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I'll tell you one thing about dinner at the Wilson house. You were seated at the table before my dad got there and no one asked to be excused until he pushed his chair back from the table. Everything was "please" and "thank you" and no raised voices, from anyone were ever heard at the table. And, you ate what was put in front of you no matter how horrible it might be.
Sounds VERY familiar. My dad got in at 4:15 pm and was greeted with a beer. Dinner started PROMPTLY at 4:30 pm. If you showed up even five minutes late, you might not get any food.
At least YOUR father ate quickly. My father is still the slowest eater in the house, taking a minimum of 45 minutes.
And yes, you ate whatever was in front of you. And those canned peas tasted no better at 9:00 pm than when they were put in front of you at 4:30 pm. There was NO "triumph of the will". It was more like "abandon all hope."
I was born in the mid 70's, so, grew up in the later 70's, & 80's. My Mom quit her job a week before I was born, & never went back. She loved, & still loves cooking everything from scratch, & cleaning. I love when she visits, as she scours our home. lol & cooks, & askes my kiddos to help, which they love. I'm also a SAHM, but, will fully admit, I'm lazy. lol However, like I was taught, I fully teach my kids respect.
I live in Utah. They make some insane great meals, & cookies. Another neighbor & I joke we live for my next door neighbors from scratch cookies. They are melt in your mouth, I hide them until I eat them all, insane good. lol
My husband and his brothers hated meal time as a kid. My MIL is not the greatest cook but she makes a few things great, Lasagna, pot roast, eggplant parmesan,meatballs, macaroni saladand corned beef & cabbage. Her husband was Sicilian and taught her how to make sunday gravy, meatballs, and other Italian dishes. She's Irish and English background. Till this day my BIL dreads her cooking. He lives with her and his wife. His wife is an excellent cook so she takes turns cooking in the house. His mom would cook canned vegetables so long on the sotve they turned to mush.She always overcooked everything. They nick named her scorch skillet. But you ate what was served no matter how bad it was. In my house if you did not like what mom was making she would offer 1 alternative and that was a hamburger or hot dog, but that was rare. we liked everything she cooked.
I thought it would be interesting to start a thread about family meals back in the "old days."...I grew-up during the 50's and 60's. My parents cooked a lot of meals in their (faithful and beloved) pressure-cooker...We always used cloth napkins (or individual dish towels) to keep our hands clean at meals (during the early 50's) because paper napkins weren't available yet or cost too much during the early years..Please share some of your memories too! Thanks! What were meals like in your home "way back when?"
We had your traditional Southern Sunday Dinners. They consisted of Baked or Stewed Chicken with Dressing, macaroni and cheese, greens or green beans. Another favorite was Beef Roast and gravy with Potato Salad and Fried Corn. Gracious, my mother and grandmother could cook!
I grew up in a home with three great cooks. My mom, dad and grandmother were all really good. Mom and dad both worked and so Granny did most of the cooking. We ate 3 meals a day and always at the exact same time each day. For a family of 100% Scottish blood we ate a pretty wide range of different things, especially for the day, 50's 60's and 70's. We probably ate too much meat, every meal for sure and too much bread and butter but we all loved those things. Every single day without fail we had for breakfast, porridge with cream on it, bacon and eggs, 4 strips of bacon and two eggs, 4 pieces of toast, milk for the kids and coffee for the adults. Then of course we had our dessert. There was no such a thing as a meal in our house without dessert. Pie, tarts, cake, fruit, baked goods from the Scottish bakery down the street and always slices of extra sharp 5 year old chedder cheese on the dessert plate.
For lunch we usually had homemade soups, various Scottish meat pies,cold cuts, breads and sausage rolls, canned fish, yuck, cheese again, cut up celery, carrots and other vegetables and fruit. Always a big pickle plate full of many different kinds of pickles. Lunch dessert was the same as breakfast except it was todays pies and pasteries plus always some kind of pudding.
