It’s Christmas and we are only a week away from welcoming 2025. I must say that I hope this coming year brings blessings to you and your families.

To start off right, this week’s Lost Recipes take on a new flavor: that of hope for the new year. It’s courtesy of Lucille J. Goodyear, who published a 1967 “New Year’s Recipe” in the Advertiser.

Collect 12 month old adults. Divide them into 30 or 31 equal days. Now add the following:

• 12 parts of an eternal faith in your neighbor.

• 11 parts of calm perseverance.

• 10 parts of intrepid courage.

• 9 parts of good hard work. (Try omitting this ingredient and you might ruin the flavor.)

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Mix it all together, then add:

• 7 parts of unfailing fidelity.

• 6 parts of liberal tolerance (free from sectarianism).

• 5 pieces of the most tender kindness available.

Finally, to give this mixture a solid base and good flavor, add:

• 4 parts of relaxing rest.

• Meaningful prayer in 3 parts.

• 2 parts of reflective meditation.

• 1 improvement resolution (one of your choice).

For those who really want to enjoy life, the following ingredients can be added:

• 1 pinch of good humor. (No, we’re not talking about alcohol, folks.)

• 1 pinch of madness. (Okay, this one could hold a small adult beverage.)

And there you have it: the ingredients for a happy and satisfying New Year!

It’s a good start, but we also need to put something in your belly for the new year. We have recipes for traditional dishes that might even bring you luck for 2025:

Hoppin’ John with Black-Eyed Peas

In 1948, Advertiser columnist Atticus Mullin was inspired to write about Hoppin’ John after missing a meal prepared at his home by a man named Vidy.

“Lest you don’t know Hoppin’ John and are a city dweller who’s never heard of it, the dish is simply dried peas and tomatoes cooked with a piece of white meat. At the same time, make cook a rice dish and when it’s ready, pour the peas and tomatoes over the rice and that’s it. But you can’t touch it if you don’t want to gain weight.

The peas Mullin refers to in this dish are usually black-eyed peas, which look like coins. The old adage says to eat at least a dozen, one for each month of the coming year. My wife tries to make me eat them at the beginning of each year. I’m sure Vidy and Mullin both knew that eating them is supposed to bring good luck and prosperity in the new year.

Green cabbage

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This is another dish my wife tries to get me to eat this time of year. Green cabbage is said to help you bring in money for the new year. It seems to be one of those recipes that was so common at the time that the advertiser didn’t feel the need to post much about how to cook it at first – only that people here loved to eat it. That or everyone really wanted to have extra money.

About 20 years ago, we published a collard greens recipe from Chef Victor Hendricks, courtesy of Delaware Health and Human Services. It looks like this one would bring in enough to support a giant family and maybe a few neighbors. You will need:

• 12 pounds of collard greens

• Half a cup of extra virgin olive oil

• 2 tablespoons kosher salt

• Beef base, to taste (optional)

Clean the green vegetables and rinse them at least 4 times. Remove the bottom stems. Drain the cabbage well, then break the leaves into quarters. In a very large pot, bring 2 gallons of water to a boil, then reduce the temperature and place all ingredients except the greens in the water. Bring to a boil and start adding the cabbage. If they don’t all fit at once, add more greenery as space allows. Set the heat to simmer and let everything cook together for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Cooking time depends on the quality and time of harvest of greens.

Cornbread

Now let’s come to my favorite part of this New Year’s meal set, the cornbread which represents gold.

Cornbread is something I make for my family several times a year, either as a side dish in a cast iron skillet or in a large skillet to be chopped and used in cornbread dressing. Fair warning: we tend to like our cornbread a little sweet, so I put half a cup of sugar in the mix.

The Advertiser supported me on this point in 1916, when its women’s page gave the following recipe:

Mix together two cups of cornmeal, 2 cups of buttermilk, and 2 cups of flour. Add half a cup of sugar, a quarter cup of lard, 2 teaspoons of baking soda dissolved in a little water and a little salt. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown and center is firm. Test it with a toothpick or knife to make sure it is cooked through.

You can take this same batter and fry it to make crispy Johnny Cakes which are, in my opinion, even more delicious. A few years ago I had the opportunity to try some fresh dishes prepared by Debbie Deese at Red’s Little School House Restaurant in Grady.

For over 100 years, sweet cornbread recipes like mine have been condemned by some outspoken people. Among them was Colonel Henry Watterson, a Kentucky journalist and former Confederate soldier, as well as the son of a Tennessee congressman. The man was passionate about his sugar-free Southern cornbread.

“Cornbread containing sugar was an idea born of the devil, planted in New England and sent south by our enemies,” the colonel wrote in the Advertiser in 1921. “It threatens the life of real cornbread in the very country of his birth.”

Personally, I don’t think civilization is going to end with a little sugar. I hope your 2025 is as sweet as my cornbread.

IF YOU TRY IT

If you decide to try one of these lost recipes, send us a photo and a note explaining how it turned out. Send it in an email titled “Lost Revenue” to Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel. has [email protected].

This article was originally published on Montgomery Advertiser: Lost Recipes: Serve Up Luck With These New Year’s Dishes