Black-Eyed Peas and Collard Green Soup

January will be here tomorrow and that just calls for a big pot simmering on the stove. After all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, The Harris Sisters love nothing more than slowing down, cozying up, and letting the comforting smell of homemade soup fill the kitchen. This year, we’re starting a little tradition of our own: sharing one favorite soup recipe each week throughout January. Think of it as our way of bringing a little warmth (and a whole lot of flavor) to these chilly winter days.

We’re kicking things off with a Southern classic that’s close to our hearts Black-Eyed Peas and Collard Greens served up as soup! Around here, black-eyed peas and collards are more than just ingredients; they’re symbols of luck, prosperity, and good health and that makes them the perfect way to start a brand-new year. This soup has all the cozy, savory goodness of the traditional New Year’s Day meal, just in a bowl that’ll warm you from the inside out.

So grab your favorite pot, pull out those soup bowls, and join us each week as we share more recipes made for gathering, sharing, and savoring. Here’s to good food, good luck, and plenty of cozy moments all month long.

Black-Eyed Peas and Collard Green Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

8 cloves garlic, minced

8 cups vegetable broth

2 15 oz. cans black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained

2 15 oz. cans navy beans, rinsed and drained

2 15 oz. cans unseasoned collard greens, undrained

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp Lawry's seasoned salt

1 tsp Cajun seasoning

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp Liquid Smoke

1 Tbsp hot sauce

8 oz. dry ditalini pasta

1. Add olive oil, celery, carrots, and onions to a stockpot on the stove over medium-low heat and cook until the vegetables are soft and fragrant. Add the garlic, cook, and stir one more minute.
2. Add broth, tomatoes, beans, collard greens, and spices and stir together.
3. Bring mixture to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low. Let simmer, covered for an hour to allow flavors to develop and mingle. 
4. Cook ditalini pasta according to package directions and add cooked pasta to soup the last 15 minutes of cooking.

Notes:

Can substitute 1 cup of rice instead of pasta. Cook according to package directions and add in final step.

If you would like to add meat to this recipe, you can add 1 pound of andouille sausage, sliced and cut into pieces. Cook with vegetables in step 1 until sausage has browned before proceeding to step 2.

If you have young kiddos, this is a fun soup to serve around Halloween and call it Swamp Soup!

So whether you’re hoping for a little extra luck in the new year or just craving something hearty to warm you up, this soup’s got you covered. It’s the kind of recipe that feels like home with its simple ingredients, slow-simmered flavor, and plenty of love in every spoonful. So grab your apron, turn up some good music, and let’s get cooking. There’s a bowl of comfort waiting at the end of this pot!

And don’t forget to tune in next week because we’ll be sharing another soup to keep you cozy all month long. Trust us, you won’t want to miss it!

Sweet Cornbread Muffins

Y'all - this homemade cornbread muffin recipe makes the perfect side dish. I'm telling you, if you like sweet cornbread, then this is the recipe to try. It's ready in just 30 minutes, and these easy-to-make sweet cornbread muffins pair well with chili, soup, salad, and so much more! 

Sweet Cornbread Muffins

1  2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cornmeal 

1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup milk 

2 Tbsp oil

2 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease a 12 cup muffin tin. Set aside.
2. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
3. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer.
4. Add milk and oil and mix on low until just combined. Add two slightly beaten eggs to the mixture and whisk or lightly beat to incorporate.
5. Slowly add in the cornmeal mixture, mixing the two together with a fork until just combined and then stop mixing. The batter should be slightly airy and sticky. Don’t over mix!
6. Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin tin. (Approximately 1/4 cup of batter per muffin will yield exactly 12 muffins.) 
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes at 350 degrees F or until toothpick inserted into the center of the middle muffin  comes out clean.
8. Allow muffins to cool in the muffin tin for about 5 minutes. Invert the muffins onto a wire rack, stand the muffins upright, and cool 5 additional minutes. Serve warm.

Notes:

It is important not to over mix your cornbread batter, otherwise the muffins will be dense, heavy, and dry. If the batter still has a few lumps in it after mixing, that is OK.

