It's All About the Black-Eyed Peas

On New Year's Day we had our traditional health, wealth and happiness meal.  I usually make a super yummy Black Eyed Pea Bake (from a recipe I found in Cookie magazine...so sad they stopped printing it), but this year we just went traditional and had pork medallions wrapped in bacon, sauteed pears with a balsamic glaze, (ok, not completely traditional) steamed cabbage, black-eyed peas, and cornbread.

So, the other day I happened to catch part of the News at Noon on one of our local stations.  (I know, right, that never happens!  Usually, PBS Kids is the only channel that seems to work around here during the day.)  On the show, they were discussing what they were going to eat on New Year's.  The subject, of course, went to black-eyed peas, and the anchor lady said to make sure to eat plenty of those, because that is the "wealth" part of the meal. 

What???  I always thought the cabbage was the part that represented money. 

When I told Jason my new info, he wrinkled his nose.  He hates really dislikes black-eyed peas, and thinks they taste like dirt.  For past New Year's dinners, he would take about three peas and call it good.  But when the time rolled around over the weekend to eat our New Year's Dinner, he was a real champ.   He took a big helping, and even went back for seconds.  The seconds had to be doused in honey mustard, or "new mu-start dip-it" as Brennan calls it.  (The mustard bottle is only half-full, but he still calls it new, and it's the same honey mustard I always buy, but for some reason this bottle is special and he eats it on EVERYthing.) 

Anyway, that's a different topic, back to the peas.  When Jason got done with all his black-eyed peas, he said, "If I ate that many of those dirt-peas for nothing, I'm going to be mad.  There better be a check in the mailbox on Monday morning."  In my head I was thinking, "Yeah, like that's going to happen."

So fast-forward to last night when Jason brought the mail in.  In the stack of magazine and junk mail, there was an envelope from our insurance company.  Can you guess what was in it?

Yep.

It was our safe driver bonus check.  I love it when stuff like that happens.

Oh yeah, it's going to be a really good year!