Buon Anno!
Wishing everyone . . .
May 2008 be your best year yet!
And remember, don’t eat chicken today
or you’ll be scratching (for money) all year . . .
pork (to live high on the hog) and lentils (“coins” to bring you money)
are the way to go!
30 Beans of Wisdom to “Buon Anno!”
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
Calabria Guidebook
Recipes
We are probably going to eat banana bread and cream cheese for at least a third of the day. What does that signify, oh oracle? 🙂
Happy new year to you, too, and to P and the girls.
*Sara, to me that signifies a really, really awesome start to the new year. And lots of good yellow and white stuff in 2008…like sunshine and daisies and lemon meringue pies!
One of my new year’s resolutions is to be disgustingly positive. How am I doing?
Happy New Year to you and yours!
No chicken or lentils? That’s right! I think you mentioned this once 🙂
Ah, I like your resolution. I’m convinced it opens doors in unimaginable ways 🙂
Buon Anno!!!
*Shan, thanks–same to you and yours 🙂
*Roamer, lentils are recommended, just no chicken!
And yes, positivity certainly works *a lot* better than its opposite 🙂
Yes, but since lentils are small coins does that mean you have to eat a lot of them? I just bought some vegan “pork sausage”. Hmm, does that mean just faking living high on the hog? (Doesn’t sound so bad, I just hope it tastes good!)
And, positively have a Happy New Year!
to you, too friend
Happy New Year to you…
I never knew that about chicken!!!
What a lovely picture! Happy New Year!
Buon Anno right back atcha! Oh those Italian superstitions. Keep ’em comin’…I just love ’em.
xoxo
Robin
Happy New Year!
(I have been lurking on your blog recently. Thanks.)
Happy New Year.
I’ve also learned from a blog today that I shall not use any money, to help them last longer 🙂
you too 🙂
oooh I had pork chili with small beans today! Woohoo!
Or collard greens (green for the greenback) and black-eyed peas. But I don’t like either, so I say, eat lots of chocolate to symbolize more chocolate in the year to come. 🙂
Bonne année!!
Well kiddo, you know I live in central Pennsylvania and if you recall correctly – what is it that is standard fare on New Year’s Day in PA? Gotta have the Pork and sauerkraut ya know! And we did. And it was very good too. Still have some leftover – hop a flight and I’ll save it for ya!
I must have a mixed up year coming, since I had chicken for lunch and pork for dinner (all before reading your advice, of course).
Oh, crap! I need to start reading you first thing in the morning and not after my CHICKEN dinner.
WTF? Is that an Italian thing because growing up (Italian) I never heard that. If I’m poor this year, I’m blaming my mother (an ancestors!)
Disgustingly positive, huh? I thought I was going to start with a better attitude on January 1, but cleaning out the storage shed with Ed and my mother got me till about noon – then my resolution was all shot to hell!
On the upside, I only consumed 1,229 calories today! lol Hope your New Year is great and if you have any other tidbits to dispense with, can you do it right away please?? 🙂
Happy New Years!
My wife made lentil soup with pancetta for dinner last night. When she got the lentils out I thought she was going to make your lentil and sausage recipe. I guess I’ll have to wait until next time. Good luck and helath to you and all of your family for the upcoming year!
So the chicken thing are from the Italians! My mother says not to prepare chicken dishes also for the same reason you mentioned. I asked her where she got the idea, she said she just heard it somewhere!
We put on clothes with dotted patterns to symbolize money!
-Grace-
Ciao! They served us lentils at our NYE party…I MADE Pep eat all of his and a few minutes later someone called to book the B&B for the rest of the week…
Black-eyed peas never worked like that for me in Texas! 🙂
Oh no, I served my girls chicken for lunch. Does it count if I didn’t eat any?
Happy New Year!
Sognatrice, I cannot imagine you being more positive than you already are. 🙂
So I may have blown it because we had chicken eggs for breakfast, and I even accompanied mine with some chicken/turkey/spinach/feta sausage. So what do you think? Am I going to stay impoverished this year in spite of the gleeful banana goodness? Does it mitigate things at all when you factor in my massive, untrammeled tangerine binge later in the day?
I had my lentils yesterday, but with salmon in the place of cotechino. Then again, I am a pisces, so instead of living on the hog, I can swim upstream against all obstacles.
Beautiful New Years card.
all the best to you.
Buon anno!!
Growing up we would have black eye peas and something called “sause or souse”. I think I’m spelling it wrong but it’s pig feet. Not one of my favorite things…it’s up there with tongue. When we got older my parents told us we didn’t have to eat it but we always had the peas for good luck.
*Homebody, why yes…the more lentils the better! And I think your sausage counts 😉
*Flutter, thanks 🙂
*Anne, an old Italian superstition 🙂
*Beth, thanks and thanks!
*Robin, that’s one that even crossed the ocean as my American-born grandmother was fond of it 😉
*Jenny, welcome! So happy you’re reading and have delurked…looking forward to getting to know you better!
*Britt-Arnhild, that is definitely a good tip.
*Moonrat, thank you 🙂
*Janet, woohoo is right!
*Laura, chocolate is *always* a good addition to any menu I say 😉
*Jeni, oh I *love* sauerkraut! I actually have a can here brought to me by some friends in Germany but I don’t have applesauce so I’m waiting for that to arrive before I make the sauerkraut. I’ll just pretend it’s New Year’s Day again 🙂
*Salemhouse, personally I think you cancelled out the chicken 😉
*Salena, sorry about that. Yes, it’s most definitely an Italian thing, so I think you’re right to blame your ancestors for not passing that down. You coulda be a millionaire by now dammit!
And congrats on those calories but I don’t know *what* you were thinking starting out a year cleaning out a storage shed. That’s just asking for a bad mood.
*-R-, thanks!
*Gil, I don’t have that recipe, but I’ll be sure to get one for next year from the woman who made it on New Year’s Eve…it was delicious (at least the lentil part as I’m not big on sausage-type meats generally)!
*Grace, ooh I love the dotted clothes thing. Cute too!
*Cherrye, woohoo! First of all, you’re back!!!!!! Second of all, that’s awesome news about the B & B. I myself found a 2 cent coin at about 1:30 a.m. so obviously my lentils worked too 😉
*Meredith, I think you’re safe 🙂
*Sara, oh dear Sara. If you only knew what goes on outside the blogging world in this head of mine…better you don’t indeed. Anyway, I think tangerine binges pretty much speak for themselves. Yum.
*Elizabeth, swim on! I’d *love* some salmon 🙂
*NYC, hmm, funny that they have something here called “suzzu” (sp?) which is gelatin and pork scraps and spicy, of course, and blech. They were all looking for that on New Year’s Eve but someone forgot to bring it. Thank goodness 😉
And a VERY Happy New Year to you too, Sognatrice!
Big hugs and best wishes for one of the best years ever!
Scarlett & Viaggiatore
Beautiful greeting and interesting folkways!
*Scarlett, thanks! And the same to you of course 🙂
*Jen, it’s *always* interesting around here it seems 😉