Happy Monday and happy New Year. I always look forward to Mondays. Plus, this being the first Monday for 2025, it’s also… National Thank God It’s Monday Day. They’re my 52 Chances, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you.
January, like other months, celebrates many food related things. One such thing is National Sunday Supper Month. Incidentally, next Sunday, being the second Sunday in January (for 2025), is also… National Sunday Supper Day, among other things.
Sunday suppers are another one of those things that need to be observed and celebrated every week, every month. Sadly, they’re fading fast from family traditions and desperately need to be saved, to improve family bonds. I’m making it my New Year’s Resolution to have a monthly, device-free, sit-down-at-the-same-table, family “Sunday Supper”.
A few years ago, I discovered, through NationalDayCalendar.com, that Isabel Laessig forged the “Sunday Supper Movement” and has an impressive website, by the same name, at SundaySupperMovement.com. I highly recommend checking it out.
Since the 1970s, with the exception of 2020 (of course), less than half of American families have stopped eating meals together. Supposedly, these days, less than 60% of families get together on a regular basis, for traditional Sunday suppers.
With the onset of the industrial age and the soaring costs-of-living, more and more homemakers had to start working outside the home. That’s about the same time that less importance was given to family meals and eating together, while more was given to meals “on-the-go” or eating “on-your-own”.
Along the way, I think families became too easily entwined with their own individual lives – jobs, school, homework and after-school activities, friends, weekend sports, and so on. They’re usually too busy to sit down together even for one meal a day, let alone one a week.
Bonds undeniably strengthened during 2020, as families shared more meals (and time), together. The benefits of having Sunday suppers (without electronics) can actually improve a family’s ties. Simply, by setting aside uninterrupted time for quality conversations during at least one family meal a week, has been proven to strengthen family bonds.
Traditionally, during a Sunday supper, you’d likely learn more about your family, such as their personal goals, hopes, concerns, favorite stories and jokes. The Sunday supper’s meal was usually pretty special, itself. It was typically a comfort food, like pot roast with potatoes and vegetables that had been slow-cooking all day, with love.
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Reliable Recipes For Reluctant Cooks (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1983, p.6)
COOKING IS MORE THAN TURNING ON THE STOVE – IT’S PLEASING PEOPLE!
AS OFTEN AS WE put things off in life, it’s a shame that we don’t care more about the ‘now’, the ‘todays’, the here-I-am and here-you-are, and what can we do for each other to make things as good as possible for [both of] us! I know!
There are people who can’t be bothered with such nonsense. They have jobs to work and bills to pay, things to worry about and goals to achieve. ‘If you’re going to talk about cooking and foods… what are you going off on tangents for, talking about people and their feelings?’
This is a question I’ve been asked over and over by inquiring reporters, wanting to know why we’re successful at what we do, why people go to such trouble to locate us and order our books! I think they answer their own question. Don’t you?
After all, cooking is not for robots! The way we present our food to those who share our table with us takes into account more than plopping the pot roast onto a platter and announcing, ‘Supper’s ready!’ Is that where it ends? When a meal is presented, there are many considerations for the cook.
Besides the balance, nutritionally, there’s the effort to please those who will hopefully enjoy the food. And trying to please those you’re feeding is a direct appeal, a definite effort, to consider someone’s feelings, the feelings of enjoyment and consequently of approval – approval of the food and… the one who prepared it.
Every day, the homemaker, with a family to feed, meets the challenge of proving they can be proficient, both, in the selections of foods, [as well as] the preparation and presentation of it and the management and the management of the cost.
Cooking is more than turning on the stove and opening the refrigerator. It’s pleasing people! It’s caring about what they might like to eat. It’s doing your best to prepare and present the dishes so that mealtime is not just a daily routine – but an occasion.
The cookbook industry has offended us… as if the recipes were designed for mindless bodies – not for folks with feelings! Food fanatics continue to advise us on how to feed the body while we let the famished affections go hungry.
The critics’ smoking guns right now are aimed at curing physical maladies with food administered medicinally. Food, as medication, is used as both a preservative and a cure. But what heals the broken spirit – the sensitive, the distressed, the lonely, the shy and withdrawn?
It takes more than adequate fiber intake; minimum daily nutritional needs being filled to cure the body of ills created by stress and anguish. It takes loving, caring and being loved and cared about in return!
By the way, extra time spent together, bonding in the kitchen while preparing the meal, can also be an added bonus to Sunday supper gatherings. There was a time, in the 19th century, when Sunday suppers were just an ordinary, expected part of life.
Comfort food aromas, like a slow-cooked roast or an oven-baked casserole, permeated the whole house, while family members lounged around after church. The tradition seemingly began to fade with my parents’ generation [aka: Post War (WWII) Generation – born 1928 to 1945]. They need to be saved and treated as special occasions.
