​Two traditional Southern dishes believed to bring good fortune  for the New Year are collard greens and the black-eyed pea concoction hoppin' john. Eat both of them on January 1, and you may get a double dose of good luck along with the vegetable nutrients.

The Atlanta Journal -Constitution recently reported: "With leaves the size of a dinner platter and as sturdy as a new dollar bill, collards symbolize money for many in the South. Eating them New Year’s Day with a side of black-eyed peas is supposed to usher in prosperity and good luck in the coming year. Skipping them could bring bad times."

The same goes for hoppin' john, a name with unclear origins. The dish includes some combination of black-eyed peas and rice, with additional ingredients optional.  

Here is one our favorite collard green recipes, followed by one for the colorfully named hoppin' john.  By some accounts, each person at a meal where hoppin' john is served should leave three peas on their plate to ensure a New Year blessed by luck, fortune and romance.

Barbecued Collard Greens

Ingredients
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of minced garlic
1 1/4 cup diced onions
1 pound of fresh collard greens, washed, chopped and with stems discarded
6 cups of chicken stock
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 cup SouthernAirs Classic BBQ sauce, (or similar all-natural BBQ sauce containing mustard & ketchup)
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions
Saute the garlic and onion in heated olive oil in a pot large enough to hold all of the ingredients. Cook until they are translucent. Add the remaining ingredients, stir well, bring to a boil, and then lower heat to simmer for 45 to 60 minutes.
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Hoppin' John

Ingredients
1 pound dried black-eyed peas
1 1/2 cups uncooked rice
4 slices bacon, diced 
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrots
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoons butter
1/2 tablespoon SouthernAirs ORIGINAL Hot Sauce (or similar mild cayenne sauce)
3 cups chicken stock
Water
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Rinse and cull the dried peas in a strainer. In a large pot, add 8 cups of water with the peas, and bring to a boil.  Boil for two minutes, then cover and remove from heat. Let stand for one hour. Pour the peas back into the strainer, drain, then place them back into the pot. Add 6 cups of water. Simmer gently for about 1 hour. Cook the diced bacon in a saucepan until done. Add the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, bay leaves and saute them for one or two minutes. Add the ingredients in the saucepan to the pot of simmering peas. Add the red pepper flakes, hot sauce and salt and pepper to taste to the pot, and continue to simmer for another 45 minutes or until the peas are tender but not mushy. In the meantime, in a separate pot bring the three cups of chicken stock to a boil, add the rice, cover and lower to a simmer.  Cook about 15 minutes until the rice is done. Stir the butter into the rice. Arrange a helping of rice onto each dinner plate and, using a slotted spoon, top it with the pea mixture. We like to sprinkle a few extra drops of hot sauce onto each helping at the table. 

INGREDIENTS
1  1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
6 ounces butter
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 12-ounce package white chocolate chips
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 7-ounce jar of marshmallow crème
1 1/2 cups of chopped pecans (preferably toasted)

DIRECTIONS
Line a 13x9-inch baking pan with foil, and grease it lightly.  Toast pecans briefly in oven and set aside. Combine sugars, evaporated milk, pumpkin, butter and spice in a 3-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring briskly, Boil, stirring constantly, for 10-12 minutes or until candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees. Quickly stir in chocolate chips, marshmallow crème, vanilla extract and nuts, and continue to stir until chips are melted, about 1 minute. Pour mixture quickly into foil-lined baking pan. Let stand for two hours, then cover tightly and refrigerate. When ready to eat, remove from foil and cut into squares. 

Summer "Do Nothing" Cake fits the pace of summer -- it's hot outside and we don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen. To suggest you have to do nothing to make this cake is, of course, hyperbole. But it's really simple to make, freeing up more time to pursue a breeze on the front porch or some similar worthy exploit. This is a Georgia recipe.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups plain flour
2 eggs, beaten with a fork
1 large can crushed pineapple with juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and stir with a spoon. Pour the mixture into a 9x13x2 inch sheet pan. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the center is done. Serve warm and top with vanilla ice cream. 
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INGREDIENTS
2 cups crab meat
2 cups bread crumbs soaked in 1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 egg, beaten well
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon SouthernAirs ORIGINAL hot sauce or similar mild tabasco sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Stir all ingredients together, then put into crab backs. Sprinkle a dusting of paprika on top (optional). Bake until lightly browned on top, about 20 minutes.

