Sunday dinner is part of creating memories. Did you grow up with chicken or a beef roast for Sunday meal? With friends and family joining you occasionally? Setting the table in its Sunday best?
Sunday Dinner is a timeless TRADITION
It is a timeless tradition of Sunday dinner. Did you grow up with chicken or a beef roast for Sunday meal? With friends and family joining you occasionally? Setting the table in its Sunday best?
I did. Today we often have Sunday dinner with our daughter and family who live in town and our youngest who is also here. If other family comes to visit, we typically have one ‘big’ meal together.
It’s not an every week event.
Strengthen Bonds and creating memories
Strengthening bonds and creating memories is an unspoken reason for families to gather for a meal, for a day, a weekend, a holiday or a special event. Our kids and their families live near, we do this often.
Recently, we shared Sunday dinner with three of our children and all the grandchildren.
Saturday, the cousins were together. Lot of fun for them especially the three boys who are very close in age. They go hard playing and running inside and out.
The girls don’t get left out; they join in whenever they want especially when hide and seek is the game! The happy sounds of hide and seek are some of my favorite sounds. Our old farmhouse is a great house for hide and seek!
My hope is they remember all of the fun in the future.
Sunday Dinner preparation
Our menu was also a very Sunday traditional dinner with the twist of Mississippi Pot Roast over my usual one. I make it with vegetables.
I did get photos of the table but somehow forgot to take any of the food! Mashed potatoes, peas and rolls completed the menu. Dessert was the Caramel Green Apples two of the boys made earlier with their mom. Keep scrolling down for the Mississippi pot roast recipe.
It was a hit! Everyone, and I mean everyone, ate everything. There were a few peas, a little mashed potatoes and 5 rolls left.
Mississippi Pot Roast
Equipment
- crock pot
- knife
- cutting board
Ingredients
- 1 3-4 lbs chuck roast
- 1 packet au jus gravy mix
- 1 packet Ranch dressing mix
- 1 stick butter
- 6-8 garden fresh sweet banana peppers Optional 4 – 5 pepperoncinis
Instructions
- Place chuck roast in crock pot
- Slice and remove seeds from the sweet banana peppers. Discard seeds and membrane. Cut each on in half.
- Sprinkle au jus and Ranch dressing packets over the top of the chuck roast
- Put banana peppers halves on top of the chuck roast
- Add. butter on top of the chuck roast
- Cover and cook on low for at least 8 hours
- Do not add any water or broth! We prefer to use our garden banana peppers but you can use 4-5 from a jar of pepperoncinis. Our family loves loves gravy! We made extra gravy from the juices using corn starch and beef broth. Enjoy!
A table set with pumpkins and turkey dishes
We set the table with our Thanksgiving dishes. We are not having the feast in town this year so why not?
There was no centerpiece. Instead I put the bamboo bread basket with the gold napkin in the middle. I have enough serving bowls, a gravy boat and creamer for gravy to put them on both sides of the basket.
We didn’t have pass down the food down the whole table. The large pheasant serving bowl was the right size to hold half of the Mississippi pot roast. I use a creamer often as a gravy boat.
The mini pumpkins was put on each plate for the extra touch of fall decoration. Min decorations on the plates or at the place setting can be a pretty addition to your table.
what’s on the table?
One set of Thanksgiving dishes with serving pieces Auction
Extra dinner plates with fall themes Home Goods(HG)
Friendly Village dinner plates Gift
Additional fall theme serving bowls HG
Soft yellow napkins HG
Bamboo bread basket Gift
Cream napkins and napkin rings Vintage
Bistro glasses IKEA
Artificial mini white pumpkins craft store
Flatware HG
2 oatmeal linen tablecloths HG
When we expand the DR table, everyone has a seat. For this traditional Sunday dinner, there were 13.
Even with a full set of dishes from the auction, we needed more dishes as our family grew. I began add dishes, especially dinner and small plates as I found them.
Of course, Thanksgiving is a ‘groaning board’. When there were soup plates and different serving bowls on the shelves, I would snatch up as many that my budget could afford. It took several years.
creating memories At our empty nest
Now, as Jim and I are in the empty nest and retirement years, I won’t say I am not ever buying any dishes but I’m not looking. I do add napkins if I see some that will be an addition to my collections of tablecloths and dishes. It is hard to find enough for my extended family but no worries, Neutral ones fill any gaps.
Easy cleanup our Sunday dinner
For this Sunday dinner, every piece of linen was washable and doesn’t need ironing. All of the dishes and flatware go into the dishwasher.
I mention this because there are certain dishes and glasses we do not put in the dishwasher. the Bavarian crystal, silverware and inherited vintage china in the dishwasher. When it is clean up time, there are always plenty of helpers.
My parent’s practice was always to use their ‘nice’ things even the children were at the table. Daddy would say “How do you learn if you never use them?” Plus they were never fans of having china and other items and not using them.
It is our practice too. It doesn’t mean you need all the fine china and other table furnishing. It does mean just set a nice table with that you have with intention and care. That includes paper products!
Creating memories should not be a burden
When Nancy and Nathan got married, she asked me if they would be expected to be at Sunday dinner every week. With a puzzled look, I asked why she even thought that. Many of her friends were expect to be at family Sunday dinners every week.
I was like no. That said, we do often have Sunday dinners together especially if the siblings who live out of town are here.
It is still a time honored tradition as as we gather around the table. Afterwards, kids play; some find a spot on the couch or an empty bed to nap in. Others chat, play games or watch TV. If the wether is fine, most go outside.
No agenda, no pressure.
Just a Sunday rest.
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As I was growing up, Sunday dinner was at lunchtime. Supper was the later meal. My mom said there was more to a dinner than to a supper. I haven’t used the word, supper, in years! Dinner is our evening meal. That being said, we did have Sunday dinner, and it was always roast beef. My grandpa raised beef cattle so we always ate beef. And, my mom’s roast beef was amazing! She tried her hardest to teach me how to do it, but I never could. When I got married and had kids, we started the tradition of eating Sunday dinner again with her and my little brother who was still at home. We’d then return in the evening for supper…ham sandwiches, potato salad (usually), and something else.
As empty nesters, we are almost always alone. We did move to be closer to our kids and grands, and, for a while, they would come over for dinner. But, then their kids got older and busier so now it seems it’s only at holidays, we’re together. I never did have china. I have Pfaltzgraff stoneware as well as two different sets of dishes from Target. I tell my husband he’d better be careful with the Target stuff because I can still get the Pfaltzgraff!
I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving!
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Thanks for sharing those wonderful memories. We live where one family with 5 kids are and our single daughter. The oldest is 15 now so frequency may change. Sometime we all do ice cream at one of our home after recitals, games, etc. It’s not Sunday dinner but it is together! Hope you have good Thanksgiving.