Happy New Year's! Plus Two of Our Traditional New Year's Recipes

Well, there is another year over and a new one beginning.  Every year seems to go by faster than usual.  

New Year's Eve Japanese Baked Mussels

Since Wade and I have been dating we always stay in on New Year's Eve.  The yearly pub crawl just isn't our thing anymore.  We don't really do Valentines Day, so New Year's Eve is our romantic night in together.  I make Japanese Baked Mayonnaise Mussels as an appetizer and Wade makes homemade sushi.  Then, for dessert we always have root beer floats because that was a tradition in Wade's family.  We also, of course, have cocktails and a bottle of sparkling wine at midnight.  I'd like to share with you our mussel recipe which is adapted slightly from the one found here.  It is almost exactly like the mussels found on many menus at sushi restaurants.


•1 1/2 pounds black mussels, scrubbed clean
•1 large clove garlic, minced
•1/2 inch piece ginger, minced finely
•juice from 1/2 lemon plus 1/2 teaspoon zest, or 2 Tablespoons bottled juice
•1 1/2 teaspoons wasabi paste
•2 sliced green onions, plus 1 or 2 more for garnish (optional)
•1 teaspoon soy sauce
•1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
•1/2 cup mayonnaise (I like the olive oil mayonnaise because it is lower in fat but still tastes like mayo)
•Panko bread crumbs for topping


Preheat the broiler to high.


Saute the scrubbed mussels in a large skillet until for about 5 minutes, or until they pop open.  Pop the mussels apart and discard the empty shell half.  

Place the shells with the meat in a large baking dish.  Mix together the garlic, ginger, lemon, wasabi, green onions, soy sauce, sesame oil, and the mayo.  Place a small spoonful of the mayo mixture into each mussel half. 

 Sprinkle each mussel half with a pinch or two of panko bread crumbs.  Broil until the bread crumbs are slightly toasted and the mayonnaise mixture is hot.  Top with additional green onions.

New Year's Day Hoppin' John

For the first time ever we are having company over on New Year's Day.  My parents and my Aunt Dani and her family will be coming over for a very Southern meal of Hoppin' John Soup, collard greens, cornbread, and a chocolate fondue with fruit.  I have been making the Hoppin' John for years, but this is the first time I have invited company over to enjoy it with us.  Now that we live in a house we have a lot more room than we did in our old apartment.  

The plan is to make everything ahead of time, in either the crockpot or the rice cooker.  I'll be putting the soup in the smartpot around 11:30 or so tonight, letting it cook about 9 hours, and then letting it stay warm until lunch time, which will be a bit early tomorrow.  The crock pot greens will also get turned on in another crock pot before bed.  Then tomorrow all we will have to do is cook some rice in the rice cooker, put the chocolate fondue in the little crock pot, and cut up fruit.  I have read about how great it is to entertain using only crock pots, and this will be my first try at it, so hopefully it all goes according to plan. The recipe I use for Hoppin' John is originally from Rachael Ray's Just In Time Cookbook, but I'm adapting it for our tastes and to work in the crock pot.

•3 cups dry  rice, white or brown, cooked your way on the side

•8 cups chicken stock 

•1 3/4 pounds andouille sausage, cut into 1/2" chunks

•6 cloves garlic, chopped

• 4 large stalks celery, diced into 1/2" pieces

•4 green bell peppers, diced

•2 large onions, diced

•2 bay leaves

•1 Tablespoon thyme

•2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into small pieces

•2 16 oz. bags frozen black eyed peas

•2 large cans diced tomatoes, undrained

•Pepper, to taste (you probably won't need salt since the sausage is pretty salty already)

•Lots of hot sauce to add at the table

Combine the chicken stock, sausage, garlic, celery, bell pepper, onion, bay leaves, thyme, sweet potatoes, black eyed peas, and tomatoes in a large crock pot.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours.  Before serving time, cook rice according to your own method.  Place a scoop or two of rice in a soup bowl and top with the soup.  Stir and serve with hot sauce.

Photo Credit: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=879

Refried Beans from Scratch

If I had to choose only one type of cuisine to live on for the rest of my life it would have to be Mexican.  I have yet to find a dish that couldn't be improved at least a bit by green chilies.  Soup, eggs, biscuits and gravy, cornbread, you name it.

The most popular side dish to go with Mexican food is refried beans.  Their mild taste and smooth texture pairs perfectly with any spicy entree.  Until a year or so ago I always bought canned refried beans because I didn't realize how easy (and inexpensive) it really is to make your own. After some experimentation I came up with a recipe we both liked.   Now our  freezer always has at least a few containers full of beans.  They are great to pull out for a quick bean burrito or a nice side dish.

•3 cups dry pinto beans, sorted and rinsed
•1 onion, cut into quarters
•4 cloves garlic, left whole
•1-2 strips of bacon, left whole
•1 Tablespoon cumin
•1 Tablespoon chili powder

Place all ingredients in a crock pot.  Cover with water to cover by several inches.  Cook on low 8-10 hours, until the beans are tender.

I use the crockpot all the time to cook dried beans now so that I don't have to babysit a pot on the stove for the whole afternoon.  The only exception to this is red beans, which have to be boiled for 15 minutes before they are placed in the crock pot.  They apparently have some sort of toxin that requires them to be brought to a quick boil.

Don't drain the beans yet.

