Happy New Year!

I came to realize that Hungarians are very superstitious. Just listen to this list of superstitions I learned as a child:

Breaking a mirror: 7 years bad luck.
Spilling salt: bad luck.
Accidentally stepping into poop: good luck.
Accidentally hitting your elbow (funny bone): you'll have unexpected visitors.
Killing a spider: bad luck.
Ear ringing: somebody is talking about you.
Finding your fallen eyelash: good luck.
Left palm itching: unexpected expenses.
Right palm itching: getting unexpected money.

Also how you spend the last night of the year is how you'll spend the next year. If that was true lots of people would be drunk all year. Come to think of it, if you are Hungarian there is a very good likelihood of that. You have to be careful what you eat on January 1st. Under no circumstances should you eat fish. Fish will swim away with your luck. Chicken is good, it will scratch your luck back. You should eat lentils: they will make you rich and lucky.

Hey, I'm not making this up, don't look at me funny.

So I made French Lentil Soup with Sausage.

I grabbed the recipe from foodtv.com, but made some adjustments. Here is my version:

Ingredients:
3 tbs olive oil
1 slice of bacon
1 onion finely chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 1/4 cups of lentils - French green lentils preferably
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
salt to taste
2 cloves of sliced or crushed garlic
2 bay leaves
4 oz sausage (whatever is your favorite)
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
2 cups of water or broth (chicken, beef)

• In a large pot render the fat from the bacon slice. Remove.
• Add oil, heat up on medium heat, add onions, and frequently stirring cook till browned, ca. 5 minutes.
• Add garlic, cook 30 seconds.
• Add carrots, cook for 5 min, stir time to time.
• Add lentils, water or broth, pepper, salt, bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer till lentils are tender, ca 30 minutes.
• Slice the sausages, and brown the slices on both sides.
• Add the sausage and vinegar to the soup.