Lucky '13

Continuing the tradition in honor and in celebration of my father, this year market my 16th New Year's Day Black-Eyed Pea Chili Party. Truth be told, this was the first year I considered not hosting it. It's a lot of work, surprisingly ridiculously expensive, a huge mess, and a lot to pull together in the 326 hours I had between arriving back from Nashville and the knocks at the door. But as always, I loved it. And thanks to all of you who took me aside during my constant state of divided attention to have quiet, focused moment and say how much you appreciate the party and look forward to it every year.


Last year was the first year that I ran out of chili. I always over-shop on cheese, crackers, dips, nibbly bits etc. and make such a fckload of chili that I can send some home to those who couldn't make it but sent tupperware in their stead (which happens more often than you might think and I find immensely flattering) and even have chili for lunch almost the rest of the week. Last year by the time Aaron arrived desperate for a spoonful of good luck, which I thought was a decent amount remaining in the third smaller pot was merely a single pea. Which he gladly devoured and hoped it would be lucky enough to count.

This year I bought a second 16-quart pot. When I got the ingredients home from the store I thought I had again bought more than could possibly fit in my pots. By the end of cooking, I had prepared 8 gallons of chili.

By midnight, this is all that was left:


We also ravaged through six batches of cornbread.

I altered the recipe slightly this year, cutting a financial corner and not adding a handle of Jack Daniels, and I used sweet chili peppers rather than warmer ones, but did compensate with a bottle of hot chili sauce. It was a different flavor to be sure, but met with rave reviews and I will say I was quite please with it and wished I could have had enough for lunch the rest of the week.

So this was the first year of two enormous pots (generally it's one enormous, two small), and the first year that everyone came...and stayed. One of the fun features of the NYD-BEP party is that it's almost like a parade. About a hundred or so people make it through my tiny studio apartment, but not all at the same time. There are about four of five who stay all day, and the rest of the party almost completely tuns over every 45 minutes or so. So while this year the total number of guests dropped from about 120 to 60 (I did consciously try to make it smaller this year), many who did come stayed for several hours, and the NYD core stayed almost all day. And despite there being more of an epic mess than ever before (really? who knocks a lit candle into a laundry basket and leaves it burning there...twice?), I was able to keep my cleaning compulsion under check long enough to enjoy an after party.

As usual however, my attention was divided moment to moment and many plans were left uncompleted, such as setting out the camera with a sign encouraging people to take pictures. I never get more than half dozen pics of the day, and only at the beginning or end of the night. Here are the few I have from the start of the party, and while we're at it let's celebrate my total party peeps who at 1:00 in the afternoon came directly from their late-night-into-early-morning and apparently into-the-afternoon partying and were still going in their club wear.






I really can't love Lizzie enough. She's always decked out spectacularly and adorned with fresh flowers. However, 16 hours of partying later, all she had protruding from her bosom was a petal-less stem. Which was also kind of awesome.

Love is all around. No need to waste it.












A very happy new year indeed!

And yes, some of us got lucky.