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Saturday, January 7, 2017

Hoppin John’s For New Year’s Luck

As a person who was born on Friday the 13th, I’ve never been superstitious but this is a good excuse to make this dish at least once a year and there is no reason to take any chances just in case good luck is involved.

I looked at several online recipes and most include some type of pork, veggies, the black eyed peas, spices, and liquid all cooked together and served over rice.  But when I read Steph’s recipe on her Plain Chicken blog, the idea of cooking the rice with the peas and using a smoked sausage really appealed to me. 

I made half her recipe with a few changes to arrive at this:

Hoppin John's – Adapted from Plain Chicken

½ lb andouille sausage, sliced ¼” thick half-rounds (I used Poche’s
2 (15-oz) cans black-eyed peas, undrained
1 (10-oz) Rotel, undrained
1½ cups beef broth
½ cup finely chopped onion
¼ cup diced green bell pepper
¼ cup diced celery
1 tsp Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp black pepper
Salt to taste
¾ cup uncooked rice

1. Cook sausage in a large pot until browned, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the onion, green pepper and celery and cook until tender.
3. Add black eyed peas, diced tomatoes and green chiles, beef broth, cajun seasoning, garlic, and black pepper & bring to a boil.



4. Stir in rice, cover, and simmer until it is tender
5. Adjust seasoning and add liquid if necessary


We all thought it was very tasty and a good way to get our lucky black eyed peas – the combination of the andouille and Rotel gave it a nice heat and I especially liked having only one pan to clean.

Bev also wanted to have some brats so we fried some Kreger's Saints along with peppers and onions for a very good addition to the meal.  




Kreger's is a 123 year old meat market and sausage maker in Napierville, IL where son, Eric, lives and he brought us a variety of brats.

A brief rant: After watching several bowl games over the holidays, I hate what TV has done to college football.  It is now just another telecast containing about 3 hours of commercials and talking heads, occasionally interrupted by 60 minutes of football.  If I could not record them and fast forward trough the 3 hours of stuff I don’t want to see, I could not stand to watch the games.  Just another case of “it’s all about the money.”  Rant complete.

A funny:  I'm watching the local news on Thursday night before there is a small chance we could get a little snow and they are doing a live report from the local TDOT salt storage area - only in the South.  Those of you living in snow country would likely spend the winter chuckling if you spent the season here.  We actually did get a couple of inches on Friday night.



Romeo update:  Our new family member is definitely moving in and seems to have fully adopted us and forgiven us for making him an IT.  I'd told Bev I thought he was the smartest dog we've had and he made a little confirmation last night when he came into the living room carrying his empty water bowl.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/1/16 event date

8 comments:

  1. Larry, I could go for that Hoppin John w/o the bell pepper...and we are probably doomed this year as we didn't have our black eyed peas! I agree with you on the local weather news... It goes on and on for any minor amount of snow and everyone freaks out! The neighbors who will be moving into the new house that's going to be built right next door to us are from Buffalo NY. Laurie exchanged texts with them this morning. She told them about our 2" of snow and commented that it would be gone by Tuesday. The response from Buffalo was that their 2 feet of snow would be gone by spring! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  2. Happy New Year to you and Bev! Hoping John's with rice in the mix is the way I like it too!

    Looking forward to enjoying your posts this year.

    Always, Velva

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  3. OHMYWORD ... you must have been snowed in for days. Ok, that's actually worse than a chuckle and I'm done. All kidding aside, I think it's very cool that you got snow, I know how much you like it. What did the dog think?
    Actually what is rather funny is that snow is such common place here, that I was actually looking in the background of that photo thinking there was something interesting I was supposed to look at.
    I've never had Hoppin John's ... but have seriously looked at recipes. Steph is always a good source for recipes like that.

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  4. Hubby's birthday is Friday the 13th this year. I was always taught that we had to have black eyed peas on New Years for luck. Too bad I hate them. Hoppin John would be a good way to disguise them. Dan texted me pictures of his snow on Friday night, and then Saturday morning told me it's OK, Jesus is already taking it away. We've had 5" of snow 3 times so far this year, and yet we only have about 1/4" on the ground, because it gets warm and rains. I hope Romeo got to go outside and play in the snow, because all of my dogs have loved that!

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  5. I'm not sure which is worse, your birthday or my hubby's, April 1, LOL. Being a northern gal, I've never had Hoppin' John but it sounds delicious and so hearty! Brats we understand here in Wisconsin :) Wow, you do have a smart dog! Great story :)

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  6. I make black eyed peas every year, if they work just a little I figure I'm ahead of the game. I've never had hopping John with tomatoes nor a creole version, it sounds good Larry.

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  7. Ha! It sounds like Romeo is a character... I love that he brought you his empty water dish. Our dog Grace is pretty smart too - she rings a bell on the door to be let outside.

    I've never had Hoppin' John before but if it sounds tasty and if it brings me good lucky, all the better!

    Oregon also goes crazy during snowstorms but we have a lot of hills and freezing rain which makes a terrible combination!

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  8. That hoppin' John looks just about perfect.

    Sounds like the new pup is pretty bright....he'll have you trained in no time :) ;) :p

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