As Teche Area cooks plan their New Year’s Day menu, they aren’t leaving the upcoming year entirely up to fate. There is sure to be a dish or two featuring black-eyed peas, leafy greens and pork — all with the certainty that it will increase their family’s prosperity, luck and good health.

The traditional belief, common to the Southern states, that eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day will bring both good luck and financial good fortune is one that is not forgotten in the Teche Area. The cabbage leaf or any greens such as collard, turnip or mustard greens also are considered a sign of prosperity, often being representative of paper currency associated with good luck for monetary gain. Common folklore tells the tradition was spread in the South after the Civil War.

Folklore also has it that the custom of eating pork in lieu of chicken or beef on New Year’s Day was based on the idea that pigs symbolized progress since the animal pushes forward or digs with their snout in the ground before moving, while chickens scratch backward and cows stand still, allowing for little progress. The rich content of pork also symbolizes wealth and prosperity.

Whether it’s a fallacy or the simple belief, Teche Area residents might not leave much to chance. There are sure to be at least two or three traditional good-luck dishes that include leafy greens, black-eyed peas and pork on the New Year’s Day menu.

Some will be old family favorites prepared using recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation and others will be new dishes created by innovative cooks to appeal to their own family’s individual taste buds.

Denise Buteau likes to stick with tradition. In 1978, she started serving cabbage rolls on New Year’s Day and that tradition is still going strong in her family.

“Cabbage is for wealth so we eat it every New Year’s Day, but I do a little something different. As I prepare each cabbage roll for cooking, I say a prayer to the Virgin Mary that the person who eats this cabbage roll will be blessed for the New Year. The prayer is just something extra that I do,” said Buteau.

Each year she prepares between 80 and 100 cabbage rolls. What is not eaten on New Year’s Day goes into the freezer to be enjoyed throughout the year.

“This cabbage roll recipe is very special to my family. Thirty-six years ago my mother-in-law, the late Marion Buteau, showed me how to cook many things, but this one is my favorite. She would always tell me it looked hard to do, but it was worth it. Ever since I made the first batch, I was hooked. It has become a New Year’s tradition with my family,” said Buteau.

Now, Buteau’s daughter Sheila Picard has learned how to make the dish and is helping to keep the family tradition.

“We are teaching my granddaughters how to make the rolls so they can keep the family tradition going. I love seeing all the smiling faces when the cabbage rolls are done and watching some of the adults stealing one before the meal,” Buteau said.

Every day is a good day to eat cabbage for Jerry Shea Sr., who raises cabbage in his garden.

However, Shea considers it to be a special day when he can get his wife, Harriet Shea, to make a batch of her award winning cabbage rolls.

Shea’s Cabbage Roll recipe earned her the “First Timer” award in the 2012 Cajun / Creole Cookbook Cook-off sponsored by the Cajun Sugar Co-op and The Daily Iberian.

“I could eat these cabbage rolls every day, if I had them. It’s one of my favorites that I really enjoy,” he said.

However, Harriet Shea doesn’t take all of the credit for the award-winning dish. She made some changes to adapt to her own taste to a Syrian recipe given to her by an old friend, the late Alice Elias.

“One of the key ingredients in the recipe is cinnamon. I made a few changes along the way and added some Cajun seasonings, so the dish is quite different,” she said.

When Shea makes a batch of cabbage rolls, she said she usually makes about 30 because they don’t last very long when family and friends are around.

Black-eyed peas and cabbage on New Year’s Day are a must-have for Francine Garzotto’s family.

Garzotto said it doesn’t matter how it is cooked or when it is served, but black-eyed peas and cabbage satisfies the superstitious.

Garzotto’s Black-eyed Hummus is not only a good way to satisfy the superstitious, but a tasty way to enjoy a New Year’s Day appetizer on the healthier side.

“It is not only good on New Year’s Day, but any time of the year when you need to serve an appetizer or something to bring to a potluck gathering. It’s a good dish to carry, easy to transport and you don’t have to worry about reheating,” she said.

In staying with tradition, Garzotto said she often prepares coleslaw or a black-eyed pea jambalaya.

“Sometimes the younger people don’t partake in cooked greens, but they are more likely to eat coleslaw,” she said.