Everyone knows that eating black eyed peas on New Year’s Day is supposed to bring good luck but did you know that eating collard greens is supposed to bring money?

I imagine most people gloss over that part because they don’t LIKE collard greens or have never tried them. I get it. They look mushy & gross, like something you’d find growing in a gas station bathroom. If you can get over that though & actually get them into your mouth, you’ll find they are AWESOME. At least MY collard greens are.

Well, my 7-year-old disagrees. Lucy gags dramatically every time I make her try them (which is every time I cook them) but she’ll get it one of these days.

Most recipes for collard greens start off with fresh collard greens & I heartily disagree with this. You can buy 5 pounds of collard greens, cut-clean-and-cook them and end up with about 1 cup to actually eat. It’s maddening so I always buy the frozen bagged greens. This is what I usually pick up at Kroger. No, they are not as thick as fresh collard greens but I’m fine with that.

 

Here’s the recipe but tweek it for your preference. I usually double it so I can freeze the leftovers.

4 strips of bacon

1 medium sweet onion

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

¼ C cider vinegar

1 T hot sauce

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 bag frozen collard greens

2 or 3 C chicken broth

1 small can V8 juice

salt & pepper to taste

Fry your bacon until crispy, remove & then sautee the onion in the bacon fat for about 10 minutes. Add garlic once the onion is soft. Then add vinegar, hot sauce, Wocestershire sauce and sugar. Once that is combined, add your frozen greens & stir. Pour in the V8 juice and chicken broth, enough to cover the greens. (You can forgo the V8 & use a can of diced tomatoes if you like them but I DON’T.) Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, longer if you want them to be mushy.  I serve it in little coffee cups with the crumbled bacon on top and extra hot sauce & vinegar on the side.

In fact, this is what we had for dinner last night with some awesome Country Ham Biscuits that my husband made. If you know my husband, you know I married UP. He’s smart, funny and when he grows a beard he looks like Ryan Gosling (if you squint). He’s also a remarkable cook, which is maddening to me. EVERYTHING he makes is EXCELLENT. I do not HAVE this luck so frankly, it pisses me off.

Anyhow, he’s been on a kick about country ham so I ordered one for him for Christmas.  I found several places online so I tried Broadbent’s out of Kentucky. Here’s their website:  http://www.broadbenthams.com/

We got the cooked boneless country ham and it is like salty-piggie-HEAVEN. My husband made biscuits to go with it and dammit, they were the BEST BICSUITS I’ve ever tasted.  If I had made these things I feel certain they would have ended up as crumbly hockey pucks but his were perfect. Here’s a link to the recipe HE used but he says he added a teaspoon of baking powder: http://www.myrecipes.com/m/recipe/buttermilk-biscuits-4

So now you have a New Year’s Day treat that will hopefully make the cash start rolling in! And if YOUR biscuits aren’t the best damn biscuits in the world, please let me know. Oddly enough, that might make me feel a little better.