Pomegranate Margarita & Cowboy Caviar
I am delighted to have the chance to wish you a Happy 2025. Of New Year’s, Sarah Ban Breathnach, author of Simple Abundance, wrote “New Year’s Day. A fresh start.
A new chapter in life waiting to be written. New questions to be asked, embraced, and loved. Answers to be discovered and then lived in this transformative year of delight and self-discovery. Today carve out a quiet interlude for yourself in which to dream, pen in hand. Only dreams give birth to change.”
For many the dawn of a brand-New Year always includes resolutions and one of those is a resolve to be more active, healthier and a few pounds lighter.
This year is no different for me, but that resolve will have to wait until January second because today is still a holiday, and in my house a holiday means one thing - a feast.
We began our day with a breakfast of Cranberry Cake, baked in a round pan to represent an unbroken circle and coming full circle in the New Year. I have prepared a ham, cornbread and fried cabbage with noodles for a big late lunch that will also include a simple charcuterie board featuring grapes, a dip with black-eyed peas and some smoked salmon spread To round out our feast I am serving pomegranate margaritas! This may sound like an odd assortment but there is a method to the madness! I want to include all the lucky foods that I can because 2025 is going to have to “bring it” to top 2024, and while I have all the confidence in the world that it will, I also know that it is better to be lucky than good.
I included both fish and pork because they each move forward in search of food, symbolizing moving forward into the New Year.
It is also said that eating a “fat pig” on New Year’s Day will bring you a fat wallet. (I wish that BEING as fat as a pig after eating ALL the holiday treats also brought a fat wallet! If it did, I would have been SET a long time ago.)
I have heard the saying “Peas for pennies, greens for dollars, and cornbread for gold,” my whole life so I assumed that the tradition of eating black eyed peas were a uniquely southern tradition, but I was wrong!
It turns out that in the Jewish Talmud peas are one of the five foods that the Talmud instructs the faithful to eat at Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year) to ensure prosperity.
Eating 12 grapes on New Years Day is said to bring sweetness and luck in the months to come! I added greens in the form of cabbage to bring more green money into our lives and to that I added extra-long noodles to ensure a long life and prosperous year. I added pomegranates this year as an homage to my trip to Greece where they serve the red fruit at the start of the year to bring the eater good fortune. The foods we will share today all represent luck but the truth is it will be the people around my table that will truly make 2025 an amazing one.
We had a wonderful Christmas season and I can not wait to share our experiences in Akumal, Mexico and Nashville with you in the coming weeks but for now my focus is on the start of 2025!
With that in mind I would like to leave you with the words of Goran Persson, the former Prime Minister of Sweden “Let our New Year’s resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.”
If you still need to whip up some luck for 2025, never fear it is not too late! This Cowboy Caviar comes together quickly and is a great snack, serve it with these sweet Pomegranate Margaritas and you will be in good stead for 2025! Happy New Year from my kitchen to yours!
Pomegranate Margarita
• 2 oz good quality silver tequila
• 1 oz pomegranate juice
• 3/4 oz lime juice
• ½ oz simple syrup or agave nectar
• 3/4 oz triple sec Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the ingredients, cover and shake vigorously for 30 seconds.
Strain into a chilled margarita glass and enjoy!
Cowboy Caviar:
• 2 15 oz. cans black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
• 1 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 c corn, can be defrosted frozen or drained canned
• 1 c red onion, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 jalapenos, seeded and diced
• 1 large avocado, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 of a bunch of cilantro, minced
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp course black pepper
• 2 c shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 lime, juiced Toss all the ingredients in a large bowl until well combine.Refrigerate at least one hour (overnight is best) Serve with chips or Fritos!
Katherine Compton Local Cook & Realtor
