Weekend Update, December 29, 2013

“Each age has deemed the new-born year

The fittest time for festal cheer.” 

Walter Scott

Across the continent, high above one of the world's most wonderful cities, a team is hard at work.

Hard at work, and having a ball.

It's New Year's Eve, the biggest winter festival of them all- and maybe the biggest winter festival of all time.  Ye Olde Norse partied like only Vikings can for the 12 days of Yule; the Scots got so silly with celebrating that the 12 days after Christmas were once called "daft days", while modern Scots begin the carousing of Hogmany at the stroke of midnight tonight. And who knows what kind of crazy crowds gathered in ancient Rome for "The day of the birth of the unconquered sun"?

Probably not this crazy.
It takes a sober head to say
 "Happy Dies Natalis Solis Invicti everyone!"

All through history, all over the Northern Hemisphere, people gather together and light things, drop things and throw things in the jubilant certainty that even the longest night will somehow surrender to some sort of morning.

In New York, since 1907, a huge ball is lit and dropped on the eager crowds below; citizens of Atlanta drop a peach

and make a very large cobbler
with the left overs.

Those in Mobile Alabama (are they Mobiles? Mobilians?) drop a Moon Pie

And in Brasstown, NC, the old year ends with the drop of of a well lit possum-

And the New Year starts pretty miserably,
if you happen to be the possum.

Yep, it's New Year's Eve, the night when all across the world, all sorts of things

get lit and drop.

Those of us who feel like cooking or eating tomorrow have a wealth of traditions to feast on- but it's more than traditional- it's symbolic. If Christmas food is about love and family, New Year's food is about luck and fortune. It's a dozen warming potfuls of good wishes.
Enough good wishes to feed us happily for at least a week- here's how we'll start:

Wednesday: Good Luck Greens, Peas and Ham

Ham, because pigs are always moving forward, greens to symbolize paper money, peas to symbolize coins and as a reminder that Southerners are resourceful enough to make dinner out of what some consider animal feed.
Two thirds of our children will begin the new year at my mother's house, and it's my hope to join them there. She's promised a traditional New Year's feast, and she does blackeyed peas and ham like only a true Belle of the South can do them. The woods, my mom, my kids, and great food that I don't have to cook. What a way to start the year!

Thursday: Roast Pork Loin and salad

More lucky pork, but this time a low sodium, low fat pork loin. The recipe claims to be fast, cheap, easy, and company worthy- could it possibly be true? I'll be using leftover pork loin to provide some protein to an otherwise vegetarian meal on Sunday, and freezing any leftover leftovers for a stirfry next Monday or Tuesday.



Friday: Slow Cooker Lentil Stew

Little coin shaped lentils to wish you a year of absolutely zero money worries. And at about $1.50 a bowl, a lentil stew starts delivering on that wish with the first bite. I've cooked about a bajillion pots of beans, but never in a crock pot, and becoming better pals with my slow cooker is one of my small and attainable goals of the year.  Lentils, the fast food of the legume world, will be the first step. If you want to make this a 15 minute stir up, use canned lentils and frozen veggies.
( Note to self: before they're mixed with the rest of the stew veggies, spoon out about half of the cooked lentils and set them aside for Sunday.)



Saturday: Spaghetti with Red Sauce and meatballs

Long noodles for a long life. Well, technically, that edible wish belongs to the Chinese New Year- our Gregorian Calendar packs in the wishes for prosperity, and neglects to wish you years and years in which to enjoy it. If you want to play the long noodles= longevity game, try slurping up the longest noodle you can without cutting it or letting it break. See? you're enjoying life more already!  I've linked to a Gordon Ramsay meatball recipe, but a busy Saturday may dictate a meatless meal, or frozen meatballs, or chicken sausage.



Sunday: Warm Lentil Salad with Butternut Squash

What a beautiful salad! We may turn this into another vegetarian dinner, or I may warm a few slices of pork tenderloin to serve with it.
Go ahead and cook an entire butternut- tomorrow night you can put it together with Saturday's red sauce in this fantastic looking butternut squash lasagna.



So there's a week of meals filled with all my wishes for you and those you love- prosperity, courage, health, good fortune.
That's five times the wishing power of a single New Year's Day meal,
and they deliver all my hopes

that whether you partied hard,

or not at all,

 the morning you woke to

was calm

and happy

and unlonely.

And I hope that all of the loads

you've carried through the 

year just past

become noticeably, definitely, 

lighter.

Because I know

that you, at your calm and happy ease

are quite capable

of setting the New Year on fire.