My Version of Hoppin' John for the New Year.

 Hoppin' John

Traditional New Year's Day food.

First known in the low country of South Carolina, most likely as a winter staple for enslaved Africans, using rice, black eyed peas and salt pork;  practically all that was available in the American South during winter.

Hoppin' John became a popular dish throughout the south. It was often eaten with sides of collard or turnip greens, and corn bread.

It's supposed to bring good luck in the coming year. That doesn't work.

Luck notwithstanding I make it every year, partly because it is traditional; but mostly because I like it.

My version cooks the collards in the mix, and ** since  it's hard to get good corn bread I add corn to the pot.

Mine includes the meat from smoked pork chops.  I was out of wild rice or brown rice so I used the white stuff (which wasn't a major error, except that it made the entire dish a bit gluey).

**  The finest corn bread I ever ate was home made by my friend Jack Chrisman.  It was deliciously moist and still had some corn kernels in it.  So good that it needed not even a smear of butter.