{"id":1025,"date":"2012-08-31T21:19:57","date_gmt":"2012-09-01T00:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tracyleekarner.com\/?p=1025"},"modified":"2020-10-06T23:22:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T23:22:13","slug":"hoppin-john","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/2012\/08\/31\/hoppin-john\/","title":{"rendered":"Who in the world is Hoppin\u2019 John?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_1026\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1026\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/img_0002.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1026\" title=\"Hoppin' John Salad\" src=\"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/img_0002.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Tracy Lee Karner\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/img_0002.jpg 2332w, https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/img_0002-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/img_0002-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/img_0002-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/img_0002-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/img_0002-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1026\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A nutritious lunch&#8211;hoppin&#8217; john salad, pepper strips, open-faced tomato-mozarella sandwich on hearth-baked muliti-grain bread.<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nI have no idea what inspired me to throw together a batch of hoppin\u2019 john this morning.<br \/>\nAnd I don\u2019t know why it\u2019s called that dumb name.<br \/>\nIf you want to make this, you&#8217;ll need:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Black-eyed peas<\/strong> (preferably dried, canned are all right, too);<\/li>\n<li>Some fresh vegetables, minced.\u00a0Choose from: <strong>red or green sweet pepper, jalapeno pepper, celery, onion, tomato, garlic, scallions, chives.<\/strong> Any combination of some of them.<\/li>\n<li>Dressing:\u00a0Blend 2\/3 cup <strong>vinegar<\/strong> + 1\/3 cup <strong>sugar<\/strong> + 1 teaspoon <strong>salt<\/strong> (I did NOT salt the peas while they were cooking, so this is not a huge amount of salt) in a 2 cup pyrex measure. Microwave for 20 seconds or so to dissolve the sugar (or heat in a saucepan on the stove top). Whisk in in 1\/3 cup <strong>olive oil<\/strong> and 1 teaspoon <strong>dijon mustard<\/strong>, 1\/4 teaspoon <strong>black<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>pepper<\/strong> and 1\/2 teaspoon <strong>oregano<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Have you ever looked at a package of dried field pea? They\u2019re cute, all nestled together like one-eyed little baby something-or-others. Maybe that\u2019s why I made hoppin&#8217; john. Maybe I made it because black-eyed peas are incredibly nutritious and I had a couple of fried pickle slices last night and figured I ought to eat something nutritious today, to pacify my body cells who are screaming, \u201cplease, please, give us vitamins!\u201d Or maybe it was just because I like the stuff.<br \/>\nThe reason I like Hoppin\u2019 John is because I always make it <em>however I like it<\/em>. I don\u2019t follow a recipe&#8211;I just follow my inclinations. And my inclination was for a refreshing chilled salad.<br \/>\nHere&#8217;s what I did:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>I covered the peas with 4 times as much water as I had peas. It\u2019s <em><strong>because field peas impressively increase in volume when cooked,<\/strong><\/em> that some cultures associate them with prosperity. You\u2019ll end up with a LOT more than you started with, so use a large enough pot.<\/li>\n<li>Brought them to a boil, covered them and reduced the heat to simmer and let them perk for an hour or so (more or less, depending on how old and dried out they are). I never presoak them\u00a0 and no one has ever complained or even noticed.<\/li>\n<li>While they were cooking, I minced up whatever I felt like eating in my salad. \u00a0Ask your own tongue&#8211;what do <em>you<\/em> feel like eating? What sounds good to <em>you<\/em>?\u00a0<strong>red or green sweet pepper, jalapeno pepper, celery, onion, tomato, garlic, scallions, chives?\u00a0<\/strong>Some or all of them?<\/li>\n<li>I listened to Beethoven\u2019s Moonlight Sonata while I was chopping because it was relaxing and I was in the mood for it. Why not follow your heart? I mean really, why not?<\/li>\n<li>You could add some cooked rice to the mixture, which would make it more traditionally hoppin\u2019 johnny-like, but I didn\u2019t feel like doing that, so I didn\u2019t. I didn&#8217;t follow any recipes or rules because sometimes I get to do whatever I want.<\/li>\n<li>I mixed up enough dressing to make the salad very nicely moist&#8211;about half as much as the combined total of vegetables and beans. (I had 2 cups of vegetables\/cooked beans, so I used 1 cup of dressing).<\/li>\n<li>You could make up a cup of dressing exactly like I did, or you can do your own version. You could use bottled Italian or vinaigrette dressing if you wanted to&#8211;preferably something without weird unpronounceable additives.<\/li>\n<li>Taste the dressing and adjust seasonings however you want to. It should taste strong enough to sparkle up the peas\u00a0which taste somewhere earthy and bland \u00a0(oh, yeah, <strong>drain the peas<\/strong>, so you won&#8217;t end up with pea soup). \u00a0Toss everything together. Add some citrus juice or fresh herbs or whatever you are in the mood for. Maybe a crumble of <strong>crispy diced bacon<\/strong>? Chill until serving time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This stores well in the fridge for a few days.\u00a0<strong>But why <em>is<\/em> it called Hoppin John?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have no idea what inspired me to throw together a batch of hoppin\u2019 john this morning. And I don\u2019t know why it\u2019s called that dumb name. If you want to make this, you&#8217;ll need: Black-eyed peas (preferably dried, canned are all right, too); Some fresh vegetables, minced.\u00a0Choose from: red or green sweet pepper, jalapeno &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/2012\/08\/31\/hoppin-john\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Who in the world is Hoppin\u2019 John?<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[161,403,505,890],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tracyrittmueller.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}