©2007 Heather Hamilton – Sunday Dinner at Grandma’s
Growing up I spent a lot of time with my Grandma Helen and Pap, a lot of which was spent in the kitchen. On Friday nights my mom, Grandma Helen, my brother and I would go grocery shopping together and I’d go home with Grandma for the weekend. On Saturday we’d wake up and put a soup on the stove for whoever would drop by and start preparing for Sunday dinner. We’d make a cake for dessert, peel potatoes, get the meat out of the freezer to thaw, and get everything gathered for the side dishes. One week was meatloaf and pork, mashed potatoes, corn, peas or lima beans, and dressing/stuffing. Another week would be ham, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, and either peas or lima beans. A third week would be pot roast, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, and either peas or lima beans. Once in a while it would be chicken or turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, peas or lima beans, and dressing/stuffing. The chicken was everyone’s least favorite, but every now and then Grandma would slip it in to the rotation. On Sunday morning we’d get up and go to church and come home and get dinner started. The first shift at the table always began around 11-11:30 am. Depending on who showed up there were 2 – 3 shifts and as the great grandchildren were born, you didn’t want to be on the third shift because the pickings were slim. My job was always carving the meat and making sure everything made it to the table and then the clean up. My mom, grandma, and aunt got to do the mountain of dishes. Sunday after dinner I would finally go home, but sometimes through the week I’d go to Grandma’s for dinner with her and pap.
Grandma and I were inseparable and she taught me her way of cooking. Recipes were not something we always used and sometimes they were just a guide with a dash of this thrown in or a pinch of that added. I loved to cook and Grandma and I became a well oiled machine in the kitchen anticipating what the other was going to do next. I learned to make rivel soup, rolled out sugar cookies, bean soup, slippery pot pie, fried chicken, caramel cake, snickerdoodles, ham and bean soup, and a lot of other comfort food recipes.
©2009 Heather Hamilton – Pap at the Kitchen Table
When Pap passed away the dynamics changed in the kitchen, but Sunday dinners still carried on. Grandma didn’t cook near as much during the week, but we would still gather together on Sunday afternoons. When Grandma fell and broke her femur disposing of the potato peelings, things changed as she became a full time resident of a nursing home and it was the demise of Sunday dinners with the family. The family became divided and no longer gets together except for a select few of us at Thanksgiving, but the memories that certain foods conjure up will always remain.
So many family traditions are based on foods and conjure up that feeling of home and family, but the traditions don’t always carry on. Grandma can no longer bake sugar cookies, but my uncle Ernie has taken on that roll. Although he had Grandma’s recipe he couldn’t figure out why they didn’t taste like hers. He bought the same butter and followed the recipe, but they just didn’t taste right. I was asked to try them and I knew right off the bat what was different, vanilla. Grandma loved the taste of vanilla in her cookies so instead of measuring out the quantity dictated we would just pour some in until it formed a puddle. The key to my Great Grandma’s caramel icing was powdered sugar and we went through many versions until we got that right. Some of those versions you needed a chisel to crack and others you could have used a straw to slurp it up. Pap was all about steak and crabs/shrimp and his favorite seasonings were pepper and Old Bay. Thank god there was always an old gallon milk jug full of iced tea in the fridge when he seasoned the food. I’m grateful that I have all of these memories with my grandparents and family and a love of food that although it may now be executed differently, still takes me back to those days standing beside my Grandma licking the bowl and beaters as we prepare for yet another weekend of memories.
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