Sunday Dinner

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Growing up the only child of a single mother, weekday dinners were often too mcuh trouble for just the two of us. Come Sunday though, we always worked together to put on a full sit-down Sunday dinner. It has remained one of my favorite traditons and it’s one I carry on as living-alone adult. I find cooking to be relaxing and Sunday night is a great time to relax and gear up for the work week. Plus I get tasty leftovers for lunches.

Tonight I’m making spaghetti with yummy meatballs in marinara. The sauce is simmering and I’m waiting for the water to boil for the pasta. I’ll serve it with a green salad, fresh french bread from the bakery, and a glass (or two) of Bourdeaux. Dessert will be either brownies or more wine.

So does anyone else have Sunday dinner traditions and what are you having?

2

Sunday is my day to do experiments (if I feel up to it), usually with the crock pot.

About a month ago I tried this roast recipe that I thought wouldn’t be that good… it turned out really great though and I plan to make it again.

Right now I have almost finished my fish chowder, another new recipe, and from my small taste it seems like it’ll be pretty good. Not as good as I’d hoped, but good all the same.

3

Please share the roast recipe! I’m always looking for things to try and if can be made in a crockpot, even better.

4

Sure, here it is:

Easy Pot Roast with Rich Tomato Gravy

1 beef pot roast, cross rib or rump about 3-4 lbs
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
3 stalks celery, peeled and thinly sliced
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried mustard
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cracked black peppercorn
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 can condensed tomato soup (10oz)
1/2 cup condensed beef broth (undiluted)
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp packed brown sugar (optional)
2 tbsp balsamic or red wine vinegar (optional)

Pat roast dry, in a skillet heat oil over medium high heat. Add roast and cook turning until brown on all sides and transfer to slow cooker.

Reduce heat to medium, add onions, carrots and celery to pan an cook, stirring, until they are softened. Add garlic, mustard, thyme, salt and pepper and cook, stirring, for one minute. Sprinkle mixture with flour and stir. Add tomato soup and beef broth and cook, stirring, until thickened. Stir in worcestershie sauce.

Pour mixture over roast, cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours or high for 5-6 hours, until meat is very tender. Remove roast from slow cooker and place on serving platter. Stir in brown sugar and vinegar, if using, to pan juices. Pour sauce over roast or serve in seperate sauceboat.

When I made the recipe I used less salt, and no dried mustard (because I would swear that it had been in my mother’s cupboard since I was small). I did try it with the red wine vinegar and brown sugar too. It was very good, the roast was tender and the sauce went a long way. The vinegar and sugar gave it an almost sweet and sour taste.

My fish chowder that I tried, from the same recipe book, I don’t really like. Mom says it’s really good though. I’m guesing it’s just not my thing and should search out a clam chowder recipe :smiley:

5

I just popped in to say I’m droolin’ all over the place after reading Flutterby’s roast recipe. This is one of the very few things I have ever actually printed out from the Dope. It shall be Sunday dinner real soon.

6

Well, while hubby’s often gone during the week, he’s almost always home on weekends, so that’s when I cook my big meals. Also, this past weekend, my oldest daughter had a friend here for the weekend, so I had someone else to impress with my cooking prowess :wink: . Last night (Sunday), I made pork barbecue in the crock pot, cole slaw, gingered carrots and corn (my daughter’s friends’ fave veggie). I love my Crock Pot, too, and use it at least twice a week, especially during the winter!

7

I made grilled Lemon-Pepper salmon fillets, Rice-a-Roni with fresh mushrooms added, steamed broccoli, and salad. Mmmm. It turned out great.

8

I made pot roast, too, but not as elaborate as Flutterby’s recipe. After dredging the roast in peppered flour and browning it, I put it into a Dutch oven with a half litre of dark beer, some onion soup mix, and 3/4 cup of leftover roasted garlic tomato sauce, and cooked it for 3 1/2 hours in the oven. I added potatoes and carrots for the final 2 hours. Turned out yummy enough for Mrs Bookkeeper to go Mmmmmm after the first bite. :slight_smile:

9

The best roast chicken in the world, as passed down to me by my mum, with her secret, and highly bad for you, gravy.

10

I’ve been doing the roast dinner thing for a while now; the main parts of which will be left in the oven on low while the family attends a morning Church service - if all goes to plan, we return to a warm house and the great smell of dinner.

Yesterday it was just a huge turkey drumstick - impossible to carve because of numerous hard tendons or ligaments or something, but the meat itself is always very tender and packed with flavour.

Usual procedure is something like this:

Peel and halve some potatoes, bring to the boil in a pan of water; drain after boiling only for a couple of minutes; add some fat to the pan (ideally hard animal fat saved from a previous roast), hold the lid on tightly and shake the pan vigorously to rough up the surfaces of the potatoes.