A few other things that can cause your cornbread muffins to turn out dry:

• Baking the muffins too long can dry them out and make your muffins crumbly.
• If you cool the muffins completely in the pan, it can sometimes dry them out because they keep cooking. Instead, as soon as you are able to remove them, place the cornbread muffins on a wire rack to finish cooling.

What to Serve with Your Cornbread:

• Kicking Butt & Taking Names Chili 
• Crockpot Vegan Chili
• Crockpot Black Bean Soup
• Old Fashioned Lima Beans and Ham
• Grandma's Old-Fashioned Chicken Soup
• 15 Bean Soup
• Vegan Hoppin' John
• Red Beans and Rice
• Crockpot Black Beans

More Cornbread Recipes You'll Love:

• Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread
• Old-Fashioned Cornbread
• Sweet Honey Cornbread

Vegan Collard Greens

I wanted to share with you a new recipe for our family's traditional collard greens for our New Year's meal. It's a vegan recipe that's perfect for our family, which includes two vegetarians.

This recipe is perfect for if you have to consider a variety of dietary needs at your New Year's table. You can serve the traditional meat of ham separately for any meat eaters in your group.

We pair this Southern-style recipe with Vegan Hoppin' John and Sweet Honey Cornbread to start the new year off right!

Vegan Collard Greens

2 bunches fresh collard greens
olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups vegetable broth 
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon Liquid Smoke flavoring
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
black pepper (to taste)
balsamic vinegar (for serving, if desired)
hot sauce (for serving, if desired)

1. Remove bottom stalks of the collard green leaves and chop or tear into small pieces. 
2. Fill your sink or a large container with cold water, add chopped collard greens, and soak for at least 10 minutes. (Some people prefer to soak greens overnight.)
3. Remove the collard greens from the sink, place them in a colander, give them a good rinse, and drain. Complete this step in batches, if needed.
4. Coat the bottom of a large pot with olive oil.
5. Sauté onions over medium-low heat until they begin to brown and then add in garlic.
6. Cook until onions and garlic are fragrant, for another 2-3 minutes.
7. Add in vegetable broth.
8. Season broth with salt, Liquid Smoke, red pepper flakes, and black pepper (if desired).
9. Taste and adjust the seasonings if needed. 
10. Bring broth to a boil, then reduce to simmer.
11. Add in the greens, cover, and cook until greens are completely tender, about 1 - 1 1/2 hours.
12. Check at the 30-minute mark to make sure there is still enough broth in the pot. Add more vegetable broth if needed.
13. Serve with hot sauce or balsamic vinegar, if desired.

Notes:

Make sure you like the taste of the broth when you taste it at step 9, because this is how your greens will taste. Adjust seasonings at this step, if necessary. 

Remember that the heat from the red pepper flakes will increase as the greens cook and you can always add more heat by serving the collard greens with additional hot sauce.

Traditions & Superstitions: 

A long-held tradition in the South, collard greens are often served for New Year’s Day.  According to superstition, if you eat collard greens on New Year’s Day, then you will have financial success for the coming year.

• collard greens represent green backs (dollars), or cash 
• black-eyed peas represent coins (this is traditionally served with alongside collard greens on New Year's Day)
• cornbread represents gold (this is traditionally served with alongside collard greens on New Year's Day)

Vegan Hoppin' John (Black-Eyed Peas and Rice)

I wanted to share with you a new recipe for our family's traditional black-eyed peas New Year's meal. It's a vegan recipe that's similar to Hoppin' John, and it was perfect for our family, which includes two vegetarians.

Rather than cooking the rice in the same pot with the black-eyed peas, we served the black-eyed peas over a bed of white rice. But, considering Hoppin' John is a recipe that originated in the Carolinas (just like The Harris Sisters!), Carolina Gold rice would be a great addition to this recipe too.

