MeXscape

I come from Texas, where every New Year's Day we ate a hearty bowl of black eyed peas for luck in the New Year. The tradition dates back to the War of Northern Aggression (that's the Civil War for all you who don't speak Southern). When the Yankees came through, they confiscated what food they could carry and burned what they couldn't, including the crops in the field. The only thing that survived were the black eyed peas. They sustained the Southerners through the winter, and they felt lucky to have them indeed. So, in most Southern households, you will find a pot of black eyed peas with the leftover Christmas ham bone simmering on the stove on New Year's Day.