I bought and cooked a Leg of Lamb on Easter Day and it brought back a flood of memories. When I was growing up, we had Sunday Dinners and those magnificent Dinners were served right after Church, not in the evening.
Leg of Lamb was a staple for those Sunday Dinners. Daddy always made a thick brown gravy and served it with homemade Mashed Potatoes. Other regular entrees for our Sunday Dinners included Fried Chicken, Chicken and Dumplings, a Shank Portion of Ham, Meat Loaf, a Sirloin Roast, and a Pork Roast. I remember on one Sunday Dinner, we had a Whole Baked Walleye, an 8-pound monster that someone gave Daddy.
We gorged on those magnificent entrees with all the trimmings including baked rolls and a dessert – usually a pie.
After the huge mid-day meal, Daddy retired to the bedroom for his traditional Sunday nap while I tried to gather up enough neighbors for a baseball game in the empty field nearby.
When Daddy awoke, we often headed for the local reservoir to fish and any big enough to keep were fried the next day.
On Sunday nights, however, we grazed on the leftovers from dinner and settled in to watch Lassie, Ed Sullivan, the Jack Benny Show and Steve Allen.
Few people have Sunday Dinners these days. If it’s a big meal, it’s in the evening, and certainly the TV fare on Sunday nights is lacking. For Boomers, Sundays were extra-special days and Sunday Dinners were a highlight.