INGREDIENTS
​1/4 pound hickory smoked bacon
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper, de-seeded
​2 cups uncooked rice
​2 16-ounce cans diced tomatoes, including juice
​1/2 cup tomato juice
3 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
​I teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
​1/4 teaspoon SouthernAirs ORIGINAL Hot Sauce or similar medium cayenne hot sauce

DIRECTIONS
​Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fry bacon in a large frying pan until crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels, then crumble or chop and aside. Saute celery, onions and green pepper in bacon grease until tender. Add rice, tomatoes, tomato juice, bacon and seasonings.  Cook on top of the stove for 10-12 minutes. Pour mixture into a large greased casserole dish, cover tightly, and bake for about 1 hour.

​Long before there was Emeril or Paula Deen, there was Henrietta Dull, the original doyenne of Southern cooking.  Henrietta (1863-1964) bridged two centuries and brought the region's cuisine to the rest of the nation through her masterpiece cookbook Southern Cooking that can still be found in print after nearly a century, her cooking schools that attracted many thousands of devotees, and her newspaper columns. Henrietta, aka Mrs. S.R. Dull, which she used as her pen name, was sought out by celebrities and politicians alike in her heyday. While she didn't invent Southern cuisine, she certainly helped codify it for the masses -- not unlike what Moses did for the Ten Commandments, in our opinion.

​Here is a Spring dinner menu of Southern cuisine, as conceived and executed by the inestimable Henrietta:

​CREAM OF CELERY SOUP
Ingredients:
2 cups celery
1 quart cold water
3 cups whole milk
​2 tablespoons flour
​2 tablespoons butter
​Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
​Wash and dice celery and boil very tender in the water; there should be at least two cups of water when finished. Rub the celery through a strainer and return to the water. Add the sale and pepper. Mix the flour and butter into a paste and add to the milk, which should be warmed. Mix with the celery mixture; boil gently for 10 minutes and serve.

​PLAIN SQUASH SOUFFLE
Ingredients:
​2 cups cooked and mashed squash
​1 cup dry bread crumbs
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon grated onion
​3 tablespoons bacon drippings
​2 eggs; 
​Salt and pepper to taste
​Directions:
​Melt the bacon drippings in hot milk; pour over bread crumbs, mix well, add to squash. Add seasoning, beat eggs all together and add to mixture. Pour into a baking dish and bake 20 to 30 minutes in oven preheated to 375 degrees. Serve from the dish The top may be covered with extra buttered crumbs.

SMOTHERED STEAK
​Select a thick, good cut of round. Cut into sections suitable to serve. Pound with a meat hammer until well beaten. Dip info flour, covering both sides well. Into a skillet put a small amount of cooking oil; have very hot, put in the pieces of steak and sear both sides well. 

​Cover with boiling water; cover pan, lower the heat and simmer one hour. When half done salt and pepper to taste. When finished cooking there should be plenty of gravy. If the water boils away more may be added. The cooking must be slow if you wish the meat tender.  Onions may be added if liked. Add them sliced when the water is put in and cook until tender. There will be sufficient flour on steak to thicken the gravy.

GEORGIA DATE CAKE
​Ingredients:
3 cups finely chopped dates
​2 cups pecan pieces chopped medium
3 cups flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup milk
6 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mace
3 teaspoons baking powder
Directions:
​Sift salt, spices and baking powder into flour. Beat eggs together until light, add sugar, then flour and water, beat until smooth. With a little extra flour dredge dates and nuts; mix into batter and bake in moderate oven for 2 hours at 300 degrees. There is no butter or shortening in this cake. The batter should be quite stiff.

