Happy New Year

Yesterday I told my daughter I would not be cooking lunch/dinner for New Years Day, today. Her first reaction was of total shock. How could I be doing this to her? Not cook New Years dinner. That was totally unacceptable and then she began to realize I really did mean it. I wasn't cooking dinner today, period.

Then she had to get into gear and figure out what she needed for her dinner. How could she possibly cook her own turnip/collard greens and how could I, as her mother, let her and her family down. They would surely not have any more at all this coming year.

I explained she had a perfectly good pressure cooker I had given her for Christmas just last year and she just put them into the pressure cook, add a few chicken bouillon cubes, a buch of water, a bit of sugar and cook that stuff for a good hour.
I also informed her that Bush made a pretty tasty black-eyed pea in a can if she didn't want to spend her entire day in the kitchen. As for the pickled peaches, she had my recipe. I could help walk her through any problems she might have, but I was NOT going to cook New Years dinner.

Then feeling a bit sorry for her Daddy, she suggested we come over to eat with them.
"No, thank you, I am planning on staying in the house for the entire day tomorrow. My present to myself. My New Years Resolution, so to speak. No cooking on today's New Year's day.

She continued to try to make me feel guilty by calling me every five mintues from the grocery store. And I might add, she was taking precious Grandmomma time away from her sweet baby girl, but she didn't seem to mind. I think she was thinking maybe I would change my mind if she kept being a nuisance. But I did not. I did not intend to cook New Year's Day 2009.

I went to bed with a perfectly clear conscious. I would enjoy myself fully, alone with only Granddaddy and me to do our own thing. I had already planned to pull out my frozen pittance of collard greens/turnip greens, whichever it was. I could open a can of peas and Granddaddy and I would be dining in elegance if I added a side dish of Candied Tomatoes. No excess cooking or cleaning up. It was a done deal.

This morning I got up and thought since I'm not cooking a big meal today I will make a recipe I had seen on the internet earlier for Sausage/Gravy with Biscuits. I've tried to make this before but I just didn't have the recipe I wanted. This one appeared to be the winner so I made it for breakfast. I want to tell you that was a delicious/scrumptious/wonderful recipe without a lot of trouble. I will definitely be trying it again someday. It isn't something you need to eat every day but it's certainly good for occasional breakfasts.

Then my perfect day began to unravel, so to speak. My sister called and wanted to go walk. It's been a good two or three weeks since we've been able to walk due to my brother-in-law having some medical problems and us keeping a grandbaby to help her sick mommy out, or so Mommy could go in to work, etc., etc.

Then the guilt began to pile on. Maybe we should get back to walking again, so just as I was getting ready to tell her we would walk, caller-id showed my son was trying to call us. I told her I would have to call her back. My son was calling to invite us over tonight to eat our usual New Year's fare. I'm sure he wondered why I was trying hard to stifle a good laugh that was building up inside me. He had no idea I had committed myself to a day at home alone, no cooking, etc.

I accepted the invitation and decided I would also tell my sister we would walk.
And, he was inviting his sister and brother-in-law over, also.

Then while we were walking I decided I might better call my daughter-in-law and let her know I was alright with cooking and bringing the collard/turnip greens. She welcomed the chance not to have to cook those greens. Nobody seems to want to cook greens. They talk an hour but other than that, frozen one are no problem. Once they are adjusted you need not worry about them if you have enough water in them.

Well, since I'm tooking the greens, I might as well cook the candied tomatoes. I'll just surprise them with another sidedish that I would keep a secret until I pulled it out to heat it up. These were the thought that were running through my mind.

After walking I started the collards and worked on the candied tomatoes. It really wasn't that much of a problem. I didn't have a lot of clean up to do and since I wasn't cooking the whole meal, I wasn't as tired as I would have been had I done it al myself.

Earlier I had talked to my daughter and she gets a nasty attitude with me. Why did I say I would go to her brother's house but not to theirs for New Years? Oh, get over it, won't you? Well, her baby's daddy wasn't too happy with me either, but I'm sure that isn't the first or last time that will happen!

We all made it over to their house at the approximate alloted time in time to watch my son smoke up the house with his cooking of the country ham. It's a miracle the fire department didn't make a run by to make sure everything was alright, it was sooo smoky. All windows and doors were raised and opened to help eliminate some of the smoke.

I have a hunch I know what daughter-in-law will be getting for Christmas next year. A new pan to replace the one I'm sure he's ruined to the set of the expensive ones he gave her last Christmas. I think sometimes men just do things like that to get "fired" from the household chores!

Everybody seemed to like the candied tomatoes. I suspect it was because they served a general purpose of covering up the taste of the collard greens as they were consumed by those grumbling, unappreciative children of mine. I think I can make a pretty mean pot of collard/turnips greens if I do say so myself. Someday they'll appreciate it.

For now they are so intimidated by the idea that they had better eat their greens or black-eyed peas or stand the risk of having bad luck and/or no money for the coming year. I'm not willing to take a chance on it, myself. I want to insure that I will have at least some money even if I have to eat the greens and peas, but then again, as I said, I like them and since I grew up on them it's not that hard for me. But just because they can, they continue to grumble, year after year after year. Even my son who has never, ever been a picky eater can't seem to cultivate a taste for them.
My daughter on the other hand, has seemed to acquire a bit more of a taste for them.

It turned out to be quite an enjoyable evening. Nobody was overly stressed out by having to prepare huge amounts of food, the kids had more than ample room to play, which would have been a different story had they met at my house, and just in general everything was great.

The boys enjoyed visiting with their only little girl cousin and she was in heaven with the room full of little boy toys to play with. She blended right in. Where or where has my little lace gone?

If I dared make plans for myself again, it might be that tomorrow I will stay inside all day, no cooking, no cleaning, just enjoying a quiet day semi-alone to catch up on some much needed sleep. We'll see.

I've already fallen asleep while trying to type this. Who knows what I said above that wasn't really true! But I'm not reading it over again before I publish it.

It looks like I've already broken my first and only resolution by going out and by cooking. I don't think I want to even try to make anymore if I can't at least keep simple resolutions.

Nah, we all enjoyed that broken resolution.

And, little Sophie, the newest little granddaughter puppy has gained five whole ounces this week. She's getting there.

My daughter missed the best photo of the night. Annabelle and Sophie were standing at the glass door looking out. Annabelle with her little face pushed up to the window and little Sophie so tiny with her little front paws stretched out onto one of the lower window panes standing by her new found buddy. It was a winning photo for sure, but two-year olds and puppies move at flash speeds and wait for no one, so I was the only one who was able to capture it in my mind. How precious it was. A shared moment, for sure.

Good night and a very happy and prosperous New Year.