Bring back Sunday dinner

[Elaina]

I once dated an Italian-American whose grandmother was from Italy, and I don't think the woman spoke a bit of English. I don't know, I was always too busy to talk any way. While I enjoyed the cooking, I do understand about the chaotic atmosphere of an Italian family. My own is mental, but in a germanic, we don't talk sort of way. (So I understand the idea of fondness is based on the proximity of the family. The farther away they are, the fonder I am of them.)

Growing up, dinner was a family drama. When I was young, my bulmic mother fought with my anorexic sister, complained at my brother and generally made meal times miserable. My sister whined and fussed, my dad and brother didn't talk, and I went off into my own head. I have the knack of ignoring people at large, a trick I learned at a young age with my photographic memory and 'reading' books that are trapped there. As I got older, and was the only one at home, it still was a huge drama, and one I learned to just not participate in. (I had a job at 15 and the stipulation was I HAD to work on Sundays after 4 and not to be let out before 8.) If I had to be home, I was always sick.

With my own family, I try not to be like that. Dinner is still largely a quiet affair here, save for the freaking out kitten that thinks she needs to eat people food screaming in the bedroom we have to lock her in. My son usually talks about Transformers or Cheese from Foster's, but my husband and I don't usually talk when we're alone. (Dinner was a huge drama for him too.) It's not unhappy, just quiet. My son and I usually spend vast amounts of time talking while I cook, and he 'helps', but when we eat, the adults don't speak. We aren't a vocarious bunch at mealtimes. Even Thanksgiving when we have my husband's family here, it'll still be quiet save for the imitation of "I like potatoooooes." and "Turkey <lick>...tastes...fun-ny" coming from the seven year old.

BTW, Gray, the pronunciation of "pecan" largely depends on where you are. My yankee husband finally got broke of "pee can". Down here it's puh kahn, otherwise they know you're not from 'round these parts. Like the word for soft drinks/soda/pop/soady water is a local colloquialism, pecan seems to fall into that one too. When I was living in Raleigh, tho, I heard all kinds of words pronounced funny. Might be why my real accent sounds like I'm from there. 'Course, I don't use it, or else my yank would never understand a word coming out of my mouth.

 

[Gray Ghost]

Pecan

The first time that I ever heard the word Puh-khan was from a Yankee. It was always pronounced as Pee-can by my family and all others in the area. I am in the coastal plain of NC and that may be why. I am only 50 miles from Raleigh. Paula Dean, the cook on Food Network, is from Georgia and she also says pee-can. Puh-kahn just sounds to funny to me, but to each his own. I guess that I need to go now, I have to go empty the trash kahn.

Gray Ghost

 

[warbird]

We would go over to my great grandmother's house every Sunday, early afternoon. She was over 90 at the time, but still could make some of the best fried chicken going. That and mashed taters, green beans, cornbread and rolls, broccoli and several pies.

There was a large contingent back then, all of the old ones are gone now and my parents are now the elders. Sadly, we rarely have those big feasts anymore, usually only on holidays.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Ok, this is weird. I (hurriedly) moved my cookbooks from the mouse-infested pantry to a bookshelf in the computer room I cleared off that had some of my dad's 5000 books on it. No sooner did I read the last post, which sounds like my Georgia family meals, than I got up and my eye fell upon this book: Sunday Dinner Cookbook. Published in Nashville in 1969 and given to me by my uncle when I was a child and already a good cook. Wow. I'd forgotten about that book.

 

[fleur]

I ALWAYS do a big sit down Sunday dinner with all the trimmings. Best table linen, serving dishes, cutlery and the like.

Its time to catch up and be a family for me and I love cooking for others so the more the merrier

 

[John in Covina]

SYNCHRONICITY!!!

No sooner did I read the last post, which sounds like my Georgia family meals, than I got up and my eye fell upon this book: Sunday Dinner Cookbook.

****
Synchronicity![huh]

 

[Merrill Wayne B]

Since it usually took my Dad about 4 hours to take a bath and shave - this was a weekly ritual on Sunday - dinner was about three o'clock in the "dining room". We told time by what was on the radio in those days and dinner lasted from Gene Autry through the Falcon, The Saint, Nick Carter, and the Shadow. We were dismissed to the kitchen when the Shadow came on because my Mother though it was unsuitable for young kids. Sunday dinners were always good but not fancy. My Mother used to remind us that she didn't operate a restaurant so we ate then or went without. There was a pause for Flinch or Authors and then desert came on when Jack Benny did and the radio stayed on untill ten. Sunday dinner was evidently a significant event in my Dads life because he recorded in a notebook every meat dish which my Mother served from 1934 to 1980 when he died.