WE had a huge variety of things we ate for supper. I recall at least 20 different entries that were the regulars. Supper was also different in that we ate quite a few ethnic dishes that were not common at the time. Dad was big on Indian curries and seafood. His best friend was the manager of a big seafood company in Toronto and we would get at least two big 20 pound boxes of different seafood all packed in dry ice from him every month. Sitting around late at night watching TV we ate huge two ounce shrimp like other people eat popcorn. For a young boy like myself the dry ice was a blast and I used to create huge fog storms with it. My mom specialized on Fri.Sat. and Sun. making her things. Italian and Spanish dishes and she was known as "The queen of the cassarole". This was usually bad news for me because I don't like many of them. The funny thing in my family was that it really didn't matter if you didn't like what was being served because my Granny would whip something special up for you alone if you didn't like what was being served. The desserts at dinner were the best of the day and different too. Always ice cream if you wanted it. Special dinner cakes with rich butter frostings, bread and rice puddings and special brown sugar pies my granny made just for the kids.
People who got to know us often said, "Your family's life revolves completely around eating!" and they were not far wrong in that. None of us were fat for some funny reason because we each ate 5000 calories a day. LOL
I grew up in a home with three great cooks. My mom, dad and grandmother were all really good. Mom and dad both worked and so Granny did most of the cooking. We ate 3 meals a day and always at the exact same time each day. For a family of 100% Scottish blood we ate a pretty wide range of different things, especially for the day, 50's 60's and 70's. We probably ate too much meat, every meal for sure and too much bread and butter but we all loved those things. Every single day without fail we had for breakfast, porridge with cream on it, bacon and eggs, 4 strips of bacon and two eggs, 4 pieces of toast, milk for the kids and coffee for the adults. Then of course we had our dessert. There was no such a thing as a meal in our house without dessert. Pie, tarts, cake, fruit, baked goods from the Scottish bakery down the street and always slices of extra sharp 5 year old chedder cheese on the dessert plate.
For lunch we usually had homemade soups, various Scottish meat pies,cold cuts, breads and sausage rolls, canned fish, yuck, cheese again, cut up celery, carrots and other vegetables and fruit. Always a big pickle plate full of many different kinds of pickles. Lunch dessert was the same as breakfast except it was todays pies and pasteries plus always some kind of pudding.
WE had a huge variety of things we ate for supper. I recall at least 20 different entries that were the regulars. Supper was also different in that we ate quite a few ethnic dishes that were not common at the time. Dad was big on Indian curries and seafood. His best friend was the manager of a big seafood company in Toronto and we would get at least two big 20 pound boxes of different seafood all packed in dry ice from him every month. Sitting around late at night watching TV we ate huge two ounce shrimp like other people eat popcorn. For a young boy like myself the dry ice was a blast and I used to create huge fog storms with it. My mom specialized on Fri.Sat. and Sun. making her things. Italian and Spanish dishes and she was known as "The queen of the cassarole". This was usually bad news for me because I don't like many of them. The funny thing in my family was that it really didn't matter if you didn't like what was being served because my Granny would whip something special up for you alone if you didn't like what was being served. The desserts at dinner were the best of the day and different too. Always ice cream if you wanted it. Special dinner cakes with rich butter frostings, bread and rice puddings and special brown sugar pies my granny made just for the kids.
People who got to know us often said, "Your family's life revolves completely around eating!" and they were not far wrong in that. None of us were fat for some funny reason because we each ate 5000 calories a day. LOL
dessert after lunch and breakfast, that's interesting. We only had a "formal dessert"after dinner when we had company over. When I mean formal I am referring to a dessert that was homemade or a cake that my mom bought at the bakery. Other than that it was what we called a snack after dinner and it could be anything from chips, Ice cream or snack cake like little debbie's. We always had sweets in the house because my dad had a sweet tooth but we never ate dessert at the dinner table together unless we had company over. I don't do desserts now unless we have company for dinner, I mean DH and I will have a scoop of Ice cream or a pudding cup but we never have cakes, cookies or pies at home. We don't need it.