Vegan Hoppin' John (Black-Eyed Peas and Rice)

16 oz. bag dry black-eyed peas, sorted and rinsed
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 Tablespoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt 
1/2 teaspoon Liquid Smoke flavoring
cooked rice to serve

1. Wash the sorted dry beans. Place them into a pot and cover with at least 2 inches of water. Let them soak 8 hours or overnight. Drain and set aside.
2. Add olive oil and onion to a large pot and sauté until it begins to brown. Add the bell pepper, celery, and garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. 
3. Then add all ingredients except salt, Liquid Smoke, and cooked rice to the pot, along with enough additional water to cover the beans by one inch. 
4. Bring beans to a boil, then reduce to simmer, cover, and cook until beans are completely tender, about 1 1/2-2 hours, adding more water as needed. (Note: water should cook down into a thick sauce, but make sure that beans have enough water to cook in at all times.)
5. When they’re tender, add the Liquid Smoke and salt, cook for 15 more minutes.
6. Serve over cooked rice with a side of collard greens and cornbread to complete your vegetarian New Year's meal!

Notes:

If you prefer a spicier dish, you can either increase the amount of hot sauce and cayenne pepper in the recipe or serve with additional hot sauce.

If you prefer green bell peppers to red bell peppers, you can substitute them in this recipe.

If you want to avoid the "rush" of buying black-eyed peas right before the end of the year, put them on your grocery list for the same week you're buying ingredients to make Christmas goodies. While you're buying ingredients to make Christmas cookies, candies, fudge, etc., swing by the dried beans aisle and pick up a bag of black-eyed peas for your pantry. That way, you'll already have them for when you need them, and you won't have to hunt for them when supplies will be low a few weeks later.

Traditions & Superstitions: 

Hoppin' John is a Lowcountry dish that is served for New Year’s Day.  According to superstition, if you eat Hoppin' John on New Year’s Day, then you will have good luck for the coming year.

• black-eyed peas represent coins
• tomatoes represent health
• cornbread represents gold (this is traditionally served with alongside black-eyed peas on New Year's Day)
• collard greens represent green backs (dollars), or cash (this is traditionally served with alongside black-eyed peas on New Year's Day)
• Sometimes, the cook slips a coin into the dish before serving, or serves each dish with a coin underneath.

On the day after New Year's Day, leftover Hoppin' John is called Skippin' Jenny, bringing a hope for an even better chance of prosperity in the New Year.

Decluttering Your Whole Home in 15 Minutes a Day

New year, new goals!  One of my New Year's resolutions always seems to be home organization and decluttering- which, let's face it, is an ongoing task, but the new year always seems a good time to start this task anew.  

This year, I stumbled onto a new-to-me site that helps you organize your life in a mere 15 minutes a day- the Declutter 365 Challenge.  Of course, some tasks will take a little more than 15 minutes- some less. But the idea is that you break your tasks down into manageable ones so that you can actually accomplish them.  At the end of the week, you have quite a bit to show for your efforts.  This works a lot better than saying to yourself, "I have to clean up and clean out my whole house."  Now THAT'S a big effort with no set place to start or direction on how to accomplish the task exactly.  The Declutter 365 challenge gives you a small task to work on each day.  Of course, the idea is that you maintain your good work and reevaluate as you go to make sure you stay on track.  

If you visit the Declutter 365 website, you can register for free to receive your daily tasks.  Once you do this, you also gain access to a printable calendar that you can print off to keep you on track.  You can also sign up to "join" their Facebook group.  By doing so, you will receive your daily task in your Facebook newsfeed.  And others comment and post their before and after pics there too that you can use as inspiration for your own efforts.  There is strength in numbers, right?

I have been completing my daily tasks for a few days now, and it is super easy to work in 15 minutes chunks of time on small tasks.  So far, I have set up a donation box to discard items that we will end up donating or reselling later.  I have organized my kitchen sink area, and cleared our kitchen counters and island.  Today's task is the kitchen table.  I believe tomorrow is organizing my kitchen towels and utensils.  And then we move on to the cabinets and fridge next week.  Once the kitchen is complete, the tasks will take us on to another part of the house.  

Aaaahhhh, I can feel our home breathing a sigh of relief already.  

