words from a flying cat

These are excellent!

Kitty here photobombed the Zoom call. Of course. <3

Old-pals-trivia via Kahoot featured pictures of fondly rembered pets. <3

Good luck with the writything!

:hugs: I am grateful for you too!

: D It would probably be good to bring to a pot luck

It’s vaguely-USAmerican-via-cultural-osmosis semi-traditional for New Years, and probably has roots in West Africa and the British Isles by way of soul food. Soup with collard greens, black eye peas, and a rich stock (ham or bacon for non-vegetarians), for prosperity and well-being in the New Year. We don’t so much have a recipe as we do a habit of looking up recipes, and we don’t do it every year; our family tradition for either New a Years’ or Christmas is cheese fondue.

This year, it was nice because I was able to make enough stuff that it felt fully satisfactory without any of the wheat, nightshade, or meat/dairy that would be hard for me to digest. I made vegetable stock a day ahead, and unfroze some homemade Nomato BBQ, and had smoked salt on hand, so my mom and I chopped the basic carrot-celery-onion veg and herbs together and put on two pots side by side. I used vegetable stock, she used chicken stock for her and Dad; she used canned tomatoes and fancy paprika and bacon, I used my not-nightshade sauce and fancy salt. We were able to amiably share the kitchen, which isn’t always guaranteed, and both batches turned out tasty and equivalently complex in flavor.

So regardless of whatever purported magical effect there is to the money-symbolism of green leaves, dotted beans, and meaty or golden broth, I already had the good fortune of a nice experience making it.

And that is surely far more than you needed to know, whoops.