I spent most of the first day of 2012 cooking. I baked a polenta and onion pie I put together on New Years eve, cooked black eyed peas, and used the leftover squash from the polenta pie to make a soup. Everything came out really good, but the soup is most interesting because it’s my own creation. It has jicama, black radish, tomatillos, garlic, ginger, thyme, soup stock, kabocha squash and cream. The squash and ginger are dominant with the jicama, black radish and tomatillos adding a lightly sweet, tart flavor.  I cooked the black eyed peas in soup stock with onions, garlic, smoked paprika and smoked ham hocks. At least we have a nice variety of food to start out the new year.