New Year's Day Cooking

The black-eyed peas are on the stove, simmering in the home made chicken stock with the bacon and drippings and onions.

The sauerkraut and applesauce and bratwurst and onions are simmering in the crock pot, with the Swiss cheese (yes, really) to be added later.

Cabbage is in the fridge, for cole slaw later on.

Thus armed for good luck, let the New Year begin!


Quote of the Day:
Be like the jutting rock against which waves are constantly crashing, and all around it the frothing foam then settles back down. Say not "Oh, I am so unfortunate that this has happened to me." But rather "How fortunate I am that, even though this has happened to me, I continue uninjured, neither terrified by the present nor in fear of the future.
Marcus Aurelius


Today is:

Black Nazarene Fiesta (through Jan. 8), Philippines

Bonza Bottler Day

Coon Carnival, South Africa (equivalent of Mardi Gras)

Daddy Frost Day, Russia

Eighth Day of Christmas

Feast of St. Basil -- Orthodox Christian

First-Foot Day

Gantan-sai (New Years) -- Shinto

Independence Day, Samoa, Sudan

Jupiter and Juno's Day -- Old Roman Calendar

Kalends of January

Kwanzaa, Day 7 (final day): Imani (faith)

Mary, Mother of God -- Catholic Christian

Mummer's Parade

National Bloody Mary Day

New Year's Day

New Year's Dishonor List Day

Shogatsu, Japan (New Year, most important holiday of the year)

St. Agatha's Day (protector from starvation, fire)

St. Basil's Day (Patron of hospital administrators)

St. Clarus' Day (patron against myopia)

St. Odilo's Day

St. Fulgentius' Day

St. Telemachus' Day

Tournament of Roses Parade

Universal Hour of Peace (noon, Greenwich Mean Time)

Z Day


Birthdays Today:

Verne "Mini-Me" Troyer, 1969
Kathleen Casey, 1946
Don Novello, 1943
J. D. Salinger, 1919
Barry Goldwater, 1909
Xavier Cugat, 1900
J. Edgar Hoover, 1895
Betsy Ross, 1752
Paul Revere, 1735


Today in History:

The Julian Calendar takes effect for the first time, BC45
Origin of the Christian Era, 1
The last gladiator competion in Rome, 404
Muhammad sets out toward Mecca with his army, 630
Jews of Sicily are no longer required to attend conversionist services, 1430
Portuguese navigators become the first Europeans to see the Guanabara Bay, which they thought was the mouth of a river and first called Rio de Janeiro (River of January), 1502
German astronomer Simon Marius first sees Jupiter's moons (he did not report them, though, Galileo did, on July 10 of the same year), 1610
Samuel Pepys makes his first diary entry, 1660
The first traveler's cheques go on sale in London, for use in 90 European cities, 1772
The Irish Parliament votes to join the Kingdom of Great Britain, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1801
The dwarf planet Ceres is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi, 1801
Emperor Gia Long orders all bronze wares of the Tay San Dynasty to be collected and melted into nine cannons for the Royal Citadel in Hue, Vietnam, 1803
Haiti gains independence from France (National Day). 1804
The first homestead under the Homestead Act claimed, near Beatrice, Nebraska, 1863
England's Queen Victoria proclaimed empress of India, 1877
The first Tournament of Roses is held, 1900
Vancouver, BC starts driving on the right side of road, 1922
Emperor Hirohito of Japan announces he is not a god, 1946