Jan 01 2015
I don’t think I have missed having my good luck pork and
kraut on New Year’s Day for about 20 years. I picked it up from a friend that
was of German heritage. I think I have used about every cut of pork with the
kraut. My wife makes knopfles, German drop noodles to add, that makes it better
and I have made my own kraut the past two years. My wife is not the best cook
but did learn how to make the noodles from her mother. I tried making them
myself one year and she can do it better.
I have been having some black eyed peas too in honor of my
southern cousin. She said her Dad always had to have his black eyed peas on New
Year’s Day. She said when she was young the family was traveling on New Year’s Day
and when they got hungry her Dad had to stop at 4 or 5 restaurants before he
found one that was serving black eyed peas.
I think black eyed peas are pretty widely used as the good
luck meal for southerners on New Year’s Day. For northerners I don’t think
there is any one dish and it comes from ethnic heritage or from geographical location.
Since I am recovering from a back operation I chose brats
for my pork; they would not require much prep work. I had 4 fresh bratwursts
and 4 bockwursts from my butcher, Kah Meats and smoked them on my Traeger for
an hour and a half.
I cooked it all in my Crockpot; sprayed with a little olive
oil, a layer of cut up onions, two of the brats and 2 of the bockwurst, some
chopped garlic, 2 to 4 cloves, and a layer of kraut and then repeated it. I
added a bottle of Yuengling and then water to almost cover. I got it on at noon and set it on high for an
hour and then on low.
My wife was busy all day taking down her Christmas
decorations and placed in tubs to store. She stopped long enough to make the
knopfles, noodles for me. I added them to the pork and kraut at 4:00. At 5:00 I
baked a take home garlic loaf and made some mashed potatoes with butter and
sour cream. I opened a can of black eyed peas to heat up adding some dried
garlic, onions, salt and pepper.
It all tasted great and hit the spot. This tastes good on
any cold winter night!
Wursts smoked and ready for the Crockpot
Knopfles
My supper
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