It was quiet New Year's eve here. It usually is anyway, but this time, quieter than usual. I had spent the day putting the house to rights, doing laundry, washing sheets, mopping floors, things that I'd gotten behind on because we'd been working on the new build. By the time that I was getting supper on the table, it was becoming clear that I was coming down with a cold. I snuffled my way to midnight.
We watched the Times Square thing, as usual. We tracked the big moment as it arrived, time zone by time zone, country by country. Finally it was our turn and we ticked down the minutes.
Now, here's an interesting bit of trivia for you: my youngest daughter and my son did the Times Square thing, back when Cara was in college and Dylan was on his own but not yet married. It was, by both their accounts horrible, not only because it was freezing cold, not just because there were so many people. The main reason it was not a fun time is that the NYPD moves people into the blockaded areas. The people are actually penned there, for hours. You cannot leave to grab a hot cup of something. You wouldn't want to do that anyway, because you also cannot get out to pee. The men can take care of their needs, discreetly, but the suspicious puddles were a bit off putting to Cara. By the time of the big moment, watching the ball drop, all she wanted to do was get out of there and find a bathroom. Both of them said that they were glad for the experience, but they would never do it again. So...all those happy faces you see televised from Time's Square, kissing at midnight, looking joyous and happy with life? Most of them are cold and have to pee so bad their teeth are floating.
We watched all this from the comfort of our warm livingroom which is a short walk to the bathroom. We like our creature comforts, thank you. We went to bed shortly after the magic moment. By the time that I woke up this morning, I had cold chills and a headache, a disappointment because we had intended to go to a big auction. There was a secretary that Tim wanted quite badly.
Tim only stayed a couple hours at the auction.The place was packed and the things were selling for hundreds of dollars, even thousands. That's the way that it goes when there are lots of people to bid.
Northsider was curious about our auctions and the sorts of things that are being sold, so Dave, this is a link for you: https://www.plossauction.com/upcoming-auctions/new-years-day-antique-auction- You can view the items for sale in a slide show format.
By the time that Tim got home, I was really feeling pretty awful. One of those miserable colds where your face hurts, your teeth hurt, your nose is a mess.
I did manage to get the pork and sauerkraut in the crock pot for supper. That is the traditional New Year's Day meal around here. It is actually a German thing which was brought to our country by the Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish). I don't know anyone who doesn't start their year with that dinner. Is it the same for you out there in blogland?
So that was our day.
I was reading this post quite calmly until I sat bolt upright at '"There was a secretary that Tim wanted quite badly. " The few seconds seem to take forever, ah, of course, what we call a secretaire.
ReplyDeletePork and sauerkraut sounds very nice and I've not heard of this traditional new year's day meal. I may make a suggestion to Household Management.
Sorry to hear you have come down with the lurgy. To prevent a red nose and later peeling skin, a tip from a model: If you have a bad cold with lots of nose of blowing, use Chux rather than tissues. I think Chux are known worldwide. Be well soon.
Ha, I had that same thought about the secretary! I have never heard of Chux so looked them up. May be similar to our J-Cloths?
DeleteDebby - I hope you get over this yucky bug quickly. Enjoy your porky thing!
HA! I would not be quite so understanding if Tim was trying to bring THAT kind of beautiful secretary into the house. Unless of course, she loved housework. Andrew? No. Jaycee: I picked at my pork.
DeleteLike Andrew, I wondered for a moment why Tim was lusting after a secretary ! Hope you will feel better soon.
ReplyDeleteLOL. We've always called those desks 'secretaries'. Now you've got me wondering if that is even the right word...
DeleteStarting the new year with a new cold is not much fun. I hope you feel better soon. Hot orange or blackcurrant drinks are comforting.
ReplyDeleteI am a fan of ginger root tea with lemon.
DeleteThanks for the auction link Debby. I like looking at paintings auctions especially English and Irish rural scenes. Can't wait for the carboot season to start again and go looking for more treasure.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed carbooting.
DeleteIn Missouri we have black-eyed peas for good luck. I'm not superstitious, but I pretend that will bring good luck all year anyway. We've not had any bad years. We have bad hours or bad days or bad weeks. Even during Covid, I had good luck. Neither of us ever got covid. But the black-eyed peas had nothing to do with it!
ReplyDeleteA year always comes with a mix of good and bad. That's life. Your black eyed pea recipe is my navy bean soup recipe. That was interesting.
DeleteThat's a beautiful secretary.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear you're sick. It was the same here last week. I finally feel better, just in time to go back to work:)
No special meals here. I made something called Marry Me chicken on New Years eve, best chicken I've had in years.