I grew up in a home with three great cooks. My mom, dad and grandmother were all really good. Mom and dad both worked and so Granny did most of the cooking. We ate 3 meals a day and always at the exact same time each day. For a family of 100% Scottish blood we ate a pretty wide range of different things, especially for the day, 50's 60's and 70's. We probably ate too much meat, every meal for sure and too much bread and butter but we all loved those things. Every single day without fail we had for breakfast, porridge with cream on it, bacon and eggs, 4 strips of bacon and two eggs, 4 pieces of toast, milk for the kids and coffee for the adults. Then of course we had our dessert. There was no such a thing as a meal in our house without dessert. Pie, tarts, cake, fruit, baked goods from the Scottish bakery down the street and always slices of extra sharp 5 year old chedder cheese on the dessert plate.
For lunch we usually had homemade soups, various Scottish meat pies,cold cuts, breads and sausage rolls, canned fish, yuck, cheese again, cut up celery, carrots and other vegetables and fruit. Always a big pickle plate full of many different kinds of pickles. Lunch dessert was the same as breakfast except it was todays pies and pasteries plus always some kind of pudding.
WE had a huge variety of things we ate for supper. I recall at least 20 different entries that were the regulars. Supper was also different in that we ate quite a few ethnic dishes that were not common at the time. Dad was big on Indian curries and seafood. His best friend was the manager of a big seafood company in Toronto and we would get at least two big 20 pound boxes of different seafood all packed in dry ice from him every month. Sitting around late at night watching TV we ate huge two ounce shrimp like other people eat popcorn. For a young boy like myself the dry ice was a blast and I used to create huge fog storms with it. My mom specialized on Fri.Sat. and Sun. making her things. Italian and Spanish dishes and she was known as "The queen of the cassarole". This was usually bad news for me because I don't like many of them. The funny thing in my family was that it really didn't matter if you didn't like what was being served because my Granny would whip something special up for you alone if you didn't like what was being served. The desserts at dinner were the best of the day and different too. Always ice cream if you wanted it. Special dinner cakes with rich butter frostings, bread and rice puddings and special brown sugar pies my granny made just for the kids.
People who got to know us often said, "Your family's life revolves completely around eating!" and they were not far wrong in that. None of us were fat for some funny reason because we each ate 5000 calories a day. LOL
we ate somewhat the way you did, but not many desaerts. As I have mentioned mom wasn't a great cook, dad was, but he didn't bake. That being said, we managed to consume a lot of calories and no one except my sister was really overweight. We walked a lot, played outside and rode our bikes. Unfortunately I do not exercise now and am overweight, but I love to cook..Now if there was nothing called a computer in our house, I would not be quite so heavy.
Grew up in the 80s. Three hots (or bagged lunch) a day. Almost always from scratch.
Always had family dinner.
My dad would sing a song to remind us to wear our napkins.
I grew up in the 80s and 90s and I don't remember my mother cooking a whole lot especially when my parents separated. We ate a lot of McDonalds and Little Ceasers. Family dinners didn't really happen even when my parents were married. Lately I've been trying to make nice family dinners for us and bring all the food to the table. The kids and husband love it. I've even started making dessert once a week. I've never gotten us in the habit to eat dessert. I didn't eat it a lot growing up. I make sure we all sit down and put Pandora on for dinner music.
When my sons were small, we had a rule about dessert. You had to eat your meal, with seconds if you wanted. You didn't get dessert until you finished your homework, took your bath and got into your pajamas. Then you had dessert. Sometimes pudding, or a couple of cookies and milk, and sometimes something as simple as a bowl of cereal. Saturday and Sunday would be a bit more dessert-y, like cake or pie a la mode. But nobody ever turned down dessert, whatever it was!
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