New Year's Cleaning

I know, I know…  We are technically already into the month of February and I'm just now talking about New Year's.  Well, there's a reason for that.  We all make New Year's resolutions that last for only a few weeks (if we are lucky) and then we kind of start to fall off.  I wanted to make sure that I was going to stick with this resolution before I mentioned it here.  But now that we are almost six weeks into the new year and I'm still going strong, I think it's time to confess what I've been up to.

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to clean house.  And I'm not talking about dusting and vacuuming, although that wouldn't hurt either.  :)  I'm talking about decluttering, organizing, purging, and really deciding what things are useful and what things just need to be tossed for good. And when you're talking about doing this for your entire house, you're really talking about a big undertaking. But so far, what's really working for me is breaking things up into very small and manageable sections of the house to work on at a time.  

For example, instead of saying I'm going to organize my entire closet today, I have chosen to break things up by spending 20 minutes to go through all of my jeans.  Maybe the next day I'll spend 15 minutes going through my sock drawer.  And when I'm organizing and purging, I'm using these criteria to determine what to keep and what goes.  

• Is it useful?
• Is it beautiful?
• Do I love it?
• Is this a sentimental item?

And if it doesn't meet at least one of these criteria, then it goes in a pile to donate or toss, depending on what it is.  

Here's a little rundown of all the things that I've been able to organize just in the first six weeks of this year.

• Cleaned and organized under the kitchen sink; tossed old cleaners and ones that we don't use or don't work.  
• Organized all of my jewelry; consolidated everything into one armoire; tossed old, broken, or junk pieces I no longer wear.
• Cleaned and organized bathroom cabinets and drawers; purchased and installed drawer organizers that have literally changed my life.
• Sorted books and toys; began preparing items for children's consignment sale.
• Cleaned out the laundry room; tossed large hamper that we aren't using.  It was taking up precious real estate that I intend to use for a drying rack instead. 
• Organized office files; retaining only important receipts, documents, and files.
• Went through Lexi's clothes and shoes to weed out what no longer fits and needs to go into the upcoming consignment sale.
• Cleaned and organized guest bedroom/ closet/ gift wrap area (which was still a mess from Christmas)

Oh, there is still much to be done. But I am slowly chipping away at it and feeling really good about the progress I'm making so far.  Some of these tasks have taken me several days or more to complete. But as I mentioned I'm trying to do things a little bit at a time. I find if you take on too much at a time, you just get burnt out and overwhelmed. This way seems to be working really well for me.  And stuff is getting done.

There are also a few things that I am delegating to my husband for his help.  And when he has a few minutes to spare, I enlist his help for small projects to knock them off the list.  Things like:

• Changing light bulbs
• Taking tools and such back to the garage to put away
• Hanging pictures

So there you have it.  An organized and simplified home greatly contributes to my sanity.  That's the goal, and we are slowly but surely chipping away at it.  What resolutions did you make this year that you are still working toward?

Old-Fashioned Cornbread

I ran across this recipe recently and gave it a try. Let me tell you - it will be a wonderful recipe to try for Thanksgiving dinner if you're looking for something new.

Now, I know there are a lot of dyed-in-the-wool folks out there who will only serve the same cornbread recipe that they've served since the beginning of time. That's OK. You can Pin this recipe for later. You'll want to do that because it's so good!

But, if you ARE looking to try something new for Thanksgiving, give this one a try. It's moist because it incorporates both sour cream and actual corn in the ingredients list! Yum!

Old-Fashioned Cornbread

8 oz sour cream

2 eggs

1 cup corn meal

1/3 cup vegetable oil

14.75 oz can cream style corn

1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9 x 9 baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together all ingredients until well blended.
3. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. Cool for 15 minutes in pan before cutting and serving.

Notes:

For this old-fashioned cornbread recipe, it is important to wait the 15 minutes before cutting. This will allow this moist cornbread time to "set" before serving.

If you're interested in other favorite Harris Sisters' Cornbread Recipes, give these a try:

Sweet Honey Cornbread

Cheesy Cowboy Cornbread

Cornbread Waffles

Champagne Punch

This recipe is such a winner; it combines two of my favorite flavors- orange and cranberry.  If you have any bubbly left over from New Year's, here's the best possible way to use it up.  Guaranteed!

