Sunday Dinner

I always used to love going over to my grandmother's house on Sunday for dinner. We used to show up at around 10 in the morning after my dad rounded. We would hang out for a few hours and Sunday dinner was usually served about 1 or 2 in the afternoon. It isn't quite lunch and it isn't quite supper, its dinner. I am told that the concept of Sunday dinner is unique to the Midwest. The other component, besides the time of the meal, is that extended family is present.

For Sunday dinner we used to have a pot roast of some sort or a ham or even a Turkey. We would have homemade rolls with butter and usually homemade jam or apple butter. We would have a garden salad to start. As a side to the roast we almost always had mashed potatoes with gravy from the roast. We would have vegetable sides like green beans with bacon or corn. A lot of times we would have some sort of a pasta salad with the main meal as well. A particular fixture for many years was my mother's macaroni salad. By now you get the general theme of the meal - it was food that is too time consuming to make during the busy work week. And we always had a dessert.

When I moved off to college I lost most of those Sunday dinners. I resurrected the tradition while I was in medical school.

My naughty cousin used to come over every Sunday for a dinner. We would hang out most of the day and evening and watch movies. Another popular activity was for my wife and naughty cousin to go shopping while I loafed around on the couch watching the Bears or playing computer games.

When we moved to Kansas City the tradition died off again because of my stupid general surgery residency. Occasionally my friend W would come over and we would manage some grilled food or something special.
It is hard to have a true Sunday dinner in Louisville because there is no extended family!

One of the things we are looking forward to most is reviving Sunday dinner in about 7 months. Iowa here we come!