Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  I'm looking forward to a great year of riding and, hopefully, a little more writing than last year.

I always go on a bicycle ride on New Year's Day.  Usually it’s a 200K brevet. However, because New Year’s was on Saturday this year, I rode Peach Peloton with my Macon cyclopeeps instead. My cycling team has a new points system to help keep everyone engaged, and one way to earn points is to ride at least eight Peach Pelotons over the winter. Yesterday's ride got me up to six, and so I shouldn't have any trouble riding two more Peach Pelotons before the grand finale Pine Mountain Challenge on February 5. It was a good but hard ride (i.e., the usual - ha ha!). We started in east Macon and went toward kaolin country, a nod to Peach Peloton's roots back when godfather Chad Madan led it.

Another reason I opted for Peach Peloton is that the New Year's Day brevet was the Athens 200K. I ride this route a lot as a permanent. Additionally, we have another brevet later in January, the Albany 200K. I enjoy that one in a different part of the state, and I'm already looking forward to the peanut butter ice cream in Plains! The biggest downside to not doing the Athens 200K yesterday is that Calista from the D.C. area was in town. I'm sorry to have missed her.

A benefit of Peach Peloton is that it was only 82 miles, giving me more time to cook New Year's dinner than the brevet would have. Among my rando buddies, I’m about the only native Southerner, and so they’ve never had much sympathy when I’ve told them I have to get home after our ride to cook black eyed peas and collard greens. My teammates, however, are mostly Georgia natives and were also looking forward to going home for traditional New Year’s fare yesterday.

I was telling my teammates about Grits and Greens, a recipe from a friend and my favorite way to eat collards. Several wanted the recipe (see below). I'm pleased that this year's New Year's dinner was extra good: black eyed peas, Grits and Greens, bacon, sweet potatoes, and cornbread pancakes. The oven went out last week, and so I cooked the cornbread batter as pancakes rather than baking it in my cast iron skillet like usual. (The new oven should be here in about 10 days.) Also, I remembered that I had one jar of homemade chowchow left from the last batch I put up - perfect for the peas. Finally, I made sure to cook the collards for Grits and Greens in plenty of liquid so that I would have pot likker for my cornbread; those are some good eats, especially with some vinegar pepper sauce on top.

Grits and Greens

1 cup half-and-half
4 cups chicken broth, divided
1 cup grits
1 lb. fresh or frozen collards
1/4 cup butter
1 to 1-1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

Combine half-and-half and 3 cups of broth in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil and add grits.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until done, stirring frequently.

Meanwhile, cook greens in 1 cup of broth until tender (may need to add more broth and/or water).  Drain well.  Add butter and cheese to grits, stirring until melted.  Stir in greens.