Black eye peas, and plant a rose to symbolize renewal.

Tradition, no!!

Both of my parents were born in the South, but have spent their lives from the teen years to now in California. They continued the collard green and black eyed peas tradition and that is what I experienced growing up.

My NYD un-tradition/tradition is dictated by whatever mood strikes me. Last year it was a Greek NYD. This year was a toss up between Italian and Chinese with the former winning. The red wine wine definitely gave the Italian an unfair advantage :).

John, your NYD dinner sounds yum... I think people use that "what you do on NYD is what you'll do all year" as an excuse to go on a cruise or something. That's not something I grew up hearing, but I do hear it now. Some variant of "start as you mean to go on", perhaps.

Lisa, I like your rose planting tradition. Even in colder zones, planting something should work, even if just an acorn or other seed. I'd guess a pot might be needed if the ground is frozen.

Desertgarden, I like your untraditions. Red wine is certainly an unfair advantage; what else will you have?

I just asked my husband if he'd rather have Jamaican rice and peas instead of (or in addition to?) Hoppin John, and he liked that idea.

Virginia

So far and probably what shall be...

Antipasto, Salad, Linguini alla Carbonara, Meat Lasagne, Gnocchi in cream sauce, garlic knots and bread sticks, Tiramisu and wine.

Oh my gosh desert garden can I come eat with you ?! Yummm !

My husband is in the restaurant industry ( so was I until our baby came along ) so New Years ever and day have always been required work days . So New Year's Eve we always snack on appetizers as we usually got home close to midnight.

Growing up we always had pork and sauerkraut New Year's Day and shrimp cocktail. I miss that !

Lilyfnch, you just reminded me how my PA-Dutch relations insisted that pork (with sauerkratut, because what else is there to serve with pork) is lucky for the New Year because pigs root forward, and were equally insistent that one must never serve chicken on New Year’s Day because chickens scratch back.

We always have black eyes peas for good luck and cabbage for wealth, although I eat cabbage every year on New Years I'm still not wealthy lol. But I am rich in family, friends and love and that's all that really matters. We also eat some type of pork, usually a ham, but I never knew why so I'm going to take ratdogheads explanation and use it for my own lol.

I have often wondered what black eyed peas are and as for Hoppin' John and collard greens, well I haven't got the faintest idea. Please tell.

Daisy

Sometimes we eat black eyed peas and cornbread for luck. Although I enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions and sometimes knock myself out , after Christmas I've often had enough tradition to last me awhile and I'm ready to do what's best for me namely go on a diet. It's usually a low carb diet. I lost 30 pounds last year kind of slowly but the holiday food always packs on the pounds.

I invented Hoppin John before I knew about it. Mine was rice, a little onion, jalapeno, and black eyed peas . Daisy, black eyed peas are best bought dry in a bag and cooked slowly with some onion and pepper and pork. They develop kind of a thick gravy and the whole thing is great with cornbread and vegetables, stuff like ham or pork chops. Don't they have them in Europe? What kind of dried legumes do they eat over there? What about cornbread?

I never ate greens other than spinach before I knew my in-laws. Collards are big tough dark green leaves that are good cooked down with some kind of pork fat. I think I like turnip greens better, or mustard greens.

Daisy, collard greens are sort of like kale: https://www.anniesannuals.com/plants/view/?id=4182

They grow well locally, and at this time of year, there are truck farmers selling collards from their trucks in parking lots around town. Because they are green and leafy, they are supposed to resemble dollars, so represent prosperity. They are also very nutritious.

Black-eyed peas are beans with a black eye-patch.

They are also a band.

Daisy, do you have any NY traditions?

We used to drink champagne on New Year's Eve, but now we drink Prosecco. Anyone else going in for a bit of bubbly?

Virginia

I also make a pot of rice and have jalepeno corn bread to go with our meal. It's one of my favorite meals to eat and it's not just relegated to New Year's Day, we eat that similar meal several times during the year but usually with purple hull peas instead of black eye peas.

