Whatever Happened to Sunday Dinner?

[TVeblen]

*Originally posted by AbbySthrnAccent *
**

If you want to feel emotionally connected and loved in the way that the “Sunday dinners” of your youth made you feel, then you have to put some thought and effort into making them happen consisently. If you don’t live near biological family, then create the traditional feel with like minded friends. **

Truer words were never spoken…er, written, Abby. You’ve capped off some powerful mental realignments for me. I’ve been perfectly happy, puttering around alone out of habit, but it’d be so much better–and richer, and easy–with some fellow “orphaned” friends around to share in the prep, then sharing food at table.

My “real”, i.e. biological, family is 500 miles away. But you’re perfectly right; some of my heart-family of friends BELONG at the warm, cosy “real meals”.

Thanks–honestly. Habit can be a blessing and a curse. Sometimes a clear voice can blow off the dust. Ain’t gonna be kitchen-puttering or eating alone NEXT Sunday. The food won’t win awards but…

Sincerely grateful to Dopers,
Veb

[Angkins]

We always did the Sunday dinner thing too…that is until the last couple of years. I can still count on at least 10 a year between birthdays and holidays. The only difference is that now I alternate holidays with my mother. If I am working she does the cooking, if not I do it.
We even managed to squeeze in a few barbeques this summer as well as a lobster feast.

I love cooking a big dinner. setting my table with all my fancy grown up dishes and entertaining the folks

[AbbySthrnAccent]

*Originally posted by TVeblen *
my heart-family of friends BELONG at the warm, cosy “real meals”.

Veb **

Perfect! I sat there a few minutes trying to think of better words than “like minded friends” and “heart-family” is absolutely perfect!

I’ll be thinking of you next Sunday Veb,
Abby

[CanadianSue]

*Originally posted by Al Zheimers *
**Aw shucks Canadian Sue, I’m Canadian too, and the roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, was a regular Sunday ritual of my childhood too. I know it came from one ancestor from England who packed his trunk and took passage on a sailing ship to Canada at the dawn of the twentieth century. I visited my 78 year old mother this summer and she was saying she used to buy a slab of suet and roast it on top of the roast beef to make it juicy and tasty “and that’s why we have so much cardio troubles now”. Well mom, dad’s 82 and you’re 78 and you’re both still playing golf, so it couldn’t have been too toxic. **

It’s your turn to make it next Sunday… I’m a comin!

[Ruby]

My family always had “Sunday Dinner”. Now that I’m a grown up sub[/sub] we still strive to continue the tradition.

Even as a teen, our son would join us for dinner each night. Totally cool!

However, after a long day in the yard/garden/etc., I’m afraid we’re sometimes dialing for pizza delivery!

[RdBl2]

When growing up, not only did my family have the Sunday dinner tradition, but we all ate dinner together at the table. My Dad worked at the Post Office, when the Post Office was real strict with uniform rules and concerned about appearance, and my Mother felt that we should not eat until he came home. So, we did not. Now and then we were allowed to eat in the living room if there was something real good on TV, but mostly we ate in the dining area of the kitchen as a family.

Looking around at my family I find that no one keeps the tradition anymore. One brother and family eat in the living room daily, watching TV and existing mainly on purchased meals or TV dinners. (She hates to cook and he is often too tired to do so.) None of my siblings continue the special Sunday Dinner tradition, not even me. My Mom used to spend a large portion of the day making dinner, but back then my Dad felt that she should not have to work anywhere, so she was a stay at home Mom. Most, if not all, of my friends make dinner out of a can, zap it in the microwave, carry it home in a bucket or have it delivered in a flat box. Very, very few eat at a designated dining room table and most have the table situated so they can watch TV from it.

I’ve had girl friends who cannot cook from scratch and only exist on canned foods or easily prepared meats. My Mom used to make cakes and pies, biscuits, stews, excellent chicken soup, hand made pasta pockets, bread, delicious gravies and fresh vegetables. She still makes a sumptuous mix of sliced green beans and onions, fried in a pot with bacon to tenderness that is heavenly! She used to, and still does, make cheese cakes with strawberry topping that are to fight for! Not out of a box either!! She still makes a chili during the winter that is more great taste than heat that is sumptuous and home made sweet relish out of green peppers and onions that goes with any meat!

[Knighted_Vorpal_Sword]

Of course, we have the traditional “Sunday Dinner,” but it’s on Friday night . . . and Saturday lunch, as well. Being observant and Jewish, this is when we have our big meals of the week. It’s great; all the kids are together, we invite friends and family, and there are no distractions like TV, computers, radio, or even the telephone. We may actually sit and talk for hours on end, which we don’t have time to do during the week.

Chicken, gefilte fish, chicken soup . . . not exactly traditional “Sunday dinner fare,” but I’ll take it.

[Zenster]

*Originally posted by RdBl2 *
**…Looking around at my family I find that no one keeps the tradition anymore. One brother and family eat in the living room daily, watching TV and existing mainly on purchased meals or TV dinners…Most, if not all, of my friends make dinner out of a can, zap it in the microwave, carry it home in a bucket or have it delivered in a flat box. Very, very few eat at a designated dining room table and most have the table situated so they can watch TV from it.