Champagne Punch

2 oranges, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices

3 cups cranberry juice, chilled

3/4 cup orange liqueur

2 bottles champagne or sparkling white wine, chilled

2/3 cup frozen cranberries, plus additional for garnish

1. Freeze orange slices and cranberries for about an hour, or until frozen solid.  
2. Meanwhile, chill punch bowl in refrigerator or freezer. 
3. When ready to serve, combine cranberry juice with orange liqueur. 
4. Add champagne, and float frozen oranges and cranberries in the punch.

Notes:

This recipe goes fast, so double it for much festive goodness.  I actually halved it for a small group, and we ran out pretty quickly.  

Garnish your glasses with some of those frozen cranberries, and enjoy!

New Years Closet Cleaning Tips

Many people like to start organizing their homes in January as part of their New Year's resolutions.

We've brought you several popular posts on organization in the past and I'll link those below for your convenience, but I ran across this infographic the other day that I thought was just too great not to share. First, let's gear up with this thought:

Source

Many of us struggle with cleaning out our closets because while we want them to be neat, we also want to keep everything. Those two forces work against each other so strongly that sometimes we delay the task or just give up on it altogether. My own closet looks like its going to implode right now. Perhaps I should put some of these tips to work myself:

Source

I would note that for me, the "toss it" pile would be a donate pile for any item that is not beyond repair. 

As promised, here are a few other organizational tips should the mood hit you:

Easy Closet Cleaning Tip

Bathroom Organization for Less Than $10

Vintage Soda Crate Turned Wine Storage

Utensil Holder Turned Snack Storage for Road Trips

Hope these ideas will inspire you to get (and stay) organized in the New Year!

This post contains affiliate links.

Sweet Honey Cornbread

As the calendar rolls over to another year, I trust that you've had your traditional New Year's meal of black eyed peas and collard greans. This meal, of course, should ALWAYS be accompanied by cornbread.

This year, all three Harris Sisters and their families were in one location for New Year's Day, so we enjoyed this traditional meal together. We whipped up Misty's cornbread recipe to accompany the meal. It's not too late for you to give this one a try. It's super simple and it's got a "secret" ingredient that adds a little sweetness.

Sweet Honey Cornbread

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

3/4 cup milk

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup honey

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9 x 9 baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together dry ingredients.  
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients in the order listed.  
4. Stir to combine. 
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in preheated oven.

Notes:

Let the bread rest before serving. You want to do this because the bread will fall apart and become crumby if you slice it too quickly.

If you REALLY want to make your best endeavor to bake cornbread "the Southern way," try your best to wear an apron with a rooster on it whilst baking:

If you're interested in other tried and true New Year's recipes give these a looksee:

Black Eyed Peas and Collard Greens

Cornbread Waffles

Cowboy Cornbread

Cowboy Caviar

Happy new year and happy baking!

Be the Change

Be the change you want to see in the world. Something to think about if you've yet to set your New Year's resolutions.

We regularly post Words of Wisdom to our Facebook Page. If you're not a follower, you can find us here https://www.facebook.com/theharrissisters. Give us a Like for your daily dose of Harris Sisters Wisdom.

You can also find our Friday posts and many others on my Words to Live By Pinterest board so make sure to pop over there and start following for all the latest updates.

Y2K Turns 15 This Year!

Do you remember the hype that surrounded Y2K? Well, I certainly do. 

To refresh your memory, while Prince had long been inviting us to "party like it's 1999," and that was GOING TO BE HIS YEAR to wear out this song for New Years, instead the entire world went crazy thinking that all of our computers would crash because they hadn't been programmed to differentiate between the year 2000 and the year 1900. (Because, you know "ye old computers of yore" were still alive and kickin' from 1900. I kid - I kid.)