Virginia we will have margaritas for New Years! I make them at home so we don't have to leave the house.

Ratdog- I had no idea about that! I guess you just grow up eating something and don't ask questions:)

here in Tennessee I worked at a restaurant that always had turnip greens . And people put vinegar on them that has peppers soaking in them. So I never dared tried! How awful must the geeens taste that vinegar was an accent ? lol but I love all the other southern foods .

Virginia , I love a good prosecco! My favorite wine is a Riesling . Mmm

The only tradition for New Year's Day here, these days, is to ''go on a diet''. Most people seem to say it, but rarely stick to it for long.

At parties and other gatherings it's still a tradition to sing ''Auld Lang Syne'' just as the year turns at midnight. People link hands and so on. It's not as common as it used to be in England, as there are so many different cultures here now and different communities do different things, and this would be an Anglo-Saxon tradition, but it's still very popular in Scotland I believe, as it really belongs to them.

As for the food mentioned above, I only know of these things via Virginia's posts, otherwise Black Eyed Peas might be found at Caribbean food stores in larger cities, Collard Greens we would call ''Spring Greens'' as that looks like a green cabbage and Cornbread I would associate with Native Americans for some reason - I don't know why that should be, must have read it somewhere.

Otherwise, most younger people here will generally be recovering from a hangover, such is life these days. My own tradition is to get out in the garden, rain or shine. and get started on those bags of manure, but if someone wants to cook me a 'Hoppin' John' I wouldn't say no.

Marlorena, I do want to cook you some Hoppin' John, but the logistics are against us... :>(

Lilyfinch, I think a lot of cultures pair vinegars with cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage and other greens... I wonder if that's just a taste preference, or did people figure out that the vinegar aids with digesting greens?

I like a good Riesling also; and Vouvray is another sweet white that I like, though I mostly drink red wine in winter.

We may get snow on NYD. Brrrrrrrrrr!

In my (very tiny) family, we always did crepes with all kinds of filling (marmalade, fruit preserves, chocolate, walnuts & sugar, name it...). Loads of crepes., at midnight, then just after waking up and then again during the broadcast of the New Year's concert from Vienna (and while dancing waltzes all along). And then more crepes after dinner. Ah, this got me nostalgic for my carefree childhood days ... and my mom's & my aunt's New Year crepes.

vesfl, I don't think I've ever had a crepe. Which is silly because I think I'd like them, and there used to be a mobile crepe stand near the place I used to work. It was popular, usually with long lines; perhaps that made them seem inaccessible...?

Judging by the food store adverts Sweden seems to have adopted the continental tradition of having champagne, oysters and other seafood for New Year's Eve. When I grew up we had the same food as for Christmas, heavy on meats. My mother used to melt lead and pour it into cold water. We would try to figure out what fate the shapes spelled out for the coming year.

My husband and I will celebrate by ourselves and eat Donegal crabs and drink champagne. We have no Christmas food left, the big boys among the grandchildren took all the leftovers with them. I had counted on some creamed mustard herring for Boxing Day but the day after Christmas the oldest boy came back to take the last of it. I didn't mind, I'm glad they like my food.

Virginia, perhaps because I was too young when I tried to learn to make crepes, I can never succeed flipping them and they always stay glued to the pan. With my mom and aunt passing long ago, I haven't eaten them in years. My aunt was of Hungarian origin, which added additional varieties to our New Year crepes and my mom even made an impromptu layered torte from them (our "crepes torte"). I *loved* it.

The New Year of my childhood and in my family was a much lighter fare than Christmas when we usually had a layered cake (torte) with an assortment of petit fours for desserts. Mariannese reminded me of champagne, yes, that was a favored drink for adults. Another drink was a mulled wine and, for me as a kid, mulled apple cider.

