Forward into 2014!

Looking for an extra bit of good luck in 2014?  Try starting the year off with a pork dish.

I'm not a particularly superstitious person, but I'm ethnic enough to believe that there are a few family traditions best kept, and eating pork on New Year's Day is one of them.

Boar, and domestic hogs (pigs, to you city folk), forage for food, by putting their nose to the ground, and moving forward. Many european cultures believe, that your chances of good luck, good health and good fortune increase, if you move forward into the new year with a belly full of pork.

It doesn't have to be anything special.  A traditional pork roast is the obvious choice of many, but we've made due in past years with bratwurst, knockwurst, pork sausage, and an occasional hot dog.

This year, I'm baking a ham I picked up from a great little smokehouse just up around the bend from our cottage.  I'll glaze it with a recipe I found in Ree Drummond's new cookbook (the recipes in this new one are divine) which features, a can of Dr. Pepper (I don't have any Dr. Pepper, but I do have a renegade can of Cherry Coke in the frig).

In keeping with the 'rooting forward' theme of the day, I thought I'd throw in a resolution or two before signing off for the day (the grandkids are expected to arrive at any minute and I'm already late in getting that ham in the oven).

With the eighth grandchild on the way, I've decided its time to make an honest attempt at scrapbooking again (I'm about five grandbabies behind now), so I'll be dragging out the Cricket, and moving some of my supplies downstairs for a few months (might as well enjoy the fireplace and big screen tv set while I work).

I'd also like to spend a bit more time writing, so resolve to post at least one new blog entry per month (a cautiously optimistic goal).

Gotta run now!  I've got a ham waiting!!