Happy New Year everyone. We started New Year’s Day in the traditional way that we have followed for the last ten years. We have a group of friends who spend New Year’s Eve and Day together. We are a motorcycle gang. Don’t laugh. We are tougher than we look. We’ve ridden the Canadian Rockies and the Beartooth Pass, the Million Dollar Highway and the Grand Tetons. The guys have been to Sturgis. What more credentials would you need? We are also good cooks and our gatherings always include fabulous food.
The New Year’s Day menu has always been a traditional Southern spread and each of us has a specialty. Pork has to be on the menu. Pigs forage forward with their noses so eating pork represents moving forward in the new year. For years I have been making my Fall-Apart Tender Slow Roast Pork. The recipe came from Shirley Corriher. We also have collard greens and blackeyed peas which represent wealth and good luck. Barbara is the collard greens queen, but she couldn’t be with us this year so, shhh, don’t tell anyone but we fixed Glory brand canned seasoned collard greens. Jackie makes the black eyed peas and Rosa’s cornbread which is rich with butter and absolutely decadent. Rosa was David’s secretary for many years and a talented Southern cook. We always have a potato casserole and Cynthia made a rich and luscious Gouda and Asiago scalloped potato with a panko crumb crust. Karen makes wonderful coleslaw and a refreshing Pea salad. Our dessert this year was compliments of the Cheesecake Factory.
Since I am always taking pictures of food, everyone got into the act this year. This obsession is catching.
Here are few of our favorite recipes.
FALL-APART TENDER SLOW ROAST PORK (adapted from Shirley Corriher)
4 to 5 lb Pork Butt
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place pork in pot with lid. Sprinkle pork heavily with Worcestershire sauce; turn it over and sprinkle other side heavily as well. Take handful of brown sugar and smush brown sugar crust all over meat. Turn meat over and smush brown sugar all over other side. Pour apple juice in bottom of pan, not over meat. Cover and place pot in oven. Turn oven down to 275 degrees and cook 4 hours until meat literally falls apart when you try to lift it with a fork. Break meat apart a little and push it down into drippings. Sprinkle with salt. This salt cannot be omitted; it is vital to bring out meat flavors.
SCALLOPED GOUDA-ASIAGO POTATOES (Cynthia)
3 lbs potatoes peeled and sliced
2 cups shredded Gouda cheese
1 cup shredded Asiago cheese
1 tsp garlic juice, from minced garlic jar
1/4 to 1/2 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup milk
1/2 cup heavey cream
Panko crumbs to cover top.
Layer potatoes in casserole and sprinkle each layer with salt and pepper and cheeses. Add nutmeg and garlic juice to milk and heavy cream. Pour over casserole. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Cover with panko crumbs and continue cooking until potatoes are tender and panko crumbs are browned and the cheese is bubbly.
ROSA’S CORN BREAD (Jackie)
2 cups Joy Brand self-rising cornmeal
4 eggs
1 stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup oil
3 Tbls sugar
1 cup buttermilk
In a large bowl mix corn meal, eggs, buttermilk, oil, sugar, and melted butter. Pour into a large cast iron skillet and place inside a 350 degree oven and bake for 25 minutes.
PEA SALAD (Karen)
1 can French style green beans, drained
1 can shoepeg corn, drained
1 can tiny English peas, drained
1 small jar chopped pimentoes, drained
1 medium yellow bell pepper chopped
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup oil
Mix vegetables in bowl. In another bowl stir together dressing until sugar is dissolved. Pour dressing over vegetables and refrigerate until ready to serve.
It is wonderful to bring in the New Year with good friends and I consider all of you good friends also. I look forward to our sharing good food and good times in 2010.
Here are few of our favorite recipes.
Oh how wonderful! There is something very special eating a wonderful meal with dear friends. I really like your roast pork recipe. I will definitely be trying that. Happy New Year.
I love this post and I continue to fall more in love with your blog every day. You are a wonderful person and I thank you for sharing your life through your blog!
Boy, you guys look like a mean old bunch!!
I know quite a few motorcycle riders myself!
(not me)
We had a wonderful southern feast too.
Happy New year to you all!
Penny I had no idea that you were a biker dudette! Sound like you have seen so many nice places on your bike. We also have pork on NY’s day and I will have to try out your recipe some time. The corn bread sounds good to me too. Happy New Year!
Happy New Years to you!
You do so look like a rough and tough group! Love all the foodie with their cameras out!!!
Looks like a great party Penny. It’s wonderful to spend time with friends. Happy new year.
Sam
You did have company! What could be more fun that spending time with lifelong friends to celebrate the New Year! How fortunate you are. The menu sounds delicious. I am leaning toward the potatoes at the moment!
Yeah, I can picture those guys in their colors parading down Main Street, Sturgis… Did I eve tell you my wife was escorted by the police to teh edge of town by the Sturgis police and told to never return.
But I digress…
What a great party, and great food.
Get your motor running….head out on the highway….born to be wild….
I can just see you on that bike. What fun you guys must have. This dinner sounds wonderful. Thank you for sharing your recipes!
Hugs,
Penny
What a feast! Great photos and great friends sharing great food. I chuckled about your motorcycle gang. I used to ride on the back of a very fast Honda. By the time DSO got his Harley, I was saddle shy. But I did used to love the wind in my hair. Happy New Year.
A Biker-Chick Foodie?!?! Love it! That pork sounds wonderful, and those potatoes..oh my! Love the photos of the happy friends getting together. Happy New Year.
Penny, a wonderful feast, for friends old and new. And what a happy looking circle of friends you have.
Everything looks and sounds so good! I would be groaning after a fab meal like this.
Isn’t the Beartooth gorgeous? Sounds like you had a wonderful New Year’s!
Such fun to have friends who love to cook as much as you do! What fun you are having!
The meal looks divine.
Happy New Year to you!
I can’t believe my in-laws put our New Year’s celebration to shame! You guys rocked it out 🙂 Love you!
What a grand time you have had! Great friends and great food, what more could a person ask for? 🙂
Great pixs- looks like you had a ball- Happy New Year!!!
It looks like you had so much fun on New Year’s Day! I love that photo of everyone with the cameras – what a hoot!
What a wonderful and festive spread!! I love the first picture!! It sounds like your group has so much fun together! And I am definitely going to print the recipes. They all sound delicious, elegant and simple. Thanks, Penny and Happy New Year!!
xoxo
Janie
[…] Southern Living cookbook.  My menu for one of the nights that our family was visiting included my Fall-Apart Tender Slow Roast Pork. I wanted something refreshing to go with the rich pork and something that kids would like.  This […]
[…] was a fine meal. Â The best ever. Â You can find some of the recipes in one of my previous posts here. Â David has taken over the making of the collard greens. Â He loads them up with two ham hocks and […]