The Joy of Sunday Lunch

[Missy Hellfire]

Growing up in a fairly traditional British family, Sunday lunch was always a regular weekly staple and generally consisted of (with various additions, subtractions and permutations): Some sort of roasted creature (usually beef, pork or lamb), roast potatoes and parsnips, boiled carrot and swede, cauliflower, cabbage and sometimes broccoli and/or brussels sprouts, yorkshire puddings where appropriate and oodles of gravy and always a lovely pudding, probably with custard to follow and then my dad and grandpa would invariably fall asleep in front of the TV and my mother, grandmother, sister and I would send a lovely afternoon chatting over a bottle of wine. Unlike my mother and grandmother and also I suppose lacking a large family to feed at the moment (I have no kids yet and my partner and I live a long way away from our respective families), I am rather shoddy and rarely turn out a regular sunday roast but I rather think that I would like to whip myself into shape and make it a regular thing and get some friends around for a good dinner. It was always a fantastic family get together where we would all (including grandparents) get around the table and enjoy a good meal together.

Is the sunday roast a peculiarly British thing or do our friends from other shores indulge in a good roast dinner on a regular basis? Also, the sunday dinner itself; irrespective of the food served, is the sunday get together an international thing? And most importantly, the sunday Lunch... What do YOU have?

 

[Puzzicato]

It's a pretty traditional Australian thing too - usually lamb. My paternal grandmother makes a wonderful baked dinner! Lamb, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, green beans, gravy & mint sauce. Yum!

I don't always do a Sunday roast, like you I have no children, but I do try to make something a bit special on a Sunday for my husband and I. This week I am actually making roast brisket, with spuds, shallots and green beans.

 

[MariantheLibrarian]

My family is really big on Sunday dinner; usually, we'd have some sort of pot roast or roast chicken with potatoes and carrots, a green veg, rolls, and a dessert. Nowadays, I eat meals at the boarding school where I work. Every Sunday is pasta night. An endless parade of white noodles and red sauce.

 

[Harp]

... I am rather shoddy and rarely turn out a regular sunday roast but I rather think that I would like to whip myself into shape and make it a regular thing and get some friends around for a good dinner. It was always a fantastic family get together where we would all (including grandparents) get around the table and enjoy a good meal together.

Sunday supper was the meal in my family, which I greatly miss; although the family gathers together several times during the year and especially for the holidays now, it is not quite the same weekly repast....
And since I am a confirmed Irish bachelor whose flat is a permanent mess and the kitchen looks like a cyclone struck, I frequent dine/carry out, or order in. Ironically, I do like to cook-when I get around to it.

 

[Puzzicato]

My family is really big on Sunday dinner; usually, we'd have some sort of pot roast or roast chicken with potatoes and carrots, a green veg, rolls, and a dessert. Nowadays, I eat meals at the boarding school where I work. Every Sunday is pasta night. An endless parade of white noodles and red sauce.

That sounds so depressing! They don't even mix up the sauces a bit?

This week we're having Vine Grower's Lamb, made with home grown & preserved vine leaves, and a butternut and barley pilaff.

 

[Yeps]

Sunday dinner has always been very important for my family. It might be closer to lunch, normally around 1or 2pm, but we always called it dinner.

When I was little that was when we went to go visit my grandma in Baltimore, and we had spaghetti. There is nothing comparable to my grandmother's spaghetti sauce, well, my mom makes it very well too and she taught me well. It is great stuff, with lots of spices, pork, meatballs, sausage. I never get red sauce at restaurants, and except for my cousins' sauce, nothing I had in Italy compared. That is one of the things I miss now that I don't live at home, so often I have Sunday dinner with friends, and we pitch in to cook a good meal.

 

[MariantheLibrarian]

It's awfully depressing. Every once in a blue moon, they might serve an alfredo sauce or a pesto and some chicken, but otherwise it's red sauce and meat sauce (from the week's worth of leftover ground beef, best avoided) on spaghetti noodles or bow ties.

 

[Yeps]

It's awfully depressing. Every once in a blue moon, they might serve an alfredo sauce or a pesto and some chicken, but otherwise it's red sauce and meat sauce (from the week's worth of leftover ground beef, best avoided) on spaghetti noodles or bow ties.

I bet it would be less depressing if pasta was served more often, with varying sauces, and if the sauce was better. I would be perfectly happy with pasta three or four nights a week, with red sauce on Sundays, but only if it was my family's sauce.

 

[Puzzicato]

I bet it would be less depressing if pasta was served more often, with varying sauces, and if the sauce was better. I would be perfectly happy with pasta three or four nights a week, with red sauce on Sundays, but only if it was my family's sauce.

Oh definitely. I can eat burro e parmigiana, or cacio e pepe 3 nights a week, but regardless of what the sauce is, it has to be good!

 

[MariantheLibrarian]

I bet it would be less depressing if pasta was served more often, with varying sauces, and if the sauce was better. I would be perfectly happy with pasta three or four nights a week, with red sauce on Sundays, but only if it was my family's sauce.

Strong emphasis on the varying and good sauces part. As it is, we get pasta meals...probably between 6 and 9 times a week (from a total of 18 meals), and they're almost always boring, because that's what the students tell the food service survey they really want. That, and chicken. We have so. much. chicken.

I want to come eat at your house. That sauce sounds fab!

 

[lolly_loisides]

I know it isn't a traditional Sunday lunch, but I've just had a wonderful long lunch that included prawns, oysters, smoked salmon & a few lovely salads. Very nice indeed.

 

[Missy Hellfire]

Wow, such lovely replies! Here's a thing then, are roast dinners (roasted meat, with vegetables and gravy etc etc) eaten regularly elsewhere in the world like they are here in the UK or are they generally reserved for high days and holidays such as Thanksgiving and the like?