What's the Deal with Black-Eyed Peas?

I hate black-eyed peas.  As a kid, my mom wouldn't let me walk away from my plate until the whole odious mound of black-eyed peas was gone.  I can still remember sitting alone at a table that had already been cleared, watching the sun set through our sliding glass door and listening as my little sisters said their nighttime prayers.  It took me HOURS to choke down what was probably less than a half cup of the stuff!

So you can imagine the horror I felt when I celebrated my first New Year's Day with my new husband and his family, whose southern roots go back at least six generations in Texas.  Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day was an actual tradition?  Seriously?  I moved to Texas in the mid-80's and had always wondered at the bags of black-eyed peas piled in pyramids at the grocery store at the end of every year.  I wasn't about to draw my mom's attention to them by asking why, so I just kept my Yankee wonderings to myself.   The irony of the situation is that eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is supposed to bring you good luck - believe me, "lucky" is the LAST word I would use to describe myself when I realized I'd have to eat black-eyed peas or risk insulting my new, very southern mother-in-law.

And so I unwillingly consumed my annual bowl of black-eyed peas, all the while hunting for a decent recipe that would make them more palatable and hopefully shake my traumatic childhood memories.  I knew my husband loved those loathsome legumes and would enjoy having them more than once a year, so I was excited to discover an online recipe for black-eyed peas whose 2nd ingredient was bacon!  BACON!!  I'm a firm believer that everything's better with bacon :-) so I eagerly tried out the recipe (with a few little tweaks) and discovered, much to my shock and surprise, that black-eyed peas CAN taste good!  This recipe is uh-mazing!  Why don't you give it a try?  Maybe it'll bring you good luck ;-).

Lisa's Lucky Black-Eyed Peas

Ingredients:
* one bag of black-eyed peas
    (rinse well and soak for about 30 minutes prior to cooking)
* 5-6 slices of bacon
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 1 stalk of celery, diced (optional)
* 4 cloves of garlic, minced
* 6 cups of chicken broth (or 4 cups broth and 2 cups water)
* salt and pepper to taste
* splash of Worscestershire Sauce

Directions:
In a large pot, fry up the bacon until crisp then set aside to cool (pat off excess grease).  Drain all but just a tablespoon or so of bacon drippings, then add onion, celery and garlic to the drippings that remain.  Cook veggies and garlic until tender, then add broth, peas and seasonings.  Turn heat up to high and bring mixture to a boil.  Meanwhile, crumble bacon and add to the peas.  Once the mixture comes to a boil, turn heat to low and simmer for at least 30 minutes (45 minutes to an hour is best).  Adjust seasonings to taste and serve (I like to serve mine over cornbread, as pictured).  Enjoy!