Posted on 01/22/2006 7:04:33 AM PST by devane617
OK, so I am getting old, but still remember my favorite time of the week -- Sunday dinner at Grandma's house. In the south we call Sunday lunch, dinner. For an unknown reason, when I awoke this morning, I was thinking about all the happy times as a kid spent at Grandma's house and how much I miss those easy Sundays. On the menu would be:
Pot Roast, Fried Chicken, or Baked Ham.
Fresh veggies from the garden:
Purple hull peas, Butter beans, Sweet potato's, Yellow Squash, Creamed corn, Bread dressing, Cornbread, and Busicuts.
For dessert:
Carrot Cake, German Chocolate cake, Chocolate pie, and Lemon meringue pie.
As kids we would be sent out in the yard to play. Never thought about watching TV, or video games the entire day.
On the way home from Grandma's my Dad would stop by a small country store that had huge Ice Cream cones. I would always have Lime Sherbert.
I already know what it is! Post Toasties! LOL
That was always my 'traditional' Sunday super that I fixed when my dad was alive. It was his absolute favorite! Chicken-n-dumplings and a hugh bowl of tapioca pudding for desert
Yep, always. The adults always seemed to get a kick out of the kids having the courage to drink a bit of that heavy high-octane home-made wine.
AND they expected us to take part in the espresso as well, with a tad bit of anisette.
Ssshhh.....
Same Here I also continue this tradition.
Large Pot of Gravy with meatballs,sausage and the best part of any gravy pork bone.
Large Antipasto, Italian bread.
AHHH Life is Good
Yep, and on top of everything, I like to get new ideas from Food Network's 'Everyday Italian' - that Giada De Laurentiis is a fox! And she can cook!
She really lost me though the day she casually mentioned her husband. What about us, Giada???? :-)
Fry up a mess of okra and I will happily join in on the feast .... fixed any other way I just can't stomach the stuff. I'm of the opinion that fouling up a good stew by throwing in okra is a hangin' offense. lol
I was just kidding about Giada! I'm glad she loves her family, too!
Just a figure of speech - most oldschool italians call it 'gravy,' and most others call it 'sauce.'
I was just kidding about Giada! I'm glad she loves her family, too!
Just a figure of speech - most oldschool italians call it 'gravy,' and most others call it 'sauce.'
OR T-Biscuits!
Yes and lamb on Easter.
Also, our family enjoys a hybrid Thanksgiving dinner - traditional turkey and the rest, and co-dishes of italian treats: antipasto, tortelini, etc.
Friday after Thanksgiving all bets are off and home made pizza rules the kitchen.
I will continue all these traditions, too. :-)
Always has.
I don't want to invest in anything more because I wouldn't use it often enough.
BTW, as a kid, I used to get the job of cooking on the grill when Dad wasn't available. We did fish, steak and hamburgers mainly. My Dad taught me how to light it. I'd gather kindling (twigs around the yard, wad and twist a little newspaper and stack the charcoal over it and light the paper. It takes longer, but I can't stand the smell of the starter fluid and that is cheating :-).
That darn stuff stinks so bad I can smell it when neighbors start their grills. They may use too much and it quickly burns off, but I'm old fashioned in my ways, I guess.
Young people don't even know how to start a fire any more unless they are little arsonists. I used to be sent out to burn the paper garbage every week, was always extremely careful to watch it burn down. Later as an adult I got in the habit of keeping a bucket of water when I would burn my tree branches.
Now we can't do any of that any more, except charcoal and wood fires in those special burners.
Pork roast with bauch fleisch, semmel knoedle, rot kraut, cucumber salad, kraut salat mmmmmmmm
Zacs Mom,
Yes, those sights, sounds and smells that make our memories :)
At Mama's mother's we always woke up to a rooster crowing, and that smell of coffee brewing, fresh homemade sausage, fresh eggs, (fresh sliced tomatoes in the summer), homemade blackberry, strawberry and other jams, and gravy and bisquits in the making. When granny browned the flour for the gravy it had a unique smell, we knew what awaited so we got out of bed quickly.
And that wasn't so easy, because the room was always cold in the mornings, until the coal stove got the place heated up. So it was tough to throw off those mountains of homemade quilts.
In the country song "Sunday Morning Coming Down," the singer mentions walking down a sidewalk and smelling someone frying chicken. Whoever wrote that had certainly spent time in the South.
In the South most homes had that chicken frying smell on Sunday, and one could smell it from a mile away.
Ever go to the Sunday church singings and all day dinner on the ground? Lots of folks got saved and everybody got full.
Every older lady in the church had a specialty, and my favorite was Mrs. Phillip's fried corn. It was actually a corn gravy. You make it just like you do white gravy, and include fresh, young (early) very sweet corn shaved off the cob.
I can my own veggies now, it's a lot of work but worth it. I used to raise a garden, but next year think I'll just buy bushels of green beans, tomatoes, and corn from the Farmer's Market (or a local farmer). No matter what you cook with tomatoes, homecanned 'maters make a world of difference (even in spaghetti). Anybody who loves fresh summer tomatoes can have them year round if they'll can them.
And I freeze half the corn on the cob, then shave the kernals off of half the sweet corn to can. You know some people even can cantalope? I haven't but it is a way to have fresh melon in the winter.
Both grandmas are gone now, and Mom is slowing down, so I am the one who carries on the big breakfasts, and Sunday dinners now. Not all the time, but when my company comes to visit they expect it.
And, like both grandmas, I always send them home with several jars of fresh canned veggies :) It's a real treat for them. Even makes great (and unusual) Christmas presents.
It does take some getting used to when we Midwesterners picture brown gravy with macaroni(s). All I know is I love it, especially when it's spicy. Some even match the high marks on my Taste Lovometer to Thai peanut sauce. Hot and sweet, deeeee-licious!
Hate the lighter fluid smell on a grilled steak (or any meat). Nope, gotta have a wood flame kissed piece of meat.
Also, try Dale's sauce to marinate hamburgers or any meat, then sprinkle some Tony Chacheries seasoning on it. Try it and let me know what you think.
So does grandma brown the meat balls before they go into the sauce (or is it gravy?)?
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