Isn't it funny, Penni, that there is something so much the same about the two of us, and our lives, that even our experiences run in parallel?? Is it being at the same stage of life, or being astrologically linked, or what? I can tell you that when I read about the bash the teenagers at your house threw on New Year's Eve, I was glad we didn't have pizza!!!!
I guess my resolutions are well constructed, and I'm not sure about intelligent but I do have a few brain cells left, even after all that red wine, but I'm afraid my sole contribution to black-eyed peas was searching my cookbooks before I went to work so Richard could enjoy Hoppin' John. One of the really poignant and sad realities of my life is that my family doesn't like to eat the wonderful homemade soups and stews I learned to cook from my grandmother starting at about age three, sitting on the edge of her tile kitchen counter, or the Southern cooking my grandfather, who was from Biloxi, Mississippi--talk about the deep South--shared with us when he felt like remembering his own roots. After throwing away countless large pots of cooking made with love and lots of my time and energy, I have finally resigned myself to the fact that what I love to cook is wasted on the people in my home. Talk about a metaphor for my marriage!!!
What is Texas caviar, anyway? I love black-eyed peas and hominy, but what happens when you mix them together?? Do you heat them, or add anything else?
You know, I act like the proverbial San Francisco tie-dyed woman, but my grandmother, mother and two aunts spent much of their lives in Texas. In fact, my aunts were real sportswomen, hunting and deep sea fishing all their lives, loving to shoot big rifles and clean deer and make venison sausage. And I remember that when I was little, eating chicken for dinner started with my grandmother chasing one around the backyard with a hatchet, moving on to a big bowl of blood and entrails in the kitchen, and some ritual that smelled horrible, involving burning all the feathers off.
So, soul sisters in even more ways than you might have imagined!! And some you might even not want to replicate!
Wishing you a wonderful year, Penni!
Christine |
