Barely noon and I'm exhausted!

[Ka Honu]

Got my annual New Years Day Southern Open House thing going tomorrow - usually 40-80 people eating food with which they are relatively unfamiliar.  I put out ham, black-eyed peas, collard greens, cornbread, and pecan pie.  They get to bring everything else (including sweet potato pie and usually some really  great local dishes).

Anyway, started early this morning with peas a'soaking and ham hocks a'simmering.  Decided to get the pecan pies out of the way using a sort of "hybrid" of various recipes (mostly my mother's, my ex's, and Tujaque's). I'm too lazy to make my own crusts anymore so the frozen ones will have to do.

Lots of pecans...


Oven ready...


While the pies were baking I prepped the add-ins for the greens and peas.  Lot's of ham, bacon, onions, garlic, and a fair amount of cayenne.  Using frozen collard greens - I'm way past washing, stripping, and chopping fresh ones.


Have to make one batch of black-eyed peas for the vegetarians but thought I better warn everyone else so I took a break and printed up ...

... the sign


Should have made more pies...


Okay - Got the pies set aside (hidden) and the peas & collards simmering away. 


Even cleaned up the kitchen, took out the trash, and ran the dishwasher.  Sometimes I amaze even myself.

Easy stuff tomorrow:   "Fine-tune" the peas and greens, heat the ham (spiral-sliced because I'm lazy - but we already knew that), and make cornbread (a pan at a time as needed - gotta have fresh cornbread).  Setup for the party isn't too bad and if I'm lucky (and I should be with the menu we've got), someone will do almost all of the cleanup for me.

Time for a nap before SWMBO gets home and we start celebrating.  Happy New Year and...

Aloha, y'all!

[KevinG]

Guess I'd be tired too after all that work - looks good. Like the warning on the veggie stuff. Happy New Year to you and everyone else here on the forum!

[Mr Walleye]

Man... you have the serious makings for a real feast going on there Ka Honu!

Looks great!  Have a fantastic New Year. ;)

Mike

[Pachanga]

Ka Honu,

Pecan pies, blackeyed peas, ham, sweet potato pie, corn bread, collard greens and ham hocks.

I am sure this has been covered before and is sure to be redundant; what part of the Proud South are you originally from?

Sounds like a Southern Plantation feast to me.

Good luck and how do you do it in a small kitchen?,

Pachanga

[Ka Honu]

... what part of the Proud South are you originally from?

Army brat - I grew up mostly in Virginia with some time overseas and in Hawaii, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina.  Oh yeah, there was that year in California but my parole officer doesn't like me talking about that.

... how do you do it in a small kitchen?

Plan, clean as you go, and have a good housekeeper come in the next day.

[car54]

Ka Honu,

If I were at your house tonight I would have thought that I had died and gone to heaven. You are a very generous person to do this for 40 to 80 people. Have a great new years and upcoming year.

Brad

[Pachanga]

Ka Honu,

If I were at your house tonight I would have thought that I had died and gone to heaven. You are a very generous person to do this for 40 to 80 people. Have a great new years and upcoming year.

Brad

Amen,

Pachanga

[CB]

wish I could be there...

[deb415611]

Wow KH,

Looks like an awesome feast.

Deb

[seemore]

One heck of a feast there, KH!
Awesome!
seemore

[NePaSmoKer]

Very nice KH

Now when do we eat  ;D

[Ka Honu]

Just finished, nepas.  We waited as long as we could but your plane must have been diverted.  Maybe next year.

Ended up with 70 people (not all at once, thank God).  The entire stack of leftovers consists of 2 servings each of black-eyed peas and collard greens.  No ham (21 pounds), no cornbread (5 pans), no pecan or sweet potato pie (6 pies) and none of the other appetizers, salads, and desserts that "showed up."  The good news is that a few gift bottles of decent wine and tequila made it through unscathed.

[KyNola]

Man I know that was some good stuff and I also know how tired you must have been at the end of the day.  Jan and I threw one of those types of New Year's Day feasts in 2000 and had 60 people show up.  Our house is definitely not designed for 60 people and I had to send one of my guests to the grocery 3 times to buy Clamato juice as we went through 5 gallons of Bloody Mary's along with 2 gallons of screwdrivers!  Made blacked eyed pea jambalaya and smoked ham hock and cabbage gumbo along with numerous finger foods.

It was fun but admittedly we were happy to see the last guest leave.  Congrats on your continued tradition!

KyNola

[Ka Honu]

...had to send one of my guests to the grocery 3 times to buy Clamato juice as we went through 5 gallons of Bloody Mary's along with 2 gallons of screwdrivers! 

You're obviously a better host than I am - I always do BYOB.  Otherwise I'd go broke.

[ArnieM]

Sounds like you had a great party KH.  Obviously, the food went over well.  Time to sit back, relax and find one of those unscathed bottles.    ;D