worry not

Call me old fashioned but on New Year’s Day I try to eat black-eyed peas and pork though I never liked those little beige beans staring at me from the pot. The smell of them cooking coupled with mushy mouth feel failed to arouse my palette much like my reaction to chitterlings (gag me!). To try and maintain some semblance of family tradition when I was grown and out on my own, I managed to find and eat just a mouthful of those legumes every January 1st. Some time in 2009, I sampled and liked a black-eyed pea salad. On the eve of 2010 I headed to the store to see if by any chance it was one of the pre-prepared selections for the holiday. My mouth watered as I strolled from one end of the glass showcase to the other but to my brief disappointment, no peas with black eyes peered from any dish in the line up. Not to worry, I cook. I would make that salad myself…if I could only remember what was in it. I was not about to waste money on a can of ready to eat b.e.peas so I figured I’d forgo tradition just this once. As I headed to the check-out after picking up some boneless pork chops from the butcher, my cart strangely jerked towards the produce aisle which I had already visited. There next to the sprouts I buy all the time sat a clear package of black-eyed peas beckoning me with a multitude of come hither glances. Fresh and quite tempting, I curiously moved in for a closer look. Only 20 minutes to cook, done!

Of course once I was back in the comfort of my abode with my comfy at home clothes on, it dawned on me that I still had no idea about the ingredients for that salad. Worried I was not. Tradition would meet technology. A few strokes across the tiny screen of my I Phone would rectify my dilemma; allrecipes.com did not disappoint. I skimmed selections, found one to my liking then settled down to ring in 2010. New Year’s morning I poured a flute of bubbly, put the Dell on the counter, logged in to my Billie Holiday station on Pandora, and opened up the Classic Texas Caviar recipe on a screen big enough for me to easily read. Needless to say, I did not have all that was called for. No worries here. I made some substitutions putting a new spin not only on the recipe but on the way to prepare a traditional side for the feast of the first.

Keeping up traditions whether major or minor requires creativity and I don’t just mean giving a makeover to passed-down family recipes in order to appease changing tastes in food or the desire to eat healthier. Relatives aren’t always relatively close in proximity to one another, siblings marry and form new family units that again aren’t necessarily within driving distance of their first family, or loved ones have passed on. In the absence of those we grew up with, we fashion new traditions with or without a hint of the old or abandon them altogether. But it really doesn’t feel like we are too far away from folks these days because we can reach out and touch them via any number of phones, email and text photos, or look at anyone anywhere anytime live and in living color if all parties have the proper viewing capabilities. Traditions can, do and will spring up around what’s current like the conference calls with my family since several of us have the three-way calling feature on our yes we still have house phones, i.e., land lines. It’s not the old fashioned way that people stayed in touch but it is what it is which is why I hold on to intangible and tangible things from my past…they keep me connected to those no longer accessible by any means necessary.

Sure I complain about, resist and am a little slow on the up take when it comes to the electronic media but does that worry me? I think not for I am convinced there is a way to marry it to old school living so…

keep your peepers open! ®