Cool Beans

Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is supposed to bring you good luck in the new year, or so my friend Martha and I have read.  She brought a black-eyed pea dish with bacon, onion and garlic to a New Year's Eve potluck last evening and I'm adding black-eyed peas to my homemade soup recipe today.  I figure I might as well help the new year along a little.  If only I had kale or collard greens to add to the soup, I understand that I'd be encouraging fortune and prosperity in the new year, as well.  As it stands, I'll have to just be satisfied with good luck.  My husband Larry and I eat predominantly a vegetable-based diet, so we consume a lot of beans as a source of protein and fiber.  I tried a new bean recipe recently that called for maple syrup. In preparation for the recipe, I bought some locally produced syrup at our community's health food store.  It was great to buy real, pure maple syrup made from trees just down the road. The recipe ended up being a keeper. I'm sure it was enhanced by that local maple syrup.  As I prepared the dish, I thought of a trip I had taken with my parents to Vermont some 50 years ago.  We stopped at a little store in the woods where Mom and Dad bought me maple sugar candy molded into the shapes of a little boy and girl.  I'll never forget it.  It's interesting how we see our food as evoking happy memories or inspiring riches.  The important thing, though, is that our food be nourishing, healing and pure -- and perhaps bring a little good luck, too.