Happy New Year! Anyone have any New Year's traditions you'd like to share?

Here are some of mine:

This is my 3rd year to prepare spare ribs and sauerkraut in a crockpot on New Year's Day.

I write in my New Year's Day journal, summarizing the year and giving details about New Year's day (my 3rd year for this one also).

I buy a few special foods as snacks for New Year's Eve (and I don't stay up until midnight).

Mmmm, spare ribs and sauerkraut... sounds good. Happy New Year's to you, too!

We do some similar things; for the last several years we've had a family pow-wow where everyone shares their hopes and goals for the upcoming year, a fun and special "snack buffet" to munch on all evening, and a fireworks watch from our back windows (there's a lake nearby).

What, no black-eyed peas?

I chose ribs and kraut for my tradition based on the fact that I had a neighbor show me how to make this (3 and a half years ago). At the time I didn't even know what "spare ribs" were. (I also prepare this same dish any time there is a funeral. I've made it for 3 funerals and it has been appreciated.)

There may be some creepy symbolism here (same meal for New Year's Day and for funerals). Or I could see the New Year as a new beginning and death as a new beginning for the deceased. OK. That works. (I've got a limited repertoire in cooking...so I really try to get good mileage out of a successful dish.)

I've never prepared black eyed peas, but I see that searches for black eyed peas recipes have been popular today.

Getting together with family and setting intentions for the new year...fireworks...snack buffet...sounds wonderful! Thanks for sharing!

Ann, maybe Kentucky isn't far enough south - eating some black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is an old tradition for bringing good luck and prosperity in the new year.

I don't have a NYDay tradition but could be tempted to start one with ribs! My mouth is watering just reading this.

Here a food tradition is to have lentils (their quantity implies bounty for the coming year) and Zampone/cottechino - a hollowed and stuffed pig's trotter which is cooked in with the lentils. I don't mind the lentils but can't stomach the zampone.

I think that the words that fully describe the whole XMas/NY vacation are these: "Too much food!" It actually feels like a tradition and every dinner seems to have been prepared in order to surpass the previous one. A battle that noone seems to win really...

Apparently everyone loves preparing lamb (even though we also do that on Easter... go figure).

Yes, I know. Many here in Ky have black eyed peas. It's just that I am not a native. (Parents from PA, German heritage.) And I just didn't learn (yet) how to prepare black eyed peas. I guess you open a can and heat them up but surely there's some more exciting preparation.

Cheryl, what is a "pig's trotter"?

It is the pig's foot. I believe it is only called a trotter when it is cooked, or prepared to be cooked, otherwise it is just the foot.

It isn't so much that I object to the foot part, it is just that the dish is really really greasy and I (and others I know! ) find it quite revolting.

I cooked a big pot of red beans. I learned that tradition from my mom; she said that however many beans you ate would be how much money you'd make that year.

...but I like black-eyed peas better, so maybe I should swap out next year. I think as long as it's any member of the bean family, you're covered tradition- and wealth-wise. My favorite way of preparing black-eyed peas is a good ol' heaping pile of Hoppin' John.

Hi Monica,

That's something I could look up: Hoppin John. I had it once at Alfalfa's (years ago). I'll try to come up with a bean dish for New Year's Eve next year (still keeping my made up tradition of ribs and kraut on NY Day).