New Years Wealth & Health With Cabbage and Blackeyed Peas

 New Year's Day is not complete in the South

without a big ole plate of

smothered cabbage and black eyed peas.

 Southern tradition is that eating cabbage brings you a year of wealth and the black eyed peas are supposed to bring you a year of health. 

Can't beat a wonderful year of HEALTH and WEALTH

Well I don't know about the coming year,

 but I know that it for sure gave me a week of gas...LOL

 This is our little raised bed garden. 

The cabbage really did well this season.

 Can you see our little strawberry plants?

YIKES...  walked around to pick the biggest cabbage..looks like that little bunny we have been seeing wanted to get a little wealth for the new year.

    Beautiful cauliflower ..yummy fresh

Camo Man has a wonderful way to fix cabbage with Italian bread crumbs and Italian dressing, but I will have to watch him make it and  write it down for you, because he just throws things in the pot.
 But here is another wonderful way to fix your cabbage. 

SMOTHERED CABBAGE

Ingredients
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped ham chunks
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large head cabbage, cleaned and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup water
Salt, Slap Ya Momma, and black pepper to taste

Steps
In a large heavy pot, cook the onions and ham in the vegetable oil over medium heat until onions are wilted, about five minutes. Add the cabbage, water, salt, cayenne and black pepper. Cover the pot and cook, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes or until the cabbage is soft and tender. Yield: 6 servings.

So pretty on the counter almost hated to cook it.

Does your family have a New Year's Tradition?

Melissa's Southern Sugared Pecans

Melissa's Southern Sugared Pecans

Don't you just love a recipe that only has a few simple ingredients and only takes a little effort?

You can mix up these Southern Sugared Pecans so fast that your family can enjoy them tonight while watching the

 LSU Tigers WIN the BCS game.

Ingredients

• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 pound pecan halves
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• dash of nutmeg

The combo of cinnamon and nutmeg always make my house smell so good. 

Smells like I'd been baking all day.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Grease one baking sheet.
2. In a mixing bowl, whip together the egg whites and water until frothy and in vanilla.
3.  In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, salt,cinnamon and nutmeg.
4. Add pecans to egg whites, stir to coat the nuts evenly. Remove the nuts, and toss them in the sugar mixture until coated. Spread the nuts out on the prepared baking sheet.
5. Bake at 250 degrees F (120 degrees C) for 1 hour. Stir every 15 minutes.

 Tip ~ I used two forks to toss them around every 15 min.

These taste just like the ones that you smell roasting at

 Bass Pro or Cabelas.

Best part, there is not much kitchen clean up!

ENJOY THIS TASTY SOUTHERN SNACK!

Linking up with  Tidy Mom today
and
 Heather's first linky at Made Famous By

IT'S TIME FOR SOME LOUISIANA FOOTBALL

OK...I am not really a huge football fan ...

I just like to make and eat the party food.

BUT this weekend is going to be the weekend all Louisianans have been waiting for!

Saints tomorrow night and LSU  Monday night.

I just could not have a blog called

'Made In The South' and not make a  reference to the games.

GO SAINTS & TIGERS!!!

Tomorrow I will attempt to make cake pops,

this should be interesting. If any of you have made them before, PLEASE share any tips you may have.

New Year's Letter From Max

FORWARD NOTE...  I have a guest blogger today.  Let me introduce you to Max.
Max is the baby in our family and with any family we have jealousy issues.  Our oldest picks on him, because he can sleep in our room and I talk to him in a baby voice.  I am certain she will be giving me loads of GRIEF because Max gets to do a blog post before her. LOL  
Thank you Max for all that you bring to our family!


Guten Tag (hello),
   This is my new years letter to all you bloggers...what ever that is.. all I know is that I love it when she blogs, cause i get to sit on her feet.  Well except when she gets up for more coffee. :)
 for the new year, I wish MiMi would stop with all the pictures, but thats not gonna happen, she just bought a new flash and lens for that camera.

Here I am at the "little house in the big woods"   MiMi used to let me run free..yes RUNNN FREEEEE.

i messed that up... I ran off and was only gone 45 mins. and now I have to walk on that stupid leash.

This year she somehow forgot my gift. that will never happen again!

I pouted in the first opened box for about 30 min.

  the skinny girl that lives up the stairs

( I like to bite her when she fusses at me for barking)

even felt sorry for me and fussed at MiMi!

Look at the mess she has to clean up this weekend.

 I HATED that tree...

Blue ,  Red,  Purple , Green ,  Black

Who gives a heck what dang colors where on it !!  It blocked my two favorite windows..so I just ran right under it..

I tell ya, I got flocked every dern time I tried to see the squirrels.

Now that big messy thing is out the way I can get back to my routine!

Oh and by the way, I have a few people that I would like to 'THANK'

Aunt Susie,   TY for gettin MiMi out the house to come buy me all those years ago. Between me and you, I really think I saved her life!

