar for the first time, at a BBQ joint in Orlando. I liked it. It is black eye peas with chopped onion, oil, vinegar and some other stuff. It's sort of a relish or salad along the lines of Ruthanna's recipe. There are lots of recipes on the Internet. I had been thinking of making some.

As a northerner who has been exploring southern cooking, I concur with those who say corn bread is best without sugar or flour.

Jim

I was hoping for some cornbread recipes, as it has been so long since I've made it that I forgot what I did. So I found this sit on Texas cooking and used the Buttermilk Cornbread (with Flour) recipe. The only change I made was to start by cooking turkey bacon in some olive oil in the iron skillet (three slices). I used Bob's Red Mill whole grain stone ground medium grind cornmeal, and it's a little bit coarse but very tasty. To me, it already tastes sweet from the cornmeal, which is why I would not add sugar to it. I reduced the salt to 3/4 tsp because the bacon is salty, and I melted butter in the pan instead of shortening. Still, the cornbread seems to beg for more butter. I might try making a recipe with a bit more flour next time, just for variety.

The black-eyed peas I made with garlic, celery tops (just because I had them), and a couple of Serrano peppers. At the end I added salt, and I was happy with the flavor at that point. I put a bit of cumin on one serving and decided that I did not like that addition (possibly because it was not cooked in), and I forgot the lemon juice. The peppers did not add heat as I had expected. Recently I bought both Serrano and Jalape peppers, and the Jalapeños were extremely hot! Usually the Serranos are hotter, but this time it appears to be the reverse.

Lars

DU Lars,

I hate cornbread and black-eyed peas, but I'm posting a not T&T recipe below from my cookbooks. Today I ate BEPs for luck. I bought a can and rinsed and drained the beans, then sauteed them with garlic, corn, sea salt and cracked pepper. I actually almost liked black-eyed peas that way!

Corn bread:

From Sarah Reynolds' 365 American Favorites

1 1/2 c. yellow cornmeal
3/4 c flour
2 Tbsp sugar (or not, I guess)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 c. buttermilk
3/4 c. milk
4 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 and grease a 9" square pan

Stir the dry ingredients in a large bowl until well blended.

Beat eggs in a small bowl, then add milk and buttermilk. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until mixture is moistened. Quickly stir in butter until just blended (still lumpy) and pour into pan.

Back approx. 25 min, until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.

--------------

From Marion Cunningham's The Fannier Farmer Baking Book (which is a reliably fantastic recipe source for breads, pies and cakes)

Bacon-bit Cornbread

1 c flour
3/4 c. yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 c milk
2 eggs
4 Tbsp. melted butter OR 4 Tbsp bacon fat (melted, of course)
1/2 c crisp fried crumbled bacon

Preheat to 425 and grease an 8" pan

Stir together dry ingredients well in a large bowl.

Beat milk, eggs and melted fat in a small bowl until well mixed.

Add the milk mixture to the dry mixture and stir until thoroughly blended. Stir in the bacon bits.

Pour into the pan and bake approx. 20 minutes.

---------------

Also from Marion Cunnigham's FFBB

White Cornbread

1 c flour
1 c white cornmeal
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 c shortening, melted

Preheat to 425. Grease 8" pan.

Stir together dry ingredients until completely mixed in small/medium bowl.

Combine wet ingredients in a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat just until the batter is blended.

Spread evenly in pan and bake approx. 20 min, until toothpick comes out clean.

----------------

Betty Crocker (2001)

Southern Buttermilk Cornbread

1 1/2 c yellow, white OR blue cornmeal
1/2 c AP flour
1 1/2 c buttermilk
1/4 c vegetable oil or shortening
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar (or not, I guess)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs

Preheat to 450 and grease either a 9.5" round pan, 8" square pan or a 10" skillet.

Mix all ingredients. Beat vigorously 30 seconds.

Pour into pan. Bake round or square pan 25 to 30 minutes; skillet about 20 minutes.

~Amanda

The Marion Cunningham White CB recipe looks like the one I use except I use 1 1/2 cups cornmeal and 1/2 cup flour. Sometimes I add chopped green onions I've sauteed in butter.

I can't get used to sweet cornbread. Heck, it took me forever to get used to baked cornbread. What we all called cornbread where I grew up was fried and most definitely not sweet. And it was a natural pairing with black-eyed peas.

I never thought of putting cumin or lemon in BEPs. I'll have to try that. Usually we just cook them with a piece of fatback and put relish and onions or hot sauce on them. I think I'd like cumin and lemon much better.