Author's Note: 
​A 2017 tribute to Henrietta is being re-published in the "Notions from Home" blog on this website coincident with publication of this recipe page.  The latest edition of Southern Cooking by Mrs. S.R. Dull may be purchased from the University of Georgia Press http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/southern_cooking/










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​For starters, there's no crust, but it's still called a "pie" even though it's probably really a casserole. Shrimp pies are common on both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and we borrowed from both traditions to create the one we like most. Shrimp pies without the tomatoes are well known in the area around Beaufort, SC, while parts of the Gulf Coast states seem to lean toward the shrimp & tomato version. 

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
​1/2 cup chopped green pepper
​2 pounds shrimp, shelled and deveined
1  14.5-oz can diced tomatoes 
​3 slices bacon, cooked & diced
​1 cup crushed crackers or bread crumbs
​1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
​1/4 cup water
​1/2 teaspoon SouthernAirs ORIGINAL hot sauce
​1/4 cup chopped parsley
​Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
​Pre-heat oven to 375. Melt the butter in a skillet and saute the onions and green pepper until translucent. Add the tomatoes, Worcestershire, hot sauce and water and bring to a boil. Stir in the shrimp, bread crumbs, bacon, salt, pepper. Transfer to a shallow casserole dish. Cook for 20 minutes. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Spoon bread is a traditional side dish often claimed by Kentucky and Virginia, although it's popular throughout much of the South among food enthusiasts, and may actually have originated among native Americans. It's called a bread, but it's also similar to a pudding or soufflé. Most side dishes are not eaten with a spoon, but we think it's appropriate in this case.

INGREDIENTS
​3 cups of self-rising yellow cornmeal
​2 cups whole milk
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons melted butter

DIRECTIONS
​Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients except the butter in a large bowl, taking care that the batter is smooth. Add more milk if necessary. Add the butter, stir, and pour the batter into a greased baking dish. Bake for about 30 minutes.

​INGREDIENTS
3 cups sliced Vidalia onions (use the real Vidalia onions, or this recipe will not taste right)
​1 cup sour cream
​3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
​2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup sherry
​2 tablespoons roasted red peppers
​6 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms
​1/2 teaspoon mild red hot sauce (we prefer SouthernAirs ORIGINAL hot sauce)
​4 tablespoons butter. separated
​1/2 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated
​1/3 cup bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS
​Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt 2 ounces of butter in a pan, and saute the sliced onions until they are slightly brown, then arrange them in a shallow baking dish. Combine the sour cream, salt, pepper, eggs, sherry, red peppers, mushrooms and hot sauce, and pour the mixture over the onions. Dot the mixture with the remaining 2 ounces of butter. Sprinkle with grated cheese, then sprinkle with bread crumbs. Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 25 minutes, the last 5 minutes uncovered.
 


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INGREDIENTS
2-4 pounds lean ground beef
​Kosher salt and pepper to taste
Worcestershire sauce to taste
​Lettuce and sliced tomatoes
​Swiss or sharp cheddar cheese
Sliced cucumbers
Plain or cinnamon raisin English muffins, toasted

Sauce:
1/4 stick butter
​2 cups cider vinegar
​(Optional: 2 tablespoons peanut butter. Be sure no one has allergies.)
​2 cups ketchup (we prefer SouthernAirs (R) Bacon Ketchup)
1 tablespoon salt
​2 teaspoons black pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
​1 teaspoon celery seeds
​1 tablespoon prepared mustard
2 lemons juiced
​1/2 teaspoon mild red hot sauce
​OR, substitute a SouthernAirs (R) BBQ sauce for all sauce ingredients above, such as Southern Classic, Peach Bourbon, or Apple Hickory.

DIRECTIONS
Make patties from the ground beef, sprinkle them with Kosher salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce on both sides, cover, and let sit for about 30 minutes. Pour the sauce ingredients in a sauce pan, stir, and bring to a boil, then lower the temperature to warm and let simmer slowly for a couple of minutes. Keep warm. Preheat outdoor grill on high. Cook the hamburgers to desired level, add cheese. Remove from grill and baste liberally on both sides with BBQ sauce. Garnish with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and place on  toasted English muffins. Serve hot.