Candied Plantation Yams
To be baked at 350 degrees. Serves ten people.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup freshly-squeezed
• orange juice
• 1 teaspoon grated orange rind
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 pounds orange or red yams, peeled, cut in half lengthwise, then cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced and seeds removed
• 1/2 cup pecan halves

Combine butter, sugar, orange juice, orange rind, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small saucepan. Heat slowly, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted and mixture is well blended. Combine yam slices, lemon slices, and pecans in a large bowl and toss  with  warm  glaze  mixture, taking care to coat evenly. Butter a  15x10x2 Pyrex baking dish. Arrange yam slices alternately with lemon slices and pecans. Pour any remaining glaze mixture over top. Bake uncovered in center of oven for 1 1/4 to 2 hours, basting thoroughly every 10-15 minutes with glaze. Baking time will vary according to moisture content of yams. Yams are done when they can be easily pierced with the tip of a knife and most of the glaze mixture has been absorbed. The remaining glaze should be the consistency of thick honey. Serve immediately or keep loosely covered at room temperature and reheat just before to serving.

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Chicken Terrapin
Boil a chicken with the giblets until tender. Set aside until cold, then cut into pieces 1/2 inch square. Put into a stewpan with pepper, salt, 3 hard boiled eggs chopped fine, a teacup of the broth the fowl boiled in, a coffee cup of  cream and a piece of butter rolled in flour the size of an egg. Set on the fire and simmer for 10 minutes. Then add a cup of wine and serve.

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Sweet Potato Pone
One quart grated potato, 1/2 pint molasses, 10  ounces butter, 3 eggs. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs. Add grated potato gradually with molasses.

New Year's Day Prosperity Ritual
All over the South people eat a meal of collard greens, cornbread, and black-eyed peas to ensure their prosperity and protection in the coming year. Symbolically, the greens are said to represent green 'paper money'; the corn, being yellow, represents gold or coins; and the black-eyed peas, each possessing an eye, is said to protect you from negativity and bad luck (especially in the form of the evil eye).

Interestingly, a silver dime is often placed in the black-eyed peas, and the person who by chance is served the dime is said to be especially lucky that year, and he or she will keep the dime as a lucky token throughout the year.

On a personal note, growing up in the South our grandmother's often told us that 'what you do on New Year's Day, you'll be doing all year,' therefore we were never to wash clothes, do housework, or anything else we wouldn’t want to be doing on a daily basis.

Hoppin' John for Good Luck

Dose black-eyed peas is lucky,
When e’t on New Year’s Day,
You allus has sweet ‘taters,
An’ ‘possum come yore way.

~African American folk rhyme

On New Year’s Day many people make the dish called Hoppin' John along with collard greens to insure prosperity and abundance for the New Year. Because black-eyed peas swell when soaked in water, they represent abundance, magically speaking. Reportedly a favorite of Marie Laveau’s, Hoppin' John is a traditional Southern food prepared on New Year’s Day for it’s luck drawing qualities. The name Hoppin' John is thought to refer to the Southern folk hero, High John the Conqueror.

RECIPE

• 1 lb. Black-Eyed Peas
• 8 slices Bacon, cut into fourths
• 1 1/2 cups Onions, finely chopped
• 1 cup celery, finely chopped

• ½ cup bell pepper finely chopped
• 2 1/2 quarts water
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1/8 teaspoon Maison Louisianne Creole Spice Blend
• 1/8 teaspoon Thyme
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 1/8 teaspoon Rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper
• 2 cups raw Rice

DIRECTIONS
Soak black-eyed peas overnight in water.  Fry bacon in a heavy skillet until crisp.  Add 1 1/2 cups onions, and cook until the onions are transparent.  Add 2 1/2 quarts water, bring to boil.  Add garlic cloves, Maison Louisianne Creole Spice Blend, thyme, bay leaf, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Drain peas and add the boiling mixture.  Barely simmer mixture, partially covered, for 1 1/2 hour.  Add 2 cups raw rice.  Serve with crisp French bread.  Enjoy!