Sunday Dinner

My Sundays have always, through out my life, contained a large meal around 1pm. As a child they were cooked by my Maw-Maw Shawver. Every Sunday i could already tell you before we got there what we were going to have. The meal usually went something like this: Some sort of roast slow cooked since 6am, fresh green beans strung and cooked that day with bacon or a ham hock, mashed potatoes that never came from a box, those yummy hot dinner rolls that make your mouth water when filled with lots of yellow butter, fresh carrots peeled, cut and cooked with a little honey to accent their natural sweetness, a delicious gravy made from the juice and drippings of the roast, and always some home made dessert like apple pie or peach cobbler with ice cream if you wished. This is what my Sundays were filled with. I remember you could smell it as soon as you exited the car. It was dancing in the air enticing you to come in and sit down. Still to this day their is nothing more calming to me than the smell of a roast in the oven.

After my Maw-Maw Shawver died November 23, 2000 my mom tried to continue cooking Sunday dinner for us. This is when we began to notice she was ill. My mom who was always an excellent chef, never making anything out of a box or can (unless she was the one who canned it) began to burn things and half do them. So i and my Aunt took over as much as we could. My mom passed about 6 months later. After that Sunday dinner, for the most part, came to a halt. I was 15 and the thought of sitting down to a big dinner with no one there but my aunt, my dad, and me was too painful. So we just stopped except for holidays and a few special occasions.

Fast forward to when i married my husband. His family has Sunday dinner. Not every Sunday but when everyone is off and we all can make it there we go for it. It is wonderful to be back in that loving friendly environment. Where food all brings us together as humans and family. It is our one common unity in this world. We all have to eat! Black, White, Yellow, Red, Purple, Brown, Girl, Boy, Young and Old, we all have to eat to survive. It is nice to be back to having that unity on Sundays. It isn't like the old Sundays i had as a kid where it is always the same thing, but it family gathered around to talk, laugh, and enjoy each other's presence.

I myself have tried to start cooking a nice Sunday dinner on the Sundays when we are not at my In-laws home. I try to make it a dinner that we all like but rarely get to have. I just love showing my kids what this is about. I want them to see what family is and how it works. I think that is what Sunday has always been about to me. Not necessarily food or cooking but what the food does and what it represents. It unites us and shows us how to be together and thank God for each member of our family and the days we get to share together. This is a tradition i want passed down to my kids and to my grand kids. So what were your Sundays like?