So, instead of typical New Year's celebrations:

We had mass hysteria fueled by media outlets:

And general panic in the streets:

On the up side, nearly everyone learned how to spell millennium correctly. So there's that. Score one for grammar! ;-)

In 1999, two of the three Harris Sisters lived in Greensboro, NC, so we went out to dinner with friends. Of course, since we had an IT guru (Ryan Barrett Walkush) in our midst, he ensured us that the city wasn't going to go dark at midnight. (He was right - the restaurant even managed to bring our checks as per usual, go figure!)

Here we are on that night:

So as you prepare for the night's festivities, if you're thinking about partying like it's 1999, think back to the Y2K scare that happened a whopping 15 years ago, and maybe instead party like all of our technology and social media will work correctly on January 1. Now, THAT's a party!

Cowboy Caviar

This recipe is a real winner and if you're looking for a new appetizer for Super Bowl Sunday, then give this one a try! And while you should have already eaten your black-eyed peas for New Year's Day, this recipe would also be an excellent way to serve those up, so make sure to Pin it. 

(I've also included links to other Super Bowl appetizers after this recipe, so keep scrolling!)

Cowboy Caviar

1 15 oz. can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed

1 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 15 oz. can white corn, drained and rinsed

5 Roma tomatoes, seeds removed and diced

3 avocados, diced

4 green onions, sliced

1 Tbsp. cilantro

4 cloves garlic, minced

6 Tbsp. lime juice

1/2 cup Italian dressing

salt and pepper to taste

1. Add drained and rinsed black-eyed peas, black beans, corn, sliced onions, and diced avocados to a large bowl. 
2. Distribute lime juice over diced avocados to help prevent browning.
3. Remove seeds and pulp from tomatoes, dice, and add to bowl.
4. Add Italian dressing, cilantro, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix all ingredients.
5. Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
6. Serve with tortilla chips. (This is best served the same day as you prepare it.)

Notes: 

Make your own Italian dressing with our Italian dressing mix recipe, or use a prepared dressing.

This makes a great appetizer, but it's also a great sandwich filling - load up a 1/2 pita pocket with this mix and you have a tasty lunch!

Looking for other Super Bowl recipe ideas? Check out these other Harris Sisters recipes that would be perfect for game day:

1. Pizza Fondue
2. Healthier Queso Dip
3. Spinach Artichoke Dip
4. Super Simple Salsa
5. Creamy Spinach and Red Pepper Dip
6. Black Bean Salsa
7. Liar Liar Chex Mix
8. Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
9. Sweet Corn Salsa
10. Kicking Butt & Taking Names Chili

Cornbread Waffles, Black-Eyed Peas & Collard Greens

Well, it should come as no surprise that THIS family has had its fill of black-eyed peas, collard greens, and cornbread in the new year.

It's a Southern New Year's tradition to eat black-eyed peas and collard greens for good luck. The black-eyed peas represent coins and the collard greens represent cash-money (as Aidyn Kale Walkush calls it). And if you eat them on New Year's day, you're bringing yourself some prosperity. The cornbread? It's gold in color, which equals EVEN MORE money. And, well, it just tastes good with black-eyed peas and collard greens.  

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then you must not be a dyed in the wool Southerner, bless your heart. If it makes you feel any better, my husband is originally from Ohio, so he had to be eased into this tradition too. :-) 

This year, I decided to change up the way we made the cornbread, so I served it waffle-style. Let me tell you, this was an excellent decision, as it cooked up quickly, and the leftovers also tasted great served for breakfast with syrup and fruit (and according to my husband we'll be making these again to serve with his Kicking Butt and Taking Names Chili).

Cornbread Waffles

3 cups yellow self-rising corn meal mix

2 eggs

2 Tbsp oil

2 cups milk

1. Preheat waffle maker.
2. Measure corn meal mix into mixing bowl. 
3. Beat together eggs, oil, and milk. Stir thoroughly into corn meal mix. 
4. Prepare waffles according to your waffle maker directions.

