I made the traditional New Orleans dinner for New Year's Day: Hoppin' John (=black-eyed peas and rice), Brown Cabbage, and sausage. It came out very well: the Hoppin' John was wonderfully rich, thanks to the goodness of a smoked pork hock, while the sausage was a pretty decent facsimile of andouille (as decent as one can expect from a company in Wisconsin).

The black-eyed peas trace back to the Roman custom of eating lentils; the legend is that you'll get a gold coin during the year for each one you eat. It makes more sense for the coin-shaped lentils than the basically bean-shaped black-eyed peas. There's also a tradition that the cabbage leaves symbolize money, but I don't know how far back that goes. Sausage, I suspect, is simply something that goes well with both beans and cabbage.

Anyway, hope everyone had as good a dinner as I did. Happy New Year!