Black-eyed peas and cawwn bread

What is this "black-eyed peas are for New Years" bullshit? I ate black-eyed peas at least once a week for pretty much my entire childhood. Growing up in the South, black-eyed peas are not special occasion food. They are cheap, good, and actually fairly healthy, even when flavored with bacon fat or ham, so my family ate them pretty  much constantly. My grandmother used to make black-eyed peas ALL the time, and pair them with cornbread. She used a pretty simple combination of ingredients to flavor the peas -- garlic and onion powder, salt, and pepper.This would be pretty much the sole vegan dish that was at the table on a regular basis, since she rarely used pork to flavor it. This flavor combination worked, but I like to jazz mine up a little more. 

Ingredients: 

• One 12 oz. package of dried black-eyed peas, soaked overnight
• Two tablespoons of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning 
• Four bayleaves 
• One small medium red onion, thickly sliced
• Four slices of Tofurky Hickory Smoke Deli Slices, cut into strips 

This will make a really big pot, which is great because now you have leftovers that heat up very easily in the microwave. Or you can just halve everything and make a smaller batch.

I like to serve this over a slice of cornbread. For this is use a basic recipe from the Veganomicon, which I remember by heart:

Ingredients: 

• (Dry)
• 2 cups of cornmeal
• 1 cup of all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• (Wet)
• 2 cups plain soymilk
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar 

Preheat your oven to 350F with a greased cast-iron skillet in there. Mix the wet together and let it curdle while you mix together the dry is a large bowl. After you mix all the dry stuff thoroughly, make a well and add the wet. Mix it together and then pour the mixture into your how cast iron skillet. Bake it for about 35 minutes.

I like to use brown sugar instead of white. There are also some variations you can do with the cornbread, like saute onions of but I like to keep mine simple. I like to eat this with something green, fried okra, something meat-like (a MS Farms bbq strip for example).