New Year's Day 20118

     Today is New Year's Day, 2018 and it is bitter cold out The predicted high for today is only 30 or 32 depending on which source I quote. It was 17 when I was driving home this morning and tomorrow is supposed top be even a couple of degrees lower than that. We are in a deep freeze here in Mississippi, one most natives are not accustomed to. We'll have deep, hard freezing nights petty much all of this week
     Now for the good news... The rain stopped early yesterday so the roads were and are still dry And the glorious news is the Sun has finally come out a bit today. I haven't seen it for 2 days.

     I'm the kind of redneck who can take the heat well into the 90's and even into the triple digits as long as I have 3 things... shade, a fan and some ice cold beer. It has been some 2 decades since I even wanted to venture out when it is cold. What we're having now is what I call ABC, or "Ass Biting Cold".

     At any rate, I am blessed that the roads aren't icy, that I have a cozy home to come to, plenty of fresh, frozen or canned vittles and fresh water. Things I (we?) so often take for granted. I'm gonna make a twist in the traditional New Year's meal of ham hocks, black eyed peas, sliced carrots and some sort of greens. The greens can be (I am told) anything from cabbage to good old Southern collard greens. As much as I like fried cabbage (in bacon grease) I am a collard green eating fool! Anyway, I am rather burned out on ham after Christmas ham eating for the past week and this time of year hocks (which normally can't be given away at the grocery store) are stupid expensive.
     I'm just gonna open a can of black eyed peas, one of sliced carrots to have a bite of each (or two or three) then dump the rest into my soup makings freezer bag. What I'm really feeling the want for is tomato soup and a pimped out grilled cheese sandwich. My pimped soup & sammich recipes follow:

SOUP:
1 family sized can of tomato soup
1 can diced tomatoes and chili peppers
1 soup can milk

SAMMICH:
wheat bread
your favorite sliced cheese
deli sliced ham
bacon (about 90% fried out, not quite crispy but not greasy)
sliced tomato (salted and peppered)
collard greens
just a dab of mayo & mustard