Empty into a roasting dish and add parsnips (peeled and quartered lengthways), make a space in the middle and plonk in the meat (rub the outside of the meat with spices and salt if appropriate) -if the meat is lean, splosh in some more oil and cover with a tent of foil that doesn’t touch any of the food.

In the food processor, chop up an onion, three slices of bread, an apple, some fresh herbs and whatever else is to hand, roll into balls and place in an oiled tray, cover with foil

Bake the whole lot for 2 1/2 hours at about 130C in the fan oven.

On returning home, I take everything out of the roasting pan - potatoes & parsnips go into a stoneware dish and back in the oven, the meat goes onto the carving tray and is tightly wrapped in foil to rest, most of the fat is drained off (a little of it can go over the stuffing balls if they look too dry) and the pan is deglazed with wine as the basis of the gravy.

Usually, I’ll also serve carrots, beans and one other vegetable - cooked while the meat is resting and the gravy being made.

11

We always had our big Sunday meal after we got home from church. We were always a little late getting home, and for this reason I absolutely love overcooked ham and roast beef. Especially the gravy!
Now I usually make a big Sunday meal Sunday night. Last night I made homemade scalloped potatoes and ham.

12

Would you please share the recipe for gingered carrots and corn? Ginger is my favorite thing in the world!

13

When I was a child, Mother always fixed chocolate pudding to have as dessert with Sunday dinner. This is the real stuff that you have to cook - not the instant stuff where you add milk.

I continue the tradition - except I make chocolate mousse.

14

Well, first off, you may be laboring under the misconception that the dish is “gingered carrots and corn” when really, it was gingered carrots. And also, corn. But, here’s my recipe for gingered carrots:

In a small, heavy skillet, melt 2 TBSP. butter (IMHO, it’s not as good if you use margarine). Add 2 C shredded carrots, cook, stirring constantly, until the carrots are just as tender as you like. Add 1/4 tsp. powdered ginger, and two tablespoons sugar-free pancake syrup (if the carbs and sugar don’t bother you, you could add brown sugar instead of the syrup). Stir well and serve.

15

In the Fall, Winter & Spring (much less so in the summer) we do tend to have a “Sunday dinner” type of meal to round out the weekend.

I’ll make a hearty soup or stew, often in the crockpot, or roast a chicken, or make a pot roast.
Whatever I make has to go with fresh bread, because we like to put a loaf in the breadmaker and have it warm with our meal. Mmmm.

Yesterday’s Sunday dinner was a heart chicken soup with potatoes, carrots, onions, celery. Thickened by mashing some of the veggies.
Served with hot buttered bread.

16

Growing up, we had a Sunday dinner that was highlighted mostly by lighting the candles in silver candle holders on the table and using the good silverware. This got us a rep in the neighborhood as being snooty or uppity. The real reason for the finery was to impress on us kids good table manners.

Now that I have my own family, Sunday dinners are not that much different than other days of the week, except that Kiminy has more time to cook, which means experiments or more involved (and good) meals. We also tend to spend a little more time talking, planning out the logistics of the weeks’ activities, catching up, etc.

Vlad/Igor

17

Our Sunday has morning & sometimes evening church, so it’s our big “out to dinner” day, usually with a group of church-friends (family-wise is just Mom & myself).

Monday & Tuesday, sometimes Friday, are home-cooked dinner days. Wed & Thurs are leftover/grab-a-sandwich days.

Sorry- no yummy recipes to be offered yet.

18

Well I hope you like it swampbear, I can’t take all credit for it though I just found it in a recipe book.

I don’t always go all out on Sunday’s, but I usually make more than what I do on a weekday (roast, chicken or whatever instead of just hamburger helper and salad/veggies)

I’ve started picking up stuff for the breadmaker again. I don’t know if it was you or someone else who mentioned making bread on Sunday’s to go with the supper made in the crock pot (like soup) and I’ve decided I want to try that too. Fresh bread is always good :slight_smile:

19

Flutterby I’m sure I will like it. As I’ve read through this thread I have noticed that nobody is really talking about super complicated or extremely fancy dishes. I see mostly pot roasts, soups, stews, roast chicken and the like. I guess the point is it’s not so much making a fancy meal but making a good home cooked meal that reminds us of stuff we had as kids. To me that’s the best thing about Sunday dinner, carrying on that tradition.

Heck, I’m not married with 2.5 kids or whatever that’s supposed to be, I’m gay and I still like making Sunday dinner. I love having friends over to share a great home cooked meal and sit around the table talking and catching up with other. Plus, it’s a good time to rake others over the coals. :smiley:

20

I like cooking. I can’t cook now. I’m in the dorms here. We can’t even have a microwave in our room… there are community ones on each floor. It’s torture!!!

(ssh! There’s a microwave hidden in my room!)

My parents never cook real meals when I go up for (some) weekends. It’s always just eat whatever you find. But some days (randomly picked), they’ll just cook up a big dinner. My dad likes cooking chicken dishes. Mmm chicken.