Feasting for Fortune. Pork, and lentils are lucky foods for New Year's Day. Image on www.epicurious.com.

www.epicurious.com is loaded with New Year's Eve recipes, including dinner party ideas complete with mixed drink recipes, 15 Hors d'Oeuvres recipes, and 9 lucky food ideas with recipes to eat on New Year’s Day.

These lucky foods include grapes enjoyed by the Spanish, Portugese, and Spanish including Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru. Each grape represents a different month, so if for instance the third grape is a bit sour, March might be a rocky month. For most, the goal is to swallow all the grapes before the last stroke of midnight, but Peruvians insist on taking in a 13th grape for good measure.

Sweet, and Sour Sauerkraut, and Beer Based Sausage and Sauerkraut is enjoyed by the Germans for good luck while collards are eaten by various countries and in the Southern US. Folded leaves, and green leaves are associated with money, and prosperity.

The next two recipes Letils with Tomatoe Salsa, and Hoppin John, Black Eyed Peas Legumes including beans, peas, and lentils are also considered lucky food for New Year's. The lentils small, seedlike appearance resembles coins that swell when cooked so they are consumed with financial rewards in mind. Lentils are enjoyed in Italy, Germany, Brazil, and Japan.

In the Southern United States, it's traditional to eat black-eyed peas or cowpeas in a dish called Hoppin' John. There are even those who believe in eating one pea for every day in the new year. This legend goes back to the Civil War, the town of Vicksburg, Virginia, ran out of food while under attack. The residents fortunately discovered black-eyed peas and this legume was thereafter considered lucky.

Cuban Style Roast Suckling Pig comes from Cuba off course. Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Austria, and some parts of the US also enjoy pork as a New Year's dish. The custom of eating pork on New Year's is based on the idea that pigs symbolize progress. The animal pushes forward, rooting itself in the ground before moving, and the forward movement indicates prosperity for the future. Pork is also consumed in Italy and the United States, where thanks to its rich fat content, it signifies wealth and prosperity.

Scandavian Seafood Salad is the next lucky food. Fish has been popular for centuries before refrigeration it could be salted and preserved, and more easily transported. Also the Catholic Church's policy against red meat consumption on religious holidays helped make cod, as well as other fish, commonplace at feasts, and New Year's Day is considered a religious feast day. People who enjoy fish on New Year's Day as a lucky food include the Danish, the Scandavians, the Italians, the Polish, the Germans, and the Japanese.

New Year's Orange and Brandy Cake is the next lucky food. The cake is round to bring luck and a trinket or coin is hidden in the cake, and the lucky recepient of that piece has much luck in the coming year, that is if he or she doesn't choke on it and die I suppose? Many countries such as Italy, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Sweden, Norway, and Holland follow this custom.

The Black Bun is the next lucky food recipe. It is a shortbread, oat cake, or fruit cake called the Black Bun. The tradition is called "first footing" in Scotland, where New Year's is called Hogmanay, in which the first person to enter a home after the new year determines what kind of year the residents will have. The "first footer" often brings symbolic gifts like the cake called Black Bun. It is not round. If the first visitor brings this cake then the household will always have food in the coming year. And in this economy not such a bad idea.

And of course www.epicurious.com is loaded with foods that you wish to avoid on New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day including lobster, and chicken, or any winged fowl, because lobster, moves backwards and could therefore lead to setbacks. Chicken is also discouraged because the bird scratches backwards, which could cause regret or dwelling on the past. Another theory warns against eating any winged fowl because good luck could fly away.

No left over turkey ideas for meals on New Year's Day.

You can check out their website for the complete recipes.

And have a Happy, and Prosperous New Year, and a lucky one to boot!

For Starbucks Mixed Drink recipes see
http://www.xomba.com/starbucks_new_year_s_eve_mixed_drink_recipes