Recipes by Zola - Roasted Black Eyed Pea, spinach and bacon casserole

ArcaMax Publishing > Home & Garden > Recipes > Recipes by Zola

Your email address is safe with us. View our Privacy policy.

Food and Wine Pairing Guide:

Match the perfect wine with your recipes using our Wine Pairing guide

The Funnies:

Get free jokes, comics, and more! See them all on
our funnies page

Weather:

Accurate national, regional, and local forecasts on the weather page

Roasted Black Eyed Pea, spinach and bacon casserole

Zola Gorgon

Best Movie of the Year?

RUN, don't walk, to the new movie, "The Debaters". The movie stars Denzel Washington as a professor at a small African American college. It's set in 1935, when Texas was not a particularly friendly place to live if your skin was anything other than white. Denzel's character is in charge of the Debate Team and the movie revolves around their struggles and triumphs. I'm not a movie reviewer, so I probably didn't describe this as well as I should have. I'm trying to entice you to go see the movie. I'd give it 5 stars, and I'd bet money it gets Oscar nominations. It's produced by Oprah Winfrey; which usually says a lot about a movie. She won't do anything that doesn't have a lesson, drama and probably some tears. Everyone was cheering at the end of the movie but there wasn't a dry eye in the house. You'll walk away shaken and inspired at the same time.

This is a great way to start 2008. Shaken and stirred.

Otherwise I have two other reasons to announce that my 2008 is starting out in grand fashion and both of them revolve around you.

So before I even begin....thank you!

Success #1. The "powers that be" at Arca MAX (the fabulous people that produce this e-zine) contacted me the other day and let me know that the subscribership for the newsletter is now over 500,000. That's a full half million people around the world that get this newsletter on a weekly basis.

Whew! When I started it was 200,000. My, how things have grown!

Much of that success is thanks to you. You see, if you tell 10 people to sign up for the Zola column and they tell 10 more and they tell 10 more...well you get it. Please, feel free to tell all of your friends to sign up for the newsletter. It's free, so why not? I'd like to set a goal that by the time we begin 2009 that we are up to 750,000 subscribers. How's that for a good goal? It will all be up to you.

For those of you not familiar with the term, the marketing folks call this "viral marketing". It sort of grows like a happy virus and spreads throughout the world. So next time your choral group (church group, bridge club, you get the idea) gets together give them the email address. They can go to my site at www.dinnerwithzola.com and on the left hand side of the page there's a link. Or you can tell them to go directly to the ArcaMax site at www.arcamax.com/zola.

I thank you in advance.

Success #2.

While I was watching the movie yesterday (New Year's Day) it occurred to me that I needed to change my menu for dinner. There's a tradition in much of the South where you eat pork and black eyed peas on New Year's Day to bring you luck throughout the year. Since my mother-in-law is from Arkansas, I've always tried to keep this tradition for my husband. I'm not superstitious but it can't hurt! I had planned a chicken dinner but I didn't have the ingredients yet so I was inspired to do a new black eyed pea recipe while I was in the car on the way to the grocery store.

I picked up some bacon to stand in for the traditional pork roast. Then the canned peas (so my recipe would not take so long), some spinach, mushrooms, shallots and I figured I had a dish of some kind. I just wasn't sure how I was going to bring it all together. I had a casserole, side dish in mind to go with my original roasted lemon chicken idea.

When I got home I decided to do a little recipe research to see what others did for black eyed pea recipes in hopes that I could maybe borrow an idea or two for my dish.

When I "Googled" "Roasted Black Eyed Pea recipes" I was shocked by what came up on the first page. Zola! Yep, my black eyed pea recipe from a couple of years ago flashed on the screen as a choice; right near the top of the page too!

Those of you keen to internet marketing will already understand my excitement. For those less hip to the marketing techniques you'll be heartened to know that all those that have searched out my site have helped to increase my rankings so Google sees me as a credible and popular source, so my site is coming up in the search; not only coming up, but on the first page which is a huge accomplishment!

Without the help of you and your friends I could not have achieved this accomplishment. I can "optimize" my site all I want but if no one goes looking for it, it will never pop up as a choice like it did. Thank you again!

So, you see, ...I think this is an omen for a great year to come. Bring on 2008!

Enjoy this black eyed pea side dish on New Years or anytime you crave something Southern.

Roasted Black Eyed Pea, Spinach and Bacon Casserole

Serves 6
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

6 pieces of bacon, sliced crosswise into quarter inch strips
2 cups of sliced button mushrooms
3 large minced shallots
2 15 oz cans of black eyed peas, drained, rinsed and drained again
Three quarters of a cup of chicken broth (divided)
2 tsp of minced garlic (jar garlic is fine)
1 Tbl of hot sauce (Tabasco or other)
1 tsp of black pepper
One cup of Italian cheese mix or Parmesan
One half pound of baby spinach leaves (fresh)

In a large sauté pan cook the bacon until crisp. You're making bacon bites. When they are nicely browned you're going to drain them on paper towels, but DO NOT wash the pan. Just pour off the grease and leave the pan as is. Next you'll sauté the mushrooms and shallots in the pan on medium, until they are just loosened up and starting to brown. This will take just a few minutes.

Now you'll put in your drained, rinsed and drained beans with a half cup of chicken broth. I am emphasizing this because you don't want the bean liquid. You need clean beans.

Add the garlic, hot sauce, and the pepper. Mix thoroughly. Add the bacon bits and mix again. Then put this mixture in a 9 X 13" ovenproof pan and back for one hour at 350 degrees.

When the hour is up take out the casserole and stir. Add the final quarter cup of chicken broth and the spinach and the cheese. This takes a bit of patience because you will have to continually put handfuls of spinach in and toss the spinach in until it wilts. Then add the next handful. And stir again. When it's all mixed in, put the casserole back in the oven for 30 more minutes. Serve warm, right from the oven.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola

Send email to Zola at dinnerwithzola@hotmail.com.

This news arrived on: 01/07/2008

Share this Story