On the eve, high probability we'll walk the block and a half to a Chinese resto. Martinis will be downed. Considerations for the all-day NYD feasting range from breakfast of lox, cream cheese, onions, capers, bagel and orange juice; late lunch of salad Lyonnaise; to an even later dinner of fondue Normandy. We've stocked a fine California sparkling dry rose which pairs well with salted, buttered popcorn. In amongst the meals, we'll plant Duchess of Portland rose and a number of native California plants.

January 2 begins the sparse 2018 eating regimen.

None of this is tradition save the Champagne. If we can find a vendor, we'll grab up some home-made tamales: pork, beef, cheese and chile, pineapple. They're a holiday treat and can be enjoyed whenever.

This is really interesting reading! I hadn’t even peeked at this thread until now. I never knew what “Hoppin John” consisted of. I’d only heard the name, here and there. I’m not sure if I’ve ever eaten a black eyed pea in my life. I don’t think so. I also never knew the reason some ate “greens” on New Years. That certainly makes sense, CASH!

As Virginia mentioned, we make traditional Dutch Ollie Bollen on New Years. This year we will be making them on Saturday, because that’s when all my kids are available at the same time.(We haven’t had our Christmas yet either, so it will be a big combination celebration with everyone spending the day and sleeping over.)

Ollie Bollen literally translates to “Oil Balls”, but that sounds awful. Really they are balls of batter/dough fried in oil. The recipe is very simple, just flour, sugar, yeast, salt, buttermilk, raisins, cinnamon, and chopped green apples. Let rise for about an hour and then use an icecream scooper to drop balls of batter into hot oil. They are best eaten hot and dipped in powdered sugar. Oh, they are so delicious! We will take the deep fryer outside to the patio and fry them there, otherwise the house will have that heavy fried smell for days. I’m afraid we will eat ourselves sick and no one will eat the roasted turkey, ham, potatoes, vegetables, and everything thing else at dinner time. We better start peeling those apples very early on Saturday morning:) Lisa

That sounds nice, I would eat those Oil Balls...

In fact, Hopping John followed by those delights, which sound a bit like an apple doughnut but I might be wrong, would be a culinary feast to be savoured. It's making me feel quite peckish. I think I'm in the wrong country on this one.

vesfl, I just sent this crepe recipe to my husband, in case he's feeling ambitious. We both like to cook, but since he's the "pancake guy", he would probably do crepes well, also?

Dara, your gourmet NYD sounds good. Which CA natives will you plant? I'm trying to add more natives here, also.

They are no longer predicting snow for NYD, but we're expected to have a week of low temps in the 20's. That is very unusual for us to have such extended freezy temps.

Lisa, "oily balls" isn't a great name, I agree... I'd invite myself over to eat some just the same, except... logistics, again. I do think "apple fritters" sounds more appetizing.

Virginia

Virginia, I don't know if street vendors use a different version from those that are home made. They don't use the same pans so the ingredient ratios could be slightly different. Alas, I don't have a recipe from my mom or aunt - not just for crepes, but any recipes - to my great regret. They were that kind who would instruct "little of this, a bit more of that" and I'm at loss unless I know the precise measures, so I never wrote down any of their recipes always thinking there will be the time for it...

Well, our traditional Ollie Bollen making has been postponed, as well as our already late Christmas celebration. My daughter called at 7 am this morning to say she had been sick all night. A violent stomach bug had been going around her in-laws family, and now it’s her turn. They leave for Hawaii on Tuesday, so I’m not sure if we will be able to squeeze our celebration in before then. She insists that she will be up to it tomorrow, but we’ll see. My mother called this morning, they are in the Visalia area visiting my sister and brother and their families for the holidays. They are about to start frying their Ollie Bollen. This year they quintupled the recipe! (My siblings have lots of children!) Each recipe makes between 50 and 70 Ollie Bollen. That’s an incredible amount of “Oil Balls”! Wow! Dad and Mom better not forget to take their cholesterol pills! :) Happy New Year everyone!! Lisa

Lisa - I'm sorry to hear about your daughter's illness! It's hard when you get hit with a bug like that over the holidays when all you want to do is have good times with family. Good times with family AND Hawaii isn't something to be missed.