Lars, does milk and or buttermilk bother your lactose intolerance in cornbread. I make mine from a sour cream recipe, except I use nonfat yogurt. Mine has some sugar in it, but these days I'm using Splenda which seems to be OK in cornbread for me, although not much else. I don't like sweet cornbread with savory dishes, but it seems like a little bit of sugar counteracts the yogurt and flour's bitterness and blandness just right. I could easily go no sugar because one can always add honey to the finished product Yum! I make my blackeyed peas vegetarian style, which would probably not win any contests with meat eaters! I like them in a stew or cold bean salad like Jim mentions. I use fake bacon bits or fake ham or sausage in the bean stews, for that smokey pork flavor.

Milk does bother me in cornbread, but buttermilk less so. It's a bit hard for me to tell because I know I have an allergy to wheat (somewhat slight), and when I omit wheat from a meal, I tend to do better. But then I am also supposed to have an allergy to corn, but I've noticed less effect in corn than in wheat.

Thanks for the recipes, Amanda. I tend to combine several recipes when making cornbread, but I do think I like the proportions of 1-1/2 cups cornmeal to 1/2 cup flour. I would probably like equal portions of cornmeal to flour, but I do like to minimize wheat when possible - this after I just found great flour tortillas at TJ's (almost as good as the ones at HEB), and I always substitute butter for the oil/lard in cornbread. BTW, the cornbread I made for Christmas was from a mix, which is why I said I had not made cornbread for a long time. As you know, DM only buys cornbread mixes - never cornmeal - and so that's what I had to work with. I don't remember the brand, although I think it was Aunt Jemima, but I did think it was good. It seems to have a high proportion of flour, but was still perfectly good for the stuffing.

My BEPs are also vegetarian, but I wanted them to be plain. However, I think the celery, garlic, and chili pepper helped the flavor. I wouldn't enter them in a contest, however.

Lars

Lars, we just moved our DD to Brady, Tx., about 60 miles from Fredericksburg.
We had BEP's and cornbread yesterday. I can enough BEP's from our garden in the summer to last all year. Just plain BEP's. I like purple hull peas also.

Best cornbread I've ever eaten. I serve this cornbread with pinto beans or black beans or black eye peas for my DH. Oh, and yes I realize this is high in calories, and it is not a heart-healthy recipe, but it is very easy and very good! I can't stand sweet cornbread!

LINDAS CORNBREAD
Martha White corn meal mix, white or yellow (Dont use the Jiffy corn meal because it has too much sugar in it.)

Follow the directions on the package,

1 egg,
substitute buttermilk for milk,
add one 11 oz. can of whole Mexican corn, drained,
add one cup of shredded cheese,
add a couple of drops of hot sauce.

and mix well.

2 slices bacon
¼ finely chopped onion
1 finely minced garlic clove (optional)

You can add the following variations:

pork cracklings
jalapeños, bell peppers or other peppers

Chop up two slices of bacon into a cast iron skillet and add ¼ cup finely chopped onion and garlic (dont let the garlic burn); heat bacon and onion in the oven at 400°; cook until the fat is rendered out of the bacon and the onion is tender. Dont drain, but pour the mixture directly into the very hot cast iron skillet and cook for the given time on the package.

This recipe is from Texas Monthly. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds interesting.

Black-Eyed Pea Pie
From Chef Kathy Ruiz at Evans, Houston.

6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups dried black-eyed peas
2 cups chopped yellow onion
1 tablespoon finely ground white pepper
1 bay leaf
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
1 ham bone (optional)
8 cloves garlic, minced
3 bunches collards or mustard greens, destemmed
Cornbread (recipe below)
4 cups mashed potatoes

In soup pot, combine stock, peas, 1 cup onion pepper, bay leaf, jalapeño, ham bone, and half the garlic. Boil 5 minutes over high heat. Reduce heat, and simer 2 hours. Drain, reserving liquid.

Fill saucepan with water. Add greens and remaining onion and garlic. Boil 6 to 10 minutes, until greens are wilted. Drain, reserving liquid. Tear greens into small pieces.

To assemble: Crumble cornbread, and pack 1-inch deep in bottom of 9-inch springorm pan. Tope with layer of peas, then layer of greens. Alternate peas and greens until pan is almost full. Spread mashed potatoes on top, and brush lightly with melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees until set. Combine reserved liquids, and use as optional sauce. Note: This recipe is a good way to use leftover cornbread and mashed potatoes. Serves 4 to 6.

Cornbread
1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
1 tablespoon butter
2 jalapeños, seeded and minced
1/2 cup fresh corn kernels
1/4 cup chopped pimento
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspooons baking powder
1 1/2 tablesppons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
3 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Sauté onion in butter. Remove from heat, and add jalapeños, corn and pimento. Mix dry ingredients in bowl. In another bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter. Combine corn and liquid mixtures, then add to dry ingredients. Dont overmix. Bake in greased 9- by 9-inch pan 25 to 30 minutes. Note: Stale cornbread works well in black-eyed pea pie, so make cornbread a few days ahead of time.