A Guaranteed Food Tradition for Good Luck in the New Year

I have come to find out that I am a very well intentioned person. From the meals I plan, to the sprawling to-do lists I make in my head. This trait carries over into my cooking as I strive to understand the magical role food plays in New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day traditions.

For New Year’s Eve last night I decided to make Corned Beef Hash. Having never made this meal before, I knew it was the perfect one to make on a night deemed so extra special by society’s standards. After accidentally “simmering” the meat in the pot on low for 2 hours, I was worried my already Easter Egg pink meat was destined to poison me. After missing our scheduled dinner time by 2 hours, I decided to take on the hash part of the dish. I won’t fail to mention that I took the word HASH literally and bought a mammoth bag of Ore-Ida Hash Browns to smash my either under or overcooked corned beef into. Those hash browns never really got that nice brown color. They never turned any color other than frozen. My good luck meal was utterly doomed.

Lets just say, we were pushing 9PM and the concoction was pretty much unpalatable.

We rang in the New Year with a big round bowl of buttery salty popcorn.

And I considered that pretty lucky.

This morning, in the span of 10 minutes, the toddler required a quick dunk in the bathtub, and a garbage bag nearly exploded all over me as I ran it to the garbage can in the garage while trying to avoid being followed by a certain speedy toddler. Lastly, I forgot to add coffee to the coffee maker when I fixed my husband’s daily cup of coffee this morning. (It still produced a somewhat satisfying shade of coffee colored murk, though.) Who does all that? I feared that perhaps I needed a different kind of lucky meal for today. A genuinely serendipitous one.

Because I am a very well intentioned person, I got my act together for dinner early on today.

Cherry Cornish Hen.

Into the crock pot it went a few minutes before 11AM. We ran some errands and were looking for a late lunch option. We turned down a road we don’t normally travel, about 10 minutes off our normal route, Friendly’s!

Friendly’s. The epitome of auspicious meals.

When we walked in, eyeing the freezer with all of the to-go treats, toddler thoughtfully read the words: Ice Cream Cake. (Yes, said toddler can read. And spell. But that’s a whole other blog post.) And that’s just what he got. Ice Cream. And then we ordered our meals, and we too indulged in ice cream. (That’s twice this week, goodness!) Who says dessert before a main course is a bad idea?

Well, of course it’s a bad idea. But, in the interest of luck and the importance of New Year’s traditions …

Needless to say, we didn’t eat the hens tonight. Nothing is luckier than watching your 2 year old carefully spoon ice cream into his mouth when you know he really shouldn’t. It’s fun. But not for every day. For days like New Year’s. A strange day where the mood of the year is determined by the food you eat on an arbitrary day. And finding a random Friendly’s when you’re looking for a late lunch stop is about as lucky as you can get in my book.

A lot more fun than spending 5 hours making an inedible Corned Beef Hash.

December Deja vu

I started this blog, on December 5th, 2009, with the entry Homeward Bound. Today is December 5th, 2013. I swear I didn’t plan this, but it sure is a great excuse to write about.

This blog has always been here, but I haven’t always been here for this blog. Words that I used to write, take on a life of their own when you think about who is reading them and then you begin to analyze, over analyze ad nauseam. Have I come so far in 4 years of having this blog, that I’ve started fearing words, waiting for the right time to release them?

Not anymore. Not this time.

This blog (or one of it’s temporary sister blogs) has seen marriage, a baby born – who is now almost 2 1/2 years old – and on the eve of my third layoff – I write because I roam, and I need a place to call home.

I thought I had 2014 all figured out as I sit snugly in my home office, looking out at the river and burnt orange leaves that frame my window view. I had time. And that’s the scary part, I really didn’t. So, here I am. Looking out over a grey rust sky, writing.

Juice Fast – Dinner

Slurp!

Juice Fast – It’s Not Over Yet

Found myself getting a little hungry, and there are  quite a few more hours before dinner – so a juice it is!

2 grapefruit, 1 green pepper and an apple. Can you believe I’ve gone through about 15 apples and 2 bags of carrots this week? Insane.

Juice Fast – Lazy Lunch

So, I more or less ran out of produce, and if I’m being totally honest — the excitement of cleaning my juicer for the 10th time was wearing thin. I figured I deserved a treat — I went to Tropical Smoothie and found drinks with veggies in them.

These are:

Caribbean Carrot Smoothie: Made with carrots, mango, banana, goji and orange juice

Island Green Smoothie: Made with fresh spinach, kale, mango, pineapple and banana

Having the Island Green Smoothie for Lunch and the Carrot Smoothie for dinner.

I feel so good, I’m just a little sad to see this fruit and vegetable love fest end. I may just keep it light with some vegetarian meals this week, and try out some Vegan recipes for my next grocery trip. I’m really craving avocados, walnuts, veggie Indian food — not at all missing dairy or meat — so I should listen to what my body is telling me, and keep this Spring awakening going.

Juice Fast – Day 3 – Breakfast

We’re in the home stretch with everything remaining in my fridge:

2 apples
1 pineapple
1 broccoli
1/2 a cucumber

Deliciousness!

 

Seriously though, I’ve run out of produce — I may be able to squeak out something with a green pepper, grapefruit and and apple — but then I’m all out. And no, I’m not adding brussel sprouts to any more of my drinks, even though I have an over abundance of those babies sitting in my fridge.

As a reward for my good juicing work, and because I’ve come too far to quit — I’ll go to Tropical Smoothie and get something with kale in it, and call it an easy dinner.

Feeling good, energy up and ready to start the day!

 

Juice Fast – Dinner

It wasn’t the best drink ever, but was much better than lunch, and kept me full and happy throughout the night.

Juice Fast – A Very Bad Lunch

Seriously, couldn’t handle this one. Drank a little more than 1/2 a glass. Moving on to some apple/carrot juice instead.

Juice Fast – Day 2 – Breakfast

Last evening I started considering quitting the fast. I kinda forgot why I was doing it, and I started dreaming of whipping up a nice veggie omelet for breakfast. Who would know? Who would care? I told myself that when I got up in the morning I would decide how to proceed.

I got up in the middle of the night and I felt this wash of … I don’t know how to describe it … satiation … not in the food sense, just in this overall warmth and feeling good and clear. This was in the middle of the night, too. I woke up this morning, not feeling exceptionally hungry. I decided yesterday that this wasn’t an exercise in taking a break from caffeine for me — I’ll deal with that hurdle the next time I’m pregnant — so I had a cup of black coffee and a glass of water. I don’t think I even touched my juice until 10am today. I just enjoyed my coffee, slowly relaxing and taking in the morning. I’m still not finished with my juice drink an hour later.

I have a ton of meetings this afternoon, and I’m going to celebrate by consuming a really vegelicious drink that should yield a lot of servings. I’m a little scared of some of the ingredients in this next drink to tell you the truth. So stay tuned.

My other fear is running out of produce before tomorrow’s up, I should have bought more spinach/kale.

Juice Fast – Done for the Day

So, I’m here to report that this juice fast isn’t easy. Took a long walk after the Advil, made my family dinner and am currently sipping on:

Though I’m certainly dreaming of my next carbohydrate, the fast does shed a light on my current eating habits — which aren’t terrible, but are lacking in the fruit and veggie area. How much healthier would I be if I swapped my daily sugary latte for a beet an carrot juice a couple times a week? See, that’s a small change. That’s what I think this cleanse is teaching me. Healthy living doesn’t have to be extreme like living on juices for 3 days, but a little bit of effort goes a long way when it comes to preparing healthy meals.

Also, I feel a little loopy and think my jokes are extra funny. Think it’s a side effect. Maybe.