When I was growing up, Mama Wilson always cooked a hog's head for New Year's * and made hash from the meat, and served it with hot barbecue sauce. I would not eat the meat because it came from the hog's head. I remember that she also cooked the brains, the tongue and pickled the ears(?). I've seen pickled pigs feet in the grocery store but I've never seen any in a cart at the check out! Mama served the hog's head with dirty rice, candied yams (sweet potatoes cut in slices and baked with spices and cane syrup. And of course turnips with roots chopped up, along with the black-eyed peas. For dessert, there were all the left overs from Christmas.
* HOG HEAD CLEANED AND COOKED
4 to 6 white potatoes. Salt as desired Pepper as desired Garlic cloves or Garlic salt as desired
After hog's head has been cleaned take a sharp ax and split head open lengthwise. Remove brains, eyes and tongue. Then chop around the jawbone to remove teeth. Wash well and remove all small bones. You may want to save some for New Year's for your good luck black eye peas. If so cut in small pieces and freeze. Boil the remainder with salt, pepper and garlic, cooking down until most of liquid is gone. Add a few potatoes or make scrapple or hog head cheese.
In later years I have carried on some of these traditions. Especially cooking black-eyed peas. And of course corn bread. I don't remember New Years in Minnesota. We were probably snow bound and didn't get out. I remember looking out the back windows to see if the Burlington Northern train was on time in the afternoon, and if so, then "all's right with the world". Sometimes they had to wait to have the railroad tracks cleared after blizzards.
Over the years we would buy fireworks for the boys to shoot off but so many cities don't allow fireworks anymore. We had fun with fireworks, shooting them out over the lake when we lived on the farm (1996-2004). In fact, my nephew called me a "pyro" because I loved to burn things outside and the bigger the fire the more exciting it was! We usually ended up throwing a pile of small firecrackers on the fire just to have a big bang and get rid of them.
I didn't always wait up to see the New Year come in, especially when the boys were young. For the past several years we have watched the ball drop in NY City, thanks to big screen TV's. I guess you would call that our "celebration" of the new year. After that, we have another hour until midnight here in Alabama. We enjoy watching the fireworks from other countries around the world. Here's a photo of the New Year's ball at Times Square in 2009.
Okay, we had black-eyed peas cooked with a ham bone, steamed cabbage, left-over pork tenderloin, deviled eggs, and fresh baked skillet cornbread with butter. Nobody wanted a dessert after all of this. Does this special meal guarantee that we will have Good Luck in 2009? We'll have to believe that we will have good luck, and forge into the new year with lots of fortitude and optimism. And for old folks like us, we especially pray for good health in the new year.
