Fall Stewing: Pork loin and collards

My favorite meal is a southern new years day tradition: pork loin, collard greens and black eyed peas. Legend has it that the more collards you eat, the more money in bills you will receive in the coming year, and the more black eyes peas you eat, the more coins. I just love the way they taste, and I have fond memories of my grandfather, Grump, picking collards from his garden for my Gran to cook:)

Today, while shopping for Thanksgiving, I remembered that I froze some left over ham from last thanksgiving to later use with collards. So I decided to pick up some collard greens and a pork loin for dinner tonight. I pulled the ham straight out of the freezer and put it in a stock pot with a little water in it. I set a lid on it and let it heat until the meat was warm and the water was simmering. Then I dumped a bag of collard greens on top, put the lid on and let it simmer for 5 hours. While they were cooking, I took my pork loin, put garlic power, sea salt, pepper and rosemary on it and set it in about 1 cup of white wine in the crock pot. I cooked it on low for about 5 hours as well. The pork was amazing when it came out. It was so tender you didn't have to use a knife. The collards are hands down the best I have ever had. I will be saving some ham again this year for sure in hopes that I can repeat the greens I made tonight!