Saturday, February 20, 2010

What's SUNDAY DINNER at your house? Or, what was it growing up?

..........and, if it was good enough for then, why not NOW? :-)
Did you have a meal every single Sunday after church, for example? Mr. Z's aunt made the same exact meal every single week...pork, peas and mashed potatoes, I think it was. Do you have a family meal or two that were traditional meals every week? I love hearing about things like that...please share!
Do you call it SUPPER or DINNER? And what time was the main Sunday family meal?

29 comments:

Linda said...

At our house, when the kids were still home, they loved it when I put a roast, potatoes, and carrots in the oven. We usually had a dessert, either pie or cake for dessert.

It was called dinner.

Sunday evening, everyone was on their own. My hubby's family called the Sunday evening 'meal'...faspa. We usually had crackers and cheese, or a sandwich.

With just the 2 of us, it is something really easy, or we go out.

Z said...

Linda, is your hubby of German extraction? That's a typical German day of old....the big meal around noon (all husbands and kids came home for lunch) and bread and cheese for dinner.
Oh, does that sound DEEELICIOUS...carrots and potatoes cooked in the roast juices!!
Thanks for commenting xxx (I think you'll like my Sunday Faith Blog tomorrow...and I hope you'll come by!)

Linda said...

Hey, Z,
Yes my hubs is German. His greatgrands came from Prussia. They all settled in central KS, around the Newton area. They also brought winter wheat, because they were expelled from the country. What a blessing that crop has been to our country! The Russians starved rather than our country.

Faith said...

Sunday dinner wasn't necessarily particularly special at my house though once in a while my mother would do a roast, just because she felt like it, and it was usually on Sunday.

We had the big meal in the evening and called it dinner, and had lunch at midday, a much lighter meal. But my father had grown up on a ranch in Canada and they had the big meal at midday which they called dinner, with a light supper in the evening.

Seems like maybe that pattern went with that way of life where they got up early to very heavy chores and kept up the work until evening, when a light supper was the way to wind down before sleeping. Just a guess though.

Faith said...

Oh, and SIX O CLOCK SHARP was the dinner hour. A legacy from my father's ranch life I think.

Z said...

We always had dinner at six sharp, too, when we were growing up...I still do, but it's not SHARP, ..'around six'...Mr. Z got home after 8 pm during our 4 years in Paris and it was so weird eating at 8:30! And dinner parties started at 8:30 and you had to stand around drinking champagne and eating NUTS and a little bowl of potato chips before dinner at almost 10 pm...why we call those things you eat with drinks before dinner a FRENCH word is beyong ME...because you RARELY get a canape, just nuts and chips. Boy, you're so hungry by 10, no wonder people think French food is SO GOOD (but, seriously, it really is!):-)

We called the evening meal dinner, growing up, and Sunday was nothing different...it was at six, too......I know some people make a hoopla out of the noon meal on Sundays only.

Faith said...
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Faith said...
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Anonymous said...

Hey Z,
Don't you remember Tuna Fish Sandwiches almost every Sunday for Lunch?? (the mid-day meal)
Maybe we started that tradition after you were already out of the house and I still lived at home??
Your sis, CJ

Pedaling said...

we call it dinner
on sunday, we do try to have something nice-
today it will be a turkey breast roast and mashed potatoes, and salad and bread.
maybe i'll make brownies to go with the ice-cream.
we all sit around the table.
we say grace.
we eat, enjoy and love one another!

Z said...

Hey, CJ! MY SISTER COMMENTED ON A BLOG OF MINE!! I'm doing the HAPPY DANCE here! :-)
Yes, I do remember tuna fish sandwiches for lunch...but I think it became more a tradition after I was out, you're right.
But, Mr. Z and I either had tuna or egg salad on baguette every Sunday for lunch after church in Paris!

Pedaling....I'm coming over! God bless you and your family....I miss saying grace with Mr. Z and had stopped after he died in October, but it feels so good to be back doing it... Bon Appetit!

elmers brother said...

My wife puts a pot roast with salsa, green chilis, and cream of mushroom soup with potatos and carrots in the oven with aluminum foil over it before we go to churhc

by the time we get home the house smells heavenly

my mouth waters as soon as I get in the house...it's so so good

Z said...

sounds very interesting, Elbro! Very moist...Don't you LOVE it when you enter the house to such delicious smells? there's nothing worse than going to someone's house for dinner and smelling NOTHING!
The best I EVER smelled a house was one Christmas Eve when Mr. Z and I'd made a goose with stuffing AND a pork roast with dried fruits, both baking while we were at church....Everyone who came in was about bowled over from the DEEEELICIOUS SMELLS! :-)

sue said...

z - My mother always cooked a big meal for Sunday noon. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy or English roast. I tried that with my husband and girls but sensed they didn't appreciate it so I stopped.

Growing up we always said, Breakfast, Dinner and Supper. But my husband and I say, Breakfast, Lunch and Supper (Dinner if we go out). My mother and I still get confused when I say lunch and she says dinner.

Mr. Sue and I eat at 5pm if he is home. And we usually leave to go out to eat at 4:30 (early birders). Once we didn't go out until
seven, and my girls were shocked.

Anonymous said...

We didn't eat anything special on Sundays, but when we were young, Mr. Pris and I would go to his Mom and Dad's often for Sunday dinner. They took pity on us because of our meager budget.

My Dad always called it supper. We all did at one time coming from the East coast originally. However over time it became dinner.