Hope you're feeling better soon.
Timing is everything and it kind of sounds like yours sucks. Marry Me chicken does NOT sound like it sucks though. I looked up the recipe.
DeleteWe had homemade pizza to start off the new year. Dad would make the traditional dish on New Year Day, but I wouldn’t eat any of it. Sauerkraut, or anything it touches, doesn’t like me. Happy New Year to you and Tim. I hope that you feel better soon! - LindaG in Warren PA
ReplyDeleteSounds good to me! You guys have an outside pizza oven, right? I'm feeling much better today, although I think that I need to go take a couple aspirin.
DeleteYes, we do have an outside oven. We didn’t use it, though, for this pizza.
DeleteThat sounds like a vary bad cold. Good for you for staying put. I don't know where you found the energy to cook. We don't have a NY tradition, and I don't know anyone who would cook that dish. Times Square sounds horrendous. Even if they wouldn't be penned in for hours, the crowds would be awful.
ReplyDeleteI just am not a crowd person anymore, myself.
DeletePS: the energy to cook? My good man, I dragged out to the kitchen, dropped two pork chops in the crock pot, covered them with a jot of water, and some sauerkraut and dragged back to the livingroom. Later I managed to peel three potatoes, and mash them. Very little energy required.
DeleteThat is a beautiful piece of furniture.
ReplyDeleteA rhinovirus makes you feel like you have a rhino size sore head...commiserations xx
More like I've been trampled by a raging rhino! I am feeling loads better today.
DeleteI have never remotely been interested in the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration even before reading this. For me, the highlight of my many New Year's Eve celebrations were when all the farmers gathered at the neighborhood diner to play card and board games until the new year arrived.
ReplyDeleteFor us, tradition says we need to have 13 different fruits on display and eat something with long noodles for long life. But I wouldn't refuse pork and sauerkraut if put before me!
I love hearing about new traditions. Long noodles for long life and 13 kinds of fruit is a new one to me.
DeleteIt is a Filipino tradition.
DeleteThe hubs, originally from PA, always has to have his New Years good luck meal (which I used to politely push around my plate as I really dislike sauerkraut) So switched up this year to locally made Pork kielbasa, fried cabbage with onions/bacon,apple, and a warm vinegary sweet German potato salad for the win. Not heart healthy but darn good. Hope our luck holds for having gone off the rails with ingredients and tradition! So very sorry you're sick with that cruddy cold Deb and hope you start to feel better soon.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a very good compromise to me. I've never been a fan of the german potato salad though.
DeletePork and sauerkraut is one of my favorite meals but I've never heard of it being a traditional NY's day thing. Ours is black-eye peas and greens.
ReplyDeleteIt almost sounds like you have a flu. Whatever it is, it sounds brutal and I hope you get better soon. Don't push yourself.
I was telling someone else, I don't know that I have ever actually eaten black eyed peas. I think this should be the year I accomplish that!
DeleteWe had leftovers for New Years Day so I wonder what that means for 2024! Hope you feel better soon, Debby!
ReplyDeleteIt probably means the same thing as pork and sauerkraut: nothing! I am sure I will be pretty well over this by tomorrow.
DeleteNo one's mentioned, so I'll add my 2 cents from the granny's in the hills...Echinacea tea, and syrup if you can get some. Good for colds. Loved hearing your (and the various commenters') dishes for New Years. With my roots spread pretty thin, I am happy that here in the south, black eyed peas and greens are served. Though I had Dutch Apple Pie...just because.
ReplyDeleteI'm over the worst of it now. I don't feel great, but I can putz around the house again. Tomorrow, I'll be ready to take on the world. Maybe I'll even make a dutch apple pie!
DeleteI have a friend in PA, she is Polish, and she swears by the pork chops and sauerkraut meal on New Year's Day! I have made the black-eyed peas dish, Hoppin John, but my luck didn't change and I didn't much care for the dish either!
ReplyDeleteOur kraut and pork was okay. Not great. It's hard to cook properly when you cannot taste anything.
DeleteWe had one of these in the house I grew up in. I think when my parents moved to a small Retirment place they left it in the house. When we moved in the house there were a number of pieces that the owners did not take so we got them. There was a large two door ward robe with drawers on the bottom that was put together with no nails. It was put together with a framework on the bottom and the sides added into that and a cap on the top to hold it together. Not a single nail in the whole thing. The drawers were notched and fit together to form the drawer. I think it was about 48 inches wide and 70 inches or so wide. Beautiful wood and workmanship. I wish I had pictures of some of the pieces, the house was built in 1875 and had lots of special features and trim. It is still being used today but needs thousands of dollars work on it. We never owned it and my parents lived in it for 42 years with low rent and acted as caregivers, I guess. Great grandkids own it today and all they care about is getting rent not taking care of the old house in Ohio. Really, I just wanted to tell you I had one like that.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'd love to see that. It's a shame to let old houses run down.
