We are in northern Florida for the holidays — Apalachicola, to be precise, on the gulf coast of the Panhandle.  We have a funky little
cottage here — 1940s vintage and not in great shape, but we’ve covered a
multitude of sins with paint.  Lime green, melon, periwinkle, aqua, yellow
— get the picture?  If I squint out my study window, I can see the
water.  We love it. 

I have a post in
the works about the great food we’ve eaten with friends and family these last
two weeks, but before I get around to that, a happy New Year is in order.  I feel
rotten for not posting more frequently in the last couple of weeks, but Zoë’s
death and some bad news about my mom’s health have knocked all the stuffing out
of me.  I will do better (that’s a promise, not a resolution, so I am likely to keep it.)

Meanwhile, I have
been inspired by a fellow blogger — Lisa over at the Homesick Texan — to start our
year right with some lucky
food, and boy will we need it, as 2007 promises to be a doozie!
Black-eyed peas it is, and with all due apologies to true Texans I have created
a hybrid of Lisa’s two recipes and further bastardized it by using frozen
black-eyed peas.  Please tell me that won’t cancel out the good luck!

Here’s what I
did:  sautéed some onion and garlic, added a can of Rotel and a chopped
ripe tomato (a real one — more on that in the next post), threw in a bag of
frozen peas and some water, some chipotle chile powder and some ancho chile
powder and some Penzy’s southwestern seasoning for good measure along with some
hot sauce, and some salt.  Cooked it all up, scattered some chopped
scallions over the top with a squeeze of lime, and served it hot, with chips.

It tastes
wonderful, and we ate it for breakfast.  The skies are clearing and we are
going to walk on the beach.  A very good start to the year!  Thanks Lisa!!

Happy New Year to
all!  It’s been a true pleasure getting to know folks in the food blogging
world this last  year and I look forward to learning more, laughing more,
and sometimes even crying more with all of you in 2007.  Cheers!