Hmmmm…I have a bit of a sweet tooth, so the default is a bit of butter and brown sugar. But my usual use for oatmeal is in either cookies or stout.
Grits. I quit eating oatmeal when my ancestors left Scotland many years ago.
Er, Johnny, do they have buttermilk in WA?
Edna Lewis is Goddess.
You can freeze leftover buttermilk and use it later. Sorta make a note of the quantity. Another astonishing factoid is that you can also freeze wine in cubes and use it to deglaze pans. If a person was ever to have leftover wine, that is.
As a newby here I am delighted to learn that threads de cuisine are not frowned upon.
I tried grits once. Once.
I’ve avoided buttermilk ever since I was a kid. Nasty stuff. Dad used to drink it (with salt).
Silenus, you have once again proven yourself to be one of the most brilliant, astute, and sophisticated Dopers around. 
Think of grits as just transplanted polenta. Then hit them with salt, Tabasco, cheese, bacon and about as much pepper as the law will allow and dig in. Yum.
As for buttermilk, I agree. It is an ingredient, not a beverage. Although crumble cornbread in buttermilk is considered a delicacy by some (my mother, for instance.)
feckafree, you are as beautiful and/or handsome as you are perceptive. 
The recipe you linked to has the rice thrown in with the peas. I’ve never tried making it this way. I always make the peas and ham hocks separate and spoon them over the rice.
It seems like it must be easier to toss it all in one pot, but I’m afraid I’d either end up with mushy peas or uncooked rice or some kind of wretched mess.
And add me to the no sugar in cornbread camp. And it must be baked in cast iron. I’ve got one going now, along with the peas and rice. A little late, but it’ll be just as tasty. 
Me, too. I made Hoppin’ John (AKA Bahamanian Peas and Rice, Blackeyed Peas may be substituted) but made the rice separately.
My Grandfather ate cornbread crumbled into buttermilk with huge, nasty, devilish peppers he grew by the hand full.
Cornbread muffins made. If it were just me, I’d’a made them without sugar (though I like it just fine), but my partner asked specifically for sweet cornbread, and I live to serve.
Pork loin marinating, muffins made, collard and mustard greens washed and ready for the braising ordeal to begin in ~15 minutes.
Try here and search for other threads by or with Zenster. Silly sod managed to get himself banned some time ago, and never came back.
Sugar’s fine if you want a corn muffin but sugar in cornbread is an abomination and those who do so should have the curse of nasty paper cuts put upon them and subsequent generations.
As for fried chicken, doin’ the whole brining, soaking in butter milk, dredging in flour, slow frying thing is good, I admit. However, I prefer to salt and pepper chicken pieces, let 'em sit covered overnight in the fridge, then drop 'em in a gallon ziplock bag filled with flour and shake to cover the chicken. I use corn or peanut oil only and fry at 325 degrees, five minutes, flip, five minutes, flip, five minutes, flip, five minutes, take up. Comes out perfect everytime.
Looks like enough of y’all understand the proper ways to prepare collards and blackeyed peas so I don’t need to give lessons.
BTW, I fed twelve people (self included) today with fried chicken, collard greens, blackeyed peas and rice, potato salad, corn bread, banana pudding and a particularly yummy lemon icebox pie a friend brought as a surprise dessert. There are twelve very full and happy people in southwest Jawja tonight.
I don’t know if this is the recipe Bobby Flay uses at Mesa Grill, but the collards I had with my pork tenderloin medallions last week were the best I’ve ever had.
You forgot the lemon juice.
Care to share your potato salad recipe?
Thanks,
CP
I think a potato salad recipe deserves its own thread. 
sigh Leftover ham, with pyrogies. I like both things, but wish I could be magically transported to one of these traditional New Year dinners you guys are having. Only, I am not a “cooked greens” fan. Never. I grow greens for my dh, but never touch 'em unless raw in a salad.
Tomorrow is the day for Split Pea Soup, the traditional end of the hambone’s usefulness. And yet another batch of this wonderful fad: No Knead Crusty Artisanal-type Bread, the Cook’s Illustrated version. Since I read the recipe 2 weeks ago, I’ve made it 9 times. My family has fallen very hard for it. It will go splendidly with the soup.
eta: I make potato salad a lot and it is much admired, but I, too, am interested in what other folks do with it.
No. NononononononononononNOOOO!
Because then it tastes bad when you mix it with buttermilk.
Archergal
southerner
YeeeessssSSSSSSS. Because then it tastes good with your collard greens.
Shoshana
Grew up in Maryland. See the Maryland argument thread to determine whether it’s the South.
No! Please, no!
Round things and green things are for wealth, as is golden corn. Rice is for fertility. I don’t do black-eyed peas, 'cause they look back at me. New year’s eve, we had pork loin, carrot slices, and corn. New year’s day, we had corned beef and cabbage (cut into rectangles.)
I don’t know what you cook to wish for good health, but I could surely use some of that.
Best wishes to you all.