Our quirky family New Year's tradition that we've had since my kids were quite young is to make a fire in the fireplace, have an indoor "picnic" on the floor in front of the fireplace and watch movies until everyone conks out or New Year's hits (whichever comes first). The kids have gotten so they look forward to this as much or more than Christmas, since it's a fun family time with no expectations other than quiet enjoyment together. Even at 15 years, they wouldn't dream of taking off with their friends on New Year's Eve which is gratifying as a parent. The contents of the picnic can vary a lot, but it's settled down to be a variety of finger foods - fancy cheeses and crackers, fruit plate, veggie plate, nuts, deviled eggs, and of course pickled asparagus.

Why pickled asparagus, you may ask? A local small grocery had some tastings set up when my twins were about 18 months old and I remember wheeling them in their tandem stroller through the aisles doing tastings. When we came to the very hot and spicy pickled asparagus that I tried (and loved), I tried to convince them that they didn't want it, but with typical toddler persistence they were reaching out their hands with insistent "uhh, uhh" sounds. I figured a little tongue burning would teach them better than anything, so I let them try some each. After about 2 seconds of chewing there was a pause then absolutely synchronized frantic doubling of that insistent "uhh, uhh" toward the asparagus. My kids have always been good with fruits and vegetables, but to this day that particular pickled asparagus has held a mythic Holy Grail appeal for all three of us (my husband doesn't care for it, which saves his hands from getting stabbed by three desperate forks). I love that it was created by a local high school student who made this his garage business to support his college education, so I look for this brand even though it's pricey. The kids and I all got pickled asparagus in our stockings this year which was an especially good idea from Santa I must say. My son's was gone within a few hours, mine is still half full, and my daughter has been restraining herself so far.

Being a local product this is undoubtedly a local family tradition, but for us that makes it all the more fun. After that we'll probably be joining Marlorena on the post-New Year's going on a diet tradition, particularly given how many Christmas cookies we ended up with over the holidays.

Cynthia

vesfl, the KAF recipes are for home bakers, so the "street vendor" name is a bit misleading. My husband is planning to try the recipe tomorrow, which should be a nice treat. The forecast is for 'wintry mix'. I won't whine too much, though, since I know y'all have real winters.

Lisa, I hope your daughter is feeling much better by now. Stomach bugs are no fun.

Cynthia, you crack me up with your tale of the "three desperate forks". If your husband did like the asparagus, he'd be wise not to say so, and just keep a secret stash somewhere. It's nice that someone is putting himself through college (and presumably creating employment for others?) in such a delicious way.

Nice little tradition of having a picnic by the fireplace. That’s so nice, and I hope it continues for many years. Even if they “take a break” during their college years, they will probably return to it before long.

My daughter felt well enough to come, but we didn’t make Ollie Bollen, as just the thought of the fried food was almost enough to send her over. We will do it in a few weeks, when they return from their trip.

Coincidentally, I almost made Hoppin John. I cook for my aunt several times a week, and she cut the recipe from the newspaper and asked if I would make it. She said she’d always wanted to try it. I had all the ingredients ready to go, but I lost my balance and took a tumble down my slope. I ended up sending the ingredients over with my son, and she was going to give it a go tonight. Everything was already cut up and ready to cook, so it was doable for her I think. I’m rather disappointed that I wasn’t able to make it and try it. Maybe next year.

The crepes sound just like Dutch pancakes. We make them very thin and roll them up with butter and sugar or jam. I’m hungry reading and writing about all this food! I think I’ll get up off the couch and have some leftovers:) Lisa

Pork and sauerkraut were traditional in the Pittsburgh area where I grew up. But my mother despised sauerkraut, and never served it once in all the years of my life. In fact she never served cooked cabbage in any form whatsoever, though she did like coleslaw. As an Irish/Scots girl from South Boston, she said she had smelled far too much overcooked cabbage in her girlhood to ever want to smell it again!