DeleteOh, so sorry you are sick! That stuff is sure making the rounds.
ReplyDeleteWe do not have pork and kraut, although my oldest son and his wife do. She is of German descent, although pretty dar back. Still, the tradition continues. Here we had venison in gravy, homemade noodles and cooked cabbage with silver coins in it to bring prosperity.
I never heard of that tradition! Do you use real coin?
DeleteSorry you're not feeling well. That's not a good way to start the year! But look at it this way -- maybe you're getting your annual illness out of the way early?
ReplyDeleteThat's a beautiful secretary. I'm guessing Tim didn't get it?
In the South we eat black-eyed peas, but I didn't even know that was a thing until I was in my 20s (or maybe even 30s). My family never had a traditional New Year's meal when I was growing up.
Oh, and even though I lived in Manhattan for 10 years, I never went to Times Square for New Year's. Too crazy and, yes, too restrictive.
He did not get it, and that's okay. I feel much better today. Last night I was so hot and couldn't breathe. I think that was everything 'breaking'. I woke up at 10 am and felt a lot, lot better.
DeleteGet well soon.
ReplyDeleteI have always avoided those enormous events. I have an aversion to anything involving compulsory jollity.
I guess I can apply that to myself too. Especially compulsory jollity when I am physically uncomfortable.
DeleteWell, Times Square sounds like a large slice of hell, I'll pass. We never go out on New Year's Eve, quite often don't stay up 'til Midnite either. Hope your crud departs soon, sucks being sick. That secretary is a beaut, I am guessing he did not get it? Rats!!
ReplyDeleteHe did not. He bid on a few things, but they went for far more than he was willing to pay. I was not sold on the secretary to begin with. We are downsizing and we will need to get rid of a lot of furniture. A lot. Things that have been carefully picked up over the years, and it will make me sad to see them go. I hated to add one more piece to the mix because I knew that we would have to sacrifice something else to take that.
DeleteI'm sorry you have a horrible cold and hope it passes soon (or the worst of the symptoms). We had black-eyed peas (for good luck). I hated them as a child, but love them now. Some southerners say you should include cabbage and greens, but that's just too much food for the two of us.
ReplyDeleteI am kicking the cold. I am cooking the rest of the Christmas ham off the bone. I am not sure what I will be doing with that. I have some chopped ham simmering in a pork brot with carrots, celery, onions and garlic. It will be a small pot of split pea soup, for tomorrow. So I have been puttzng and chopping. Making good use of an indoor day.
DeleteOh Debby, I sure am sorry you're not well--I just pray it isn't covid, do you have a test handy? As for your pork & sauerkraut, I had the same but I live "down the road" from you here in Pa, so there you go. And for the record, I NEVER thought all those poor souls in Times Square were truly enjoying themselves! I didn't even stay up to watch the ball drop this year, I went to bed at 11. I'm boring :^)
ReplyDeleteIt is not covid and I am nearly over it although I did need a couple aspirin later this afternoon. I hope your tmj is easy. That sounds wretched.
DeleteI am in the south. We do black eyed peas, greens and pork. I did cabbage instead of turnip or collard greens. Plus, I cooked rice to put in the peas to make “hoppin’ John”. Old southern dish.
ReplyDeleteOff to look at recipes for Hopping John!
DeleteI have a girlfriend whose bucket list included NYC on New Years Eve. I explained to her that the police barricade people in; there is no bathroom access or coffee. Probably no cigarettes, either, which she smokes. So we never did it, thank heaven.
ReplyDeleteI head that some women wear adult diapers. Boy. That sounds like a new year's Eve party I want to miss.
ReplyDeleteI was about to write what Joanne told you. My son and his wife went to Times Square when they were much younger and didn't have kids. He said it was very uncomfortable since there were no bathrooms and you were all crowded together.
ReplyDeleteLife is too short to stand around for hours needing to pee.
DeletePs: do you have a traditional new year dinner?
DeleteOh yes! Lots of traditional stuff for a Japanese new year. We have noodles for long life. Mochi is also eaten and there's a mochi type soup called ozoni that's eaten on new year morning. We also had some sushi. New Year is one of the most important celebrations in Japan. I think.
Delete