Amazing Black Eyed Peas for New Years

If you’re one of those people who makes black-eyed peas on New Years Day, I have a wonderful recipe for you.  My neighbor, the one with the fantastic German Potato Salad recipe, makes these every year, and it’s a fabulous dish!

2 cans black-eyed peas, I drain and rinse for a more subtle flavor
2 cans italian stewed tomatoes
1 lb. sweet italian sausage, with casing removed
1 large onion
2 tablespoons of italian seasoning
1 teaspoon of oregano, if desired

Brown onion and sausage, drain, crumble and dump all in a crockpot, simmer on high for 3-4 hours, meanwhile cook a cup or so of pasta, any small pasta will work and stir it in at the end. 
This is so good, and so easy….

Enjoy and Happy New Year

~ jan

Reflecting, I’m not normally a fan…

Christmas is gone, the hustle and bustle is over, and everywhere you look people are reflecting back to this past year.  I usually avoid this, trying to move forward instead.  But every time I see Abby, and how much she is changing, it forces me to look back and face just how much she has changed from a baby to a busy little girl.

She no longer says awesome to just about everything that happens in her little life.  She talks now, actually non-stop, and as her vocabulary has increased, her favorite word has taken a back seat.  These days her favorite words are “really, really fast.”  She loves to do everything really fast, run, eat, ride in the car, she’s a regular little speed demon.  She no longer wants her favorite little sheep story at bedtime, much to her parent’s dismay, they’ve read the same book to her every single night since she was an infant, but now she wants them to read her other stories and it’s a reminder that she’s left her babyhood behind.

She had a stuffy nose last week and told her Daddy that her nose was broken and she wanted him to fix it.  Such wonderful little memories to reflect back on as she grows.

She has what she thinks is a phone, and talks into it much as her momma and daddy do into theirs.  I hear her saying things like “yah, yah, um hmmmmm, sure, okay, okay” and it’s so funny.

I went with Lindsay to her little music class last week where she was totally showing off for me.  Yelling “Hi Grammie” multiple times to me, and of course I was cracking up.  Her mother wasn’t amused at some of her antics, her teacher probably wasn’t either, but I thought it was hilarious.  Ahhhhh, the joy of being a grandparent.

And now we’re home, settling in this week, getting ready for the long month of January.  But I have multiple projects to keep me busy, and it hasn’t really been cold, and by March, the weather will be warming.  That isn’t so far away, March.  Well, okay, ask me that again about the middle of February, but today the grass is green, the temps are in the 50’s, and the sun is shining...

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and that the coming year will be filled with good health and prosperity.

Enough reflecting from this old(er) girl, I’m ready for move forward to the new year.

~ jan