Happy New Year

Jan 1, 2012

There is noth­ing like a New Year to cre­ate goals, chal­lenges, and dreams. I try not to look back, I just move for­ward and reflect on where I ended up, at the end of the year. I force myself to look at what I have accom­plished and not worry about what I have not. I tend to beat myself up for not obtain­ing per­fec­tion. I’m so bad at that, “Fail­ure Is Not An Option” runs through my head more than I care to admit. So there is no need to start the year off on a downer. Because let’s face it… we all set goals, chal­lenges and dreams to which some are met and well, some are not. No need to beat your­self up first thing in the New Year. Nope, be happy where you are now and just move forward.

I’m also going to “Pause” (my word for the year). I do NOT have an OFF BUTTON… can­not sit still, always think­ing and always doing. Just ask Alan, he will tell you. Makes the poor guy crazy when we try to watch a movie or TV show. But this year, I’m going to try my best to “Pause” each day even if it is for a few min­utes and really enjoy where I am at that moment. Do you have a word for this year?

And it is not too late to make these… you have until mid­night to eat at least a spoon­ful for the non-black eyed peas peo­ple out there… although after you eat these I think you will love them. They are the BEST Black Eyed Peas I’ve ever eaten.

Photo and Recipe Cour­tesy Of Bud­get Bytes 

Ingre­di­ents:
1 Medium Onion
2 Gar­lic Cloves
2 Tbls. Olive Oil
1 Pound Black-Eyed Peas
6 Cups Chicken Broth
2 Whole Bay Leaves
1/2 Dried Thyme
1/4 Red Pep­per Flakes
Fresh Ground Pep­per to Taste

Direc­tions:
1. Chop the onion and gar­lic and place it in the slow cooker with a cou­ple table­spoons of olive oil.
2. Dump the dry peas into a colan­der and sift through to remove any stones or bad peas. Rinse thor­oughly with water then add to the slow cooker.
3. Add 6 cups of chicken broth (or 6 cups of water and 2 Tbsp bouil­lon) to the slow cooker along with two bay leaves, 1/2 tsp of dried thyme, 1/4 tsp red pep­per flakes and a gen­er­ous amount of freshly ground black pep­per.
4. Place the lid on the slow cooker, turn the power on to High and let cook until the peas are soft. I let mine cook with­out check­ing them for three hours and they were per­fectly cooked. They may have been done sooner but I didn’t have a chance to check. Black-eyed peas tend to cook faster than other beans.

I made some sweet corn­bread to along with it… YUMMY!

I hope this year brings you all much hap­pi­ness and of course cre­ativ­ity. I look for­ward to shar­ing this new year with you all.

Hugs!