Happy 2008!
I hope this year brings good things for all of us.
The holidays are about food and thinking about food and the places we've lived always brings back memories of some of the dishes we enjoyed in each of the places we called home, if only for awhile.
In West Virginia it was something called pepperoni bread. I loved the stuff. Bread dough was rolled out into a long, rectangular sheet. Chopped green peppers, onions and mushrooms had been sauted together until wilted and then left to cool. After cooling they were spread unto the top of the rolled out dough and chopped up pepperoni was sprinkled on top of that. Lastly, grated mozzarella cheese was scattered on top of the peppers and onion and mushrooms and pepperoni. I used to sprinkle basil and oregano on the bread too. The whole thing was rolled up jelly roll style. The seam on the bottom of the dough was pinched together to keep it from coming apart while it was baking. Slashes were cut in the top of the roll...not all the way through that first layer of dough, just a thin group of slashes.
Then the whole thing was popped into a 350 degree oven and baked for about 40 minutes or until hollow sounding when lightly tapped.
The bread was served warm or at room temperature. Any leftover bread was wrapped up and refrigerated. It could be heated up in a 350 degree oven on a baking sheet for about twenty minutes. The bread should be wrapped in foil while it is being heated.
In Philadelphia it was borscht, and deli rye bread and reuben sandwiches and the best potato salad in the world. The bagels and other breads were equally good. Kippered salmon was usually served on New Year's Eve along with bagels and cream cheese. Yum.
In the San Francisco area it was Cioppino. If you aren't familiar with it, it is a fish stew. Lots of fish, crab legs, shrimp, scallops and clams are quickly cooked together in a rich, wine and garlic flavored tomato broth. It was erved in big bowls along with fresh sour dough bread and a nice glass of red wine. That is a recipe you can make at home. You don't have to add all the different types of seafood, add what you have available where you live and serve it with the best fresh bread you can find. I have to say that sour dough bread only tastes like sour dough bread should in California. People try to copy it but it just doesn't work so, use the best fresh bread you can find locally and it will taste great. The bread is used to sop up all that fabulous broth in the Cioppino.
In Georgia, well, it has taken me a year or so to embrace some of the local holiday favorites, but I have. They love their collard greens and black-eyed peas. My first experience with collards wasn't all that terrific but a friend who is a vegetarian makes the best collard greens. I searched online for a good recipe for Hoppin' John soup and found, what I think is the best.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Serves 8
Says Nephi "This is a modification of my father's hoppin' john recipe. The only difference between his and mine is the use of tomatoes. It's a great recipe for the holidays (New Year's) or any time during winter months. There are many versions of this recipe, but this one is quick so you can throw it together after a long day at work for the whole family to enjoy!"
INGREDIENTS:
| 1 pound sage pork sausage 1 (6 ounce) package uncooked long grain and wild rice mix, with seasoning packet 2 (15 ounce) cans black-eyed peas, drained | 2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, with liquid 2 (14 ounce) cans chicken broth 2 cups water salt to taste |
DIRECTIONS:
| 1. | Crumble sausage into a skillet over medium heat and cook until evenly brown. |
| 2. | In a large pot, mix the cooked sausage, rice mix with seasoning packet, black-eyed peas, tomatoes, broth and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 20 minutes, or until rice is tender. Season to taste with salt. |
Printed from Allrecipes.com 1/2008
I'll post the collard green recipe another time, but I highly recommend the soup. It is quick and easy and tastes great. You could obviously serve hot corn bread and a salad with it and you would certainly get rave reviews.
The pictures? Oh, they have nothing to do with the writing. They are just pictures of Georgia and some of the Helleborus we saw at a nursery we visited.
