Mom"s "Poor Food" We Call Delicious New Year's Traditions

I can be superstitious about certain things. For example, if I see a penny lying on the ground and it's heads up, I'll pick it up. If it's tails up, I'll flip it over and leave it for the next person.

I always throw spilled salt over my left shoulder, too. So, I pick and choose my superstitions, I guess. Some would say that that won't work. Well, "some" can say whatever they want.

I also alter superstitions, too. If I have black-eyed peas within a week of the beginning of the new year, I'm fine. I don't need to eat them on New Year's Day. And this year, especially, since I fell in my carport and have been nursing a strained knee since that time. (It's a lot better now)

Now here's one for you that's personal to my family. Within that first week of January 1st, I like to fix up some of my mother calls "poor food." They're a couple of super simple, budget-stretching, recipes my grandmother fed my mom, my aunt, and my uncle when she was a single mother in the 1940s and money was tight.

I consider it a good omen for the new year if I partake in Egg Sauce on Toast and Mother's Goulash.

For the former, toast some bread and set it aside. Then prepare a hard-boiled egg and set IT aside. Then make some milk gravy in a skillet--milk, flour, salt and pepper. The thicker the milk (whole, half-and-half), the better. Then chop up the hard-boiled egg and stir it into the gravy and poor it over toast. You can serve way more folks than you think.

For the latter, brown some ground beef (or venison--yes, I have some and it's what I used) then stir in diced potatoes--small cubes--and peas. Then finish by stirring in a couple of tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. Taste it to see if you need more, and you might, depending on how much ground meat you use.

I love both of these dishes. They're delicious, easy, and nostalgic.

And you don't have to be poor to eat 'em.