Next, heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat.  When the oil ripples add a small cup of beans.  Stir them around well so that they get fried.  Add another cup of beans and repeat until all of the beans are fried.  Mash with a potato masher or a stick blender.  I like the stick blender method because it is so much quicker, but it will result in a smoother texture than the potato masher.  You may need to add a little bit of the bean cooking liquid depending on the consistency you want.

Add salt, to taste.  I find that refried beans require quite a bit of salt.  Add additional chili powder and cumin to taste, if desired.

This recipe will yield 6-8 cups of refried beans.

Save those bones! How to make turkey or chicken stock in the crockpot

Most things just taste better when they are homemade and stock is no exception.  Many times foods made from scratch are way cheaper than prepared store items, and there is no doubt that they are better for you.  Making homemade stock is so easy there is no reason to ever let those bones go in the trash can again.  I like to put the stock ingredients in the crockpot right after dinner and cook it overnight.  In the morning it is easy to strain through a colander really quick and place it in a container in the fridge or freezer.  I use whatever vegetables I have on hand to season the stock.  These are always onions and garlic, but on occasion I'll throw in some carrots and celery if we have some, or even woody asparagus ends.  Work with what you have on hand. Either way, the stock always comes out way more rich and flavorful than store-bought and makes a wonderful addition to soups, stews, rice pilaf, and many other dishes.

•leftover turkey or chicken skin and bones
•chopped vegetables that you have on hand- onions, garlic, celery, and carrot are traditional
•dash of cider vinegar (about 1 Tablespoon for a small crockpot of stock, 2-3 for larger crockpots)
•1-2 bay leaves
•salt, to taste
•lots of ground black pepper

Place the poultry skin and bones in a crockpot, filling loosely to the top.  I find that one chicken will fill up my crockpot, but I will end up doing two batches of stock with a turkey carcass.  Add in a handful or two of vegetables.  Add the vinegar, bay leaf, salt, and pepper.  The vinegar helps to get the vitamins out of the bones so that your stock is more nutritious. (or so I've heard).  Fill the crock pot with water and cook on low overnight or all day, for about 10-12 hours.

Place a colander over a soup pot or a large container.  Ladle the stock into the colander to strain out the large pieces of meat and bones.  Some small pieces may sneak through the colander.  That's ok. They'll just add more flavor.  Chill the stock for several hours to let the fat rise to the top.  Remove the fat with a spoon, if desired.  I remove the fat from chicken stock, but the turkey stock had hardly any fat, so I skipped this step.  Freeze the stock in plastic containers or glass jars.

Crock Pot Manhattan Clam Chowder

There is nothing like a nice pot of soup on a cold day.  It's especially nice if you come home to a house that smells like someone has been cooking all day.

I love using the crockpot year round because it makes it so easy to have a good meal after a long and hectic day, but I especially love using the crockpot in the winter because hearty, cold weather soups and stews always taste the best when they have been simmered all day long.

A while back Wade and I were at a restaurant and had bowls of New England clam chowder.  I told him about the Manhattan version (my favorite of the two) which is made with a tomato and garlic base, carrots, celery, onion, and smokey bacon.  Yum!  Wade had never heard of this version. and I hadn't eaten any in years, so I knew that we would have to have some this fall or winter.  I adapted my recipe from Emeril.  It cooks up especially nice in the crockpot.  Serve with a loaf of warm crusty bread and butter.

•4-5 strips lean bacon, chopped
•2 medium onions, chopped
•1 teaspoon celery seed (or a few stalks of fresh celery, if you have it)
•1 carrot, peeled and diced
•1 1/4 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced
•4 cloves minced garlic
•3 bay leaves
•1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
•2 teaspoons dried thyme
•2 Tablespoons dried parsley
•1/2-1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
•2 cups chicken stock
•1 large can diced tomatoes, drained
•2 10 oz cans baby clams in their own juice, undrained
•Salt and pepper, to taste- go light on the salt since the clams are already quite salty

Cook the chopped bacon in a skillet until it is slightly crispy. Drain on paper towels.  Mix the drained bacon pieces and all of the remaining ingredients together in a crockpot.  Cook on low for about 8 hours, until the potatoes are cooked through and the onions are translucent.

Crockpot Southern Style Greens

I never grew up eating collard greens, but I did try them a few years ago at the Cracker Barrel and they have since become one of my favorite side dishes.  I call these greens "Southern Style" since they use bacon instead of a ham bone, which is the way they are typically prepared in the South.

I adapted this recipe slightly from Paula Deen's Collard Greens recipe by changing the meat, cutting down on the fat, and cooking the greens slow all day in a crock pot.  I most often use kale with this recipe because it is easy to find and often on sale at the local grocery store, but I have used actual collard greens, turnip greens, swiss chard, and even beet greens.  They all taste great in this dish.  At the Cracker Barrel the greens are served with red wine vinegar or Texas Pete's hot pepper sauce, which adds just the right punch of flavor.  Experiment around at home and see what flavors you like best.

•2 cups chicken broth
•2-4 cloves garlic, left whole
•1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
•2 strips of lean bacon, chopped into large chunks
•3-4 large bunches of kale, or another green- chopped into large pieces (Kale bunches tend to be pretty bid, so I'd go with 3 bunches of kale, or 4 or another green)

Pour the chicken broth into the bottom of your crock pot.  Toss in the garlic cloves, pepper, and bacon pieces.  Next, wash the greens in batches and add them to the crockpot.  Really cram them in there tightly.  They will cook down a lot.  You may want to sit a can of food or something on the lid for a while to keep it held down if it pops up.  Cook on low for about 8 hours.  The greens will be wilted and tasty.  Serve with vinegar and hot sauce.