My Grandmother, for Christmas, would fix a turkey dinner and all the trimmings, and later a ham for supper. Whew!! That is, until my Mom and aunts convinced my Grandmother Turkey dinner was enough.

She made the best, and only fruitcake I've ever had that was actually moist and delicious. And plum pudding too. My goodness, could she cook!

I know I'm a bit OT here, but I couldn't talk about special dinners without mentioning my Grandmother's Christmas bonanza!

Pris

Anonymous said...

I call the noon-ish meal lunch. The late meal is supper. :-)

My favorite Sunday lunch is pot roast with carrots, onions, potatoes, garlic, and cream of mushroom soup (cooked on the stovetop, low and slow).

Sides: HUGE yeast rolls, grean beans, salad, mac and cheese, and cantaloupe if in season.

I am SOOOOOO hungry now.......

Z said...

Jen, you with the mushroom soup on roast, too? Like Elbro! That, I hadn't heard of....must be good...
ANYTHING with mac 'n cheese is!

Pris, I love fruitcake...
Sue...fried chicken and mashed potatoes...so so so so good.

Rita Loca said...

Growing up in the parsonage we always had pot roast and usually guests! After the evening service we would have the left over meat as sandwiches.
Now days with just one child at home, we tend to go to a nearby buffet after morning services.
When I was raising my family in the jungle we had our church services very early and were home by 10 am at the latest. Sunday was our day to make home made pizza. We flew all of our groceries to the jungle via Cessna, once a month, and the plane had a weight limit but we managed to have a 2 liter Coke for each Sunday, which was very special to the kids.

Z said...

great stuff, JM..it's so interesting to hear family stories! Coke was special in our house because we weren't allowed to drink too much of it; your story is WAAY more interesting:-)
I admire you more than you could know.

Anonymous said...

Z
Ball games and practices had us eating supper.(I think I use dinner more often, though supper can only mean the evening meal. dinner usually means the evening meal but can also mean a more formal mid day meal.)

When we ate late, my dad would almost always use some variant of the line "We're eating late like the rich people." I never really saw such a strong connection between wealth and meal time.

tio

Z said...

tio, I think it is a conception with some that the rich eat late, why, I don't know.....maybe those rich enough to have servants serve tea at five pm would tend to eat later!?

Here in LA, we have bkfst, or brunch, or lunch or dinner and, if you hear SUPPER you usually know they're not from these parts!

Right Truth said...

We didn't have the same thing all the time on Sundays when I was a kid, but the typical meal would be fried chicken, mashed potatoes, English peas, rolls, pies and cakes for dessert.

Mmmmmm. I'm hungry.

Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

Anonymous said...

My grandmother, being a southern belle, made the best Sunday Dinner's ever! Pot Roast with all the traditional trimmings! I tried keeping the tradition with my kids, but my pot roast is a more "modern" version than the slow roasted one by Grandmother made and my trimmings well.. have narrowed down to a nice rice and a salad cause everyone seems to be on a diet! Oh I'd love to be able to sit at my grandmother's table, just one more time, and have Sunday Dinner with her and my grandfather, just the three of us! I'd love to just walk into her house and just hear her say "Come in" in her southern drawl, and smell that delicious food being cooked!

Z said...

Anonymous...nobody comes to this blog and says "All the traditional trimmings!" You don't understand..we're HUNGRY for DETAILS here (smile)!!

Oh, do i know what you mean about being at Grandma's table just one more time..what utter unconditional love and safe feelings and GOOD FOOD! I'd love that..for ten minutes. With Grandpa. Oh, was I blessed with grandparents :-)

Did your Southern Grandmother make okra dishes? I LOVE okra!!

Anonymous said...

Did someone say okra??

:-)

Z, I have to tell you this.
One of my home health patients looks, sounds, walks, and acts JUST like my grandmother!!

She has those piercing blue eyes and those soft hands, and she's about 3 inches shorter than me (she's SHORT!).

We started talking about food the other day, while doing her exercises (what better way to pass the time?), and she mentioned that she'd found THE BEST breaded okra at the store! She jogged (shuffled) over to the freezer and showed me the bag of okra.
She said it would save me time and my kids would love it.

I nearly cried as I left there.

I've called Mamaw EACH TIME I've left my patient's house.

God is good.

Z said...

Jen, how wonderful! Have you tried it yet? I think breaded is the only way I haven't had okra!! Is it very Southern? I've had it fried with a batter on it, maybe that's what they mean by 'breaded'? How sweet that she's so much like your Mamaw! I can only imagine how much joy you bring to your older patients, Jen, your interest, your caring....how nice.

Mom makes a delicious stew with okra, with tomato sauce and lemon...and onions....just delicious!

Anonymous said...

I already had some just like it!

Breaded is battered. You can use cornmeal or flour. I use a combination and fry in canola oil. mm. I've never stewed okra. Isn't that crazy! I grew it a few years in my garden and we had a TON to give away.

Ducky's here said...

Wasn't typically a big meal or anything out of the ordinary.

My standard Sunday afternoon routine these days:

1. Mass

2. Classical concert at the Isabella Gardner

3. Lunch in the Gardner Cafe. Generally includes a mimosa, soup, salad, entree (great cod cakes) and desert (often the bread pudding).

It isn't too expensive and it feels like a pretty luxurious afternoon.

Z said...

SOunds wonderful, Ducky....Sounds like my life in Paris, very much like it, as a matter of fact. And, we did attend a Catholic church there.