New Year... Time for Prosperity and Black-Eyed Peas!

In many parts of the world and primarily in the Southern states of the USA, it's a tradition to eat black-eyed peas on January 1st for good luck and prosperity in the new year. I was all set to post two yummy recipes yesterday but was busy with other things and never got to it! Gah! No worries... just one day late.

Some people can call this Hoppin' John... I just think of it as a delicious ham and bean dish.

1 pound dried black-eyed peas
2 small smoked ham hocks or meaty ham bone
2 medium onions, divided
3 large cloves garlic, halved
1 bay leaf
1 cup long-grain white rice
1 can (10 to 14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes with chile peppers, juices reserved
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, minced
2 teaspoons Cajun or Creole seasoning
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 green onions, sliced


In a large Dutch oven or kettle, combine the black-eyed peas, ham bone or ham hocks, and 6 cups water. Cut 1 of the onions in half and add it to the pot along with the garlic and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer gently until the beans are tender but not mushy, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Remove the ham bone or hocks, cut off the meat; dice and set aside. Drain the peas and set aside. Remove and discard the bay leaf, onion pieces, and garlic.

Add 2 1/2 cups of water to the pot and bring to a boil. Add the rice, cover, and simmer until the rice is almost tender, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Mince the remaining onion then add to the rice along with the peas, tomatoes, and their juices, red and green bell pepper, celery, jalapeno pepper, Creole seasoning, thyme, cumin, and salt. Cook until the rice is tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the sliced green onions and the reserved diced ham. Serve with hot sauce and freshly baked cornbread.

Cream Wafer Cookies

The holidays are a time for digging out traditional family recipes and rediscovering recipes that you forgot you loved. This cookie is one that is quite old, but fell from favor I think, because it's a couple more steps of labor involved.

You have to make dough, cut them out, prick them with a fork, bake and then make a frosting filling to sandwich them together. Well worth the effort but many people stopped making cookies from 'scratch' so perhaps this seems as if it's not worth it.

It is.

Cream Wafers

1 c butter
1/3 c whipping cream (liquid form yet)
2 c flour

Mix and chill dough 1 hour. Preheat oven to 375. Roll the dough 1/8" thick. Cut into 1 1/2" rounds. Transfer to wax paper with sugar and coat both sides. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and prick with a fork. Bake 7-8 minutes. Let cool completely.

Sandwich the cookies together with this filling:

1/4 c butter, soft
3/4 c powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
1 t vanilla

tint to the colors you wish.

Cooling after baking...

White Chili

Baby it's cold outside! At least it is where I live and a nice hot bowl of Texas White Chili was perfect. For those that have never had a 'white' chili - think of this more as a white Mexican style soup. Top it with grated cheese served on the side.

White Chili

2-3 skinned chicken breasts
6-7 cups chicken broth (I use water plus 6 bouillon cubes)
1 c chopped onion
1 c diced green pepper
1 minced/chopped jalapeno pepper (optional)

Cook this over medium heat until the chicken is cooked. Cool and dice or cut into pieces and return the chicken to the pot. Add;

4 can Northern or Navy beans (white beans) or use a small package of beans that you've soaked overnight or rapid boiled 3 minutes and then let soak for at least an hour or two

Add;

1 t garlic salt
1 T oregano
1 T ground cumin
1 T crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 t ground black pepper

Simmer 1 hour. Add 8 oz. Jack cheese, shredded, simmer 15 minutes. Serve with extra cheese on the side for those that wish.

*smash about a third of the beans with the back of a spoon while in the soup pot if you wish to make the broth thicker and more opaque.

Greek Feta Pizza

My regular readers know that Saturday night is "Pizza Night" in our household. With Christmas being celebrated this Saturday we won't be having our traditional weekly fare, but I've been craving the Greek Feta Pizza I make so yesterday while I was running errands I made sure to pick up some fresh baby spinach leaves so I could make this tonight. I've featured this one before, but it's one of my favorites and you can change the flavor by using what you have on hand, substituting and adding a few other ingredients if you wish. Keep the basic recipe but make it your own.

We love the white cheese layer so much I usually double that portion of the recipe so we have a nice thick layer of tangy feta and garlic to my homemade thick crust pizza. I'm going to post the original recipe although I make my own homemade crust, I don't use the sun dried tomatoes at all (I don't like their chewy texture) and I use black olives instead of Kalamata olives because I always have black olives on hand.

Greek Pizza

1/2 c mayonnaise
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 c crumbled feta cheese
1 12 inch pre baked crust
1/2 c oil packed sun dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped plus 1 T of the oil
1/4 c pitted Kalamata Olives, chopped
1 t dried oregano
2 c baby spinach leaves
1/2 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 450. Mix mayonnaise, garlic and 1/2 c feta in bowl. Place pizza crust on cookie sheet and spread the mayonnaise mixture over. Top with tomatoes, olives and oregano. Bake 10 minutes. Toss spinach and onion with 1 T tomato oil. Top the hot pizza with this mixture and the remaining feta. Return to oven, bake 2-3 minutes longer. Cut and serve.

Out of my files in time for Christmas Dinner - Chocolate Ganache Torte

This recipe has been sitting in my files for a while and I'm not sure where I found it but I'm glad I saved a picture. It's the picture that catches your eye and say "this is just right for an extended family Christmas dinner". Looking at it I just think 'death by chocolate' but I know it's the exact kind of 'cake' my husband, son and oldest daughter love. Absolutely love.

Do you need a pretty and elegant yet delicious chocolate dessert for this holiday weekend?

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pan
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for whipped cream (optional)
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
Chocolate Ganache Glaze
1 cup heavy cream (optional)
Chocolate shavings, for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch-round cake pan; line bottom with a round of waxed or parchment paper. Butter paper; dust bottom and sides of pan with cocoa, tapping out excess.

Sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream and beginning and ending with the flour.

Spread batter in prepared pan. Tap pan firmly on countertop once to eliminate large air bubbles. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely (bottom-side up). Set rack with cake over a rimmed baking sheet. Pour glaze over cake, letting it run over sides; spread gently with an offset spatula or table knife to coat. Let set, about 30 minutes.

If desired, whip cream and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Serve cake with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.