When I was young, my family ate supper together EVERY night – until we each moved out. I don’t remember going to a Sunday supper at either of my grandparents’ homes, unless it was for a special occasion like a birthday, anniversary, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or a summer backyard cookout.
I read in Sunday Dinner – The Tradition We Need To Bring Back (May 5, 2019), by Ronnie Koenig, as seen at NBCNews.com:
“We all have busy schedules – errands to run, work to do, kids to shuttle around – but for a few hours that Sunday evening, we decided to take a break from it all. The best part was that it was for no other reason than it being Sunday. It wasn’t anyone’s birthday or graduation, but we were all gathered around the table together.”
Koenig reminded me that (being empty nesters) the only times me and my husband have a family, sit-down meal with our adult kids is for those same special occasions that I mentioned above. The traditional Sunday supper is meant to be celebrated as an extra special time to connect, interact, and conversate with each other.
It’s important to revel in family-togetherness, especially without distracting “electronics”. Of course, those things didn’t even exist when my husband and I were young; nor were they common place when our children were young; thus, they have never been an issue at our family meal gatherings.
However, we have noticed, whenever we eat at a restaurant, the number of people – adults AND kids, alike – interacting with their phones instead of each other, while dining out together. Families are noticeably not as close as they were in prior generations. Who knows where they’ll be in 50 years, as the tradition seems to continue to decline.
MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 295). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition)].
WE WANTED OUR CAKE & WE WANTED TO EAT IT, TOO!
WE WANTED TO EAT out at a price we could afford. And, when we couldn’t afford to eat out, we wanted to dine-in, as if we were eating out! At the time, there were few recipes for this kind of cooking.
We wanted to spend less time preparing the foods and less money on the ingredients and still serve a dish to those who shared our table with us that would be equal to – if not better than – anything we could buy in a restaurant or from a supermarket.
For all of these reasons, I have pursued the investigations of the food industry with the greatest joy and the utmost care, translating into recipes those secrets that I have been able to decipher.
Mom and daughter, Danielle and Misty, at BorrowedBites.com, also have a great article, Why Sunday Dinner Tradition is so Powerful. Their following passage reminds me of Mom:
“Who doesn’t love the idealistic picture of everyone gathered around a table, plates piled with good food, and laughter interrupting bites? …Recipes can be seen as just food, or they can be seen as the bait to get people to sit and linger. To tell stories of their week, share what’s on their heart, and utter the latest joke. That’s why we are passionate about sharing recipes that bring family to the table.”
Nothing seems to bring people together more than food. All-in-all, we love food almost as much as we love each other. As I’ve said before, “Any reason to celebrate, is a reason to celebrate with food…” (Feb. 24, 2020) would make a great ad slogan.
Lindsey Veeh proposed in her timeless article, 6 Ways To Bring Your Family Closer Together (June 3, 2013), to “make Sunday night family night. Invite extended family over to promote bonding with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives.” After all, time spent together, bonding and enjoying each other’s company, is priceless.
Cooking and eating together is a great start. Follow it up with a game or movie night. Even going for a walk together is a bonus. Another wonderful idea I like to promote is to write/record your family’s stories during any gatherings. I wish I could go back in time and do just that, myself. I can, however, make that another New Year’s resolution going forward.
LAST THOUGHTS…
Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at [email protected]. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.
IN CLOSING…
In honor of “Sunday Suppers” and January, being National Slow Cooking Month, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Beef Rib Roast”; as seen in her self-published cookbook, Eating Out at Home (National Home News, St. Clair, MI; September 1978, p. 22). As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
P.S. Food-for-thought until next Monday…
January observes… National Blood Donor Month, National Hobby Month, National Hot Tea Month, National Mentoring Month, National Oatmeal Month, and National Soup Month – among other things.
The first week of January celebrates, among other things… Diet Resolution Week and Celebration of Life Week.
Today is also… National Bean Day, National Shortbread Day, and National Technology Day.
Tomorrow is… National Tempura Day.
Wednesday, January 8th, is… National English Toffee Day and National Joy-Germ Day.
Thursday, January 9th, is… National Apricot Day.
Friday, January 10th, is… National Bittersweet Chocolate Day, and National Oysters Rockefeller Day.
Saturday, January 11th, is… National Arkansas Day and National Milk Day.
January 12th is… National Curried Chicken Day and National Marzipan Day. Plus, as the start of the second week of January, it’s also… National Mocktail Week.
Additionally, the second FULL week of January (12th-18th, for 2025) also celebrates, among other things… Universal Letter Writing Week and National Pizza Week.
Have a great week!
…1 down and 51 to go!