Black-Eyed Peas

1 16 oz bag dry black-eyed peas

1 large onion, minced

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp butter

2 tsp salt

2 tsp soul food seasoning*

1. Wash the dry beans. Place them into a pot and cover with at least 2 inches of water. Let them soak 8 hours or overnight. Drain.
2. In a large pot, melt butter in olive oil. Saute onion and garlic in mixture. Add soul food seasoning.
3. Add drained beans and enough water to cover beans by one inch.
4. Bring beans to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 2 hours. At 1 1/2 hour mark, add salt.

Note: If you cannot find soul food seasoning at your local supermarket, you may substitute 1 tsp cayenne pepper.

Sautéed Collard Greens

2 bunches fresh collard greens

1 large onion, minced

6 cloves garlic, minced

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes, if desired

4 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp butter

Salt (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

Balsamic vinegar (for serving, if desired)

Hot sauce (for serving, if desired)

1. Remove bottom stalks of the leaves and chop or tear into 1-inch squared pieces. 
2. Fill your sink with cold water, add chopped collard greens, and soak for at least 10 minutes. (Some people prefer to soak greens overnight.)
3. Remove the collard greens from the sink, place them in a colander, give them a good rinse, and drain. Complete this step in batches, if needed.
4. In a large saute pan, melt butter in olive oil. Sauté onion and garlic until onion is translucent. Add red pepper flakes (if using), stirring well to coat.
5. Add greens (in batches), salt, and pepper to the sauté pan and cook, stirring often, until wilted and tender. 
6. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and let steam, about 10-15 minutes. 
7. Serve with balsamic vinegar or hot sauce.

Notes: I use a 12" straight sided saute pan to fit two bunches of collard greens. As the greens cook down, you can add more batches. This is a quick and easy method of making collard greens in much less time than the traditional cooking method.

This post contains affiliate links.

Free New Year's Eve Printables

I can't believe another year has passed already - I have no idea where the time goes! And it seems like it was only a few weeks ago that we were bringing you Free Christmas Printables in three different color schemes: blue, red and green, and neutral. But images like these are swirling around the Internet in droves as everyone prepares to ring in the new year:

And whether or not you are planning festivities quite so schmancy, you might appreciate some FREE New Year's Eve printables to help you with whatever level of planning you might need to do. So here is our roundup of various types of free printables without further hesitation.

Make sure to check out my FREE New Year's Eve Printables Pinterest Board and my New Year's Eve Pinterest Board. I will be loading them up in the days to come with even more free printables and decor ideas. And if you are planning a party or attending one, you might also want to check out my Recipes - Appetizers Pinterest Board for some yummy ideas for what to eat!

And in the meantime, on to the free printables!

8 X 10 Chalkboard Printable and matching Happy New Year Banner from Over the Big Moon:

Three 8 X 10 Printables from Just Us Three Designs at A Night Owl Blog:

8 X 10 "Time to Drink Champagne and Dance on the Table" Printable, Drink Flags, Banner, and other party printables from The TomKat Studio:

Chalkboard Party Printables from The 36th Avenue:

Fun and Fancy Party Printables by B.Nute Productions on Catch My Party:

Eight Printable Champagne (or Wine or Sparkling Cider) Labels from Better Homes and Gardens (five shown here):

Printable drink menu, bar sign, drink tags, and food tents from Evite:

Clock drink tags from Evermine Blog:

Take some funny photos with these 2014 Photo Props from I Heart Naptime:

How about some favors? Lil' Luna has some printables to beautify boxes of sparklers:

And here's some printable 2014 Hershey Kiss stickers from Bloom Designs Online:

And do the kids want to stay up late? Need to keep them entertained? Maybe try making Spoonful's 2014 Disney Party Glasses with them as a craft activity:

Or Party Hats from Evermine Blog:

Or 2014 Clock Design Party Hats from Merriment Design:

Or have the kids complete this Mickey and Friends Word Search and Maze by Spoonful:

If they're old enough, start this tradition. Have them fill out their own Journal Entry by Wonderful Joy Ahead each year. (Help younger kids fill out theirs - these make nice keepsakes.)

Or set aside a special table for the kids with some crayons and these printable coloring pages from Coloring Kids:

Hope these have given you some ideas to help you with your planning!