I’ve had girl friends who cannot cook from scratch and only exist on canned foods or easily prepared meats…**

::crumbling sound of Western civilization in background::

Didn’t mean to make an example out of you RdB12, but then again your observations serve as stark testimony concerning my own statements. Rest assured that I have never had a girlfriend that has been able to cook anywhere near as well as I can (though maybe not quite as bad as the ones you cite above).
Siderbar: You had better believe that when my big remodeling project gets finished I shall reinstitute my own tradition of legendary dinner parties. Heart-friends it is Veb.

[Scotticher]

We always had Sunday dinner after church, and even now that mom is gone, my father, aunt and I still do it. We are occasionally joined by various other family members, although not very often. Mostly people join us only on holidays. After dinner, we play cards or dominos, or watch the Mariner’s/Seahawks play.

I like it. It made my parents realize that they were very loved, and now that mom is gone, it is more important than ever for my father and aunt to feel needed, loved and a very LARGE part of my life. Which they are.

This thread makes me remember what a lucky child I was, and still am.

Scotti

[RdBl2]

Scotticher

That was real sweet!! How nice!

[Creaky]

Well, we didn’t have Sunday dinner, but we had Sunday Cocktails, Snacks and Lunch.

My widowed grandmother and her equally widowed sister lived across the street from the church we attended, and we’d visit them every Sunday after the 11 o’clock service.

My sister and I would get either Tab or (when we were older) watered-down wine in glasses like the grown-ups, and sit around munching on pretzel sticks and olives and Saltines with butter spread on them.

My grandmother always drank sherry. Dad liked either Scotch rocks or Manhattans rocks, and my mother would wimp out with maybe a white wine spritzer.

Miss Mary would serve lunch, and then us kids would get to play in one of the bedrooms, trying on old clothes and ghastly costume jewelry and digging up antediluvian photographs and stuff. The coolest thing we unearthed at my grandmother’s place was an old stereoscope. It was like, whoa, 3-D!

It was always time to go home waayyy too soon.

[Barbarian]

:: yorkshire pudding::

I haven’t had yorkshire pudding in 3 years or so. And yorkshire pudding was the only good thing about Sunday dinners.

[RdBl2]

My Mom used to stuff that chicken with a delicious stuffing made from scratch. She knows how to make several, so she would vary it from Sunday to Sunday. Every Saturday, out would come the bag of left over bread heels and slices from the week to be spread out on the counter to get stale or she would bake them hard in the oven and the stuffing would be fixed Sunday night to be packed into the chicken right after church.

Chickens, when I was a kid, were cheap and BIG! Not like the scrawny things you buy today for $4, but like the roasters you get for $8 in the coolers. When I grew up, I happened to think how interesting it was that my Mom could feed 5 of us off of one chicken!! I could consume a whole chicken at one meal, but my Mom fed us all to the full point on one! I discovered that parents who just loved the backs, wings and legs of the chicken were making small sacrifices for their children by leaving the best parts for them. Plus, she fixed delicious vegetables to go with the meal and, back then, we almost could not eat without a stack of bread on the table.

Aren’t parents wonderful?

[Rilchiam]

We did “Sunday dinner” until I was about 10. But family gatherings in general, like birthdays and Easter, were always at home. Just before my 8th-grade graduation, one girl was bragging that her parents were taking her to Chateau Noseinair. I was shocked: couldn’t anyone in her family cook? How sad, to have to go out on your special day!

[muffinman]

I am a college student living at home.

While I’m not often home around suppertime, that is irrelevant, as my mother has been infinately spoiled by my father and gets treated to Applebees, Chilis, Beef Obrady’s, Sonny’s, or some other restaurant ending in a long “eee” sound. When I’m able, I’ll try to meet them for dinner at some location or another.

Every sunday, My girlfriend and I always go to the Dragon Room (a local Chinese restaurant) and have a nice relaxing dinner before I have to go to work.

About once a month on average, there’s a big dinner at my grandmother’s house. Aunts, Uncles, cousins, everyone. There is usually some specific reason for the dinner, but anything is game: someone’s birthday, a holiday (mother’s or father’s day, you name it) a graduation, etc. For these dinners, which I cherish, it’s a whole day event. It usually starts around noon… everyone arrives, and goes inside, seeing the spread of food immediately upon walking in. There is a long counter, covered from end to end with such delights as creamed corn, squash, baked ham, pork roast, homemade biscuts, and ALWAYS a big dish of Macaroni and Cheese.

We eat at 12:30 sharp, then kick back afterward and just chill. We’ve had some really strange conversations there. (My grandfather remeniscing about fire department women in white t-shirts in the public pool in the 50’s was one of the funniest. “Them was the UGLIEST women you ever seen! Didn’t stop them Forrestry boys though. They’s hangin off the fence!”) Then one of my grandmother’s homemade deserts is served, followed by a migration to the family room where everyone either falls asleep or becomes basically comotose. Around 4 PM, everyone wakes up again, refreshed from the nice ciesta, gets a plate of scraps or the delicious dinner, and heads off to their home, looking forward to the next event.