The Boy that also puts up with the skinny girl up stairs,  TY for taking care of me when they all take off to go on 'Road Trips' 

Camo Man,  TY for slippin me those treats and throwing in an extra scrambled egg for me every now and then. 

Skinny Girl,  if you would take a minute to bend down and pet me, I would not bark at you so much. Because I really think your cute and you smell YUMMY! 

 And that little nibble on your butt cheek, I was so excited the Saints won the Superbowl, I could not contain myslf and it was in my face!

MiMi,  I do not have to tell you how I feel. I show you everyday when you have to get up and walk me, or you sit there and talk crap to me cause no one else wants to listen.

Blog People,  TY for reading her blog...she loves to sit and type to ya'll, but I mostly see her smile when  she gets comments and email. It encourages her to keep on blogging, I need her to do that so that I may continue to sit on her feet! LOL  LOL (yes even I have humor).

Heart ya,

MAX    aka the Baby 

Catchin Up

Well...Christmas is over..and  I am lagging behind. 

Let me try and get you caught up!

After all my whining and complaining about this flocking tree, my son said one night,

"Momma, I think that is the prettiest tree we have ever had."

...can I tell ya, Santa was really great to him!

I plugged those lights in from the minute I woke up,

and they stayed on till I went to bed.

LOVED IT

Now ... on to the PARTIES!

WoW,  Can I tell you I had the "BEST CHRISTMAS" ever.

Every year I get sick at Christmas 

(no, like really sick...IBS, nervous stomach, can't stay out the bathroom kinda sick, even to the point of having

to go get IV fluids.)

Well this year, I stood my ground and chose not to attend a few parties that always stressed me out and

WAAA   LAA ...

I think I found the answer to my Holiday IBS!

I felt GREAT this holiday season...

 Sometimes a girls gotta just say,

"I am not attending a party where I really do not feel welcomed by some of the guest!"

I really felt bad for my husband, but after 26 years of being together for these parties, he put on his big boy drawers and went on to the parties by himself!  LOL

On to the fun stuff...We did have a little party at my house.  Susie and her family came by for some potato soup and a few Christmas laughs...

Kaylee, Susie's daughter made us these super cute cookies.

and

Madison, Susie's other daughter

 made this colorful cookie cake.

YUM

Heck at this rate I won't have to make the sweets anymore...

This is a picture of our kiddies and

their boyfriends/ girlfriend...

In every picture one of them was doing something to mess up the photos..

Fixed that, just told them all to make a silly face!

  From all the girls in the Melissa / Susie family

Merry Christmas!

AND...Here's the Tree

After fighting with the blue lights ... and adding every ornament that I have collected over the last 25 years..

I still could not stand the tree...so after three days...

I pulled off ALL 12,000 blue lights and just started over.

I had spend to much money on that darn FLOCKIN tree to let it get the best of me!

 Added some old white lights (with green wires)  that I had.

Dug out all the red stuff that I have had for years and slapped those on top of all the traditional ormnaments.  Did not spend a cent on decor, but went up and down the step stool 5 million times.

 Oh Christmas Tree,

 Oh Christmas Tree,

How you liked to have killed thee..

I am just getting around to getting a picture ...

the branches, like me, have begun to get a bit whimpy and tired by this time of the season.
(No gorgeous wrapping here, I used 3yrs. worth of  left over scrap paper.)

I have been so busy making scarves, sugared pecans, microwave neck wraps, along with lots of other projects. 

 I  really can't talk about them because spying eyes want to know what I have made them for Christmas. HEHE...

Look at Snoopy having a grand ole time in that flocked tree...

Look out... I caught him this time on his snow mobile...

Sad that it is really 70 degrees and raining out!

Ginger...is enjoying napping in the section of the tree that had a missing branch.

(Great way to hide those gaps in real trees, use large ornaments or little stuffed gingerbread people)

I just have to share my bargain..

I picked these up at Lowes for 2.50. 

It bloomed at the beginning of this week and is so pretty on my coffee table.  I have a red one in the kitchen, but it has not bloomed yet.. maybe it will be my New Years lilly.

Smells sooo much better that the paper whites.

Looking forward to sharing lots of recipes,

crafting, and my crazy adventures

 with you in the New Year.

May you have a wonderful Christmas ...

Simply Scarves

Christmas tree...still unfinished.  I know that I really need to just get it finished, but I just don't feel like it. 

Wanted to show you what I have been working on while I'm at the 
"Little House In The Big Woods"

Queen Anne's Lace Scarf...this was so much fun to make.

If you would be interested in a scarf, please message me.

They can be made in any color or color combination

This is the prettiest blue with coffee brown trim. 

The rosettes have a pin back, so they maybe changed out

to another color.

I got a little addicted to making the rosettes.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend..

Yes, next time you see a post here it will be that doggone tree..LOL