Happy Friday y’all! How has January been treating you so far? Can you believe we are one week into 2022 already? This week for Foodie Friday, I wanted to showcase a food holiday I mentioned last week in the Fun Foodie Holidays post. That holiday is both a month-long holiday, but it also has a specific day. What holiday is that? It celebrates family in the manner of the National Sunday Supper Day Celebration.
National Sunday Supper Day encourages families to gather around the table, enjoy a meal and a conversation together each year on the second Sunday in January.
National Calendar Day
For many people, Sunday Supper was an event that quite possibly rivaled holidays such as Thanksgiving. Sunday supper is a roast in some houses, whether beef or chicken and the fixings. What kind of fixings? Some potatoes (I grew up with mashed potatoes, where my husband had roasted potatoes), a vegetable, and gravy. In other houses, Sunday Supper may consist of fried chicken and family!
The past couple of years has made it hard for families to gather for many things. As restrictions ease in many parts of the world, what better way to come together than over a meal? Where I live is back under restrictions so that we won’t celebrate in person with my extended family. Instead, they will make dinner and bring some over for my immediate family to share.
Growing up, dinner (or supper as some people call it) was always a family affair. My parents had the rule that if you were home, you were eating dinner at the table with everyone else. The only exception was if we were sick. We only ate dinner in front of the TV on special occasions, like the Super Bowl!
Once I got married and started my own family, we tried to keep dinner a family affair. Though time has passed and work schedules have gotten in the way, family dinners only happen a few nights a week. One day a week that we are generally together is Sundays. And we do try to keep Sunday dinner a special thing partly because it’s a day that we are off of work and able to spend more time and energy preparing a bigger meal.
For us, our Sunday dinner varies. Some weeks it may be a roast dinner complete with all the fixings, and other weeks it may be a soup from scratch. When the warmer months are here, something is often cooked outside, like hamburgers and sausages. One thing they all have in common is family and no phones! The radio or TV may be on, but no phones are allowed at the table while dinner is being eaten.
Favorite Sunday Supper Recipes
I couldn’t write a post about Sunday supper and not share a few of my family’s favorite recipes.
- One Pot Lasagna Soup from Carlsbad Cravings; if you’re fortunate enough to have leftovers they are amazing!
- Roasted Peameal Bacon from Old Cut Kitchen; trust me this is so good and easy!
- Sliced Potato Cake from Cooktoria; use a mandolin to slice the potatoes thinly, just be careful you don’t cut yourself!
I would like to wish you a happy National Sunday Supper Day! What are some of your family’s favorite meals? Do you try to make Sunday supper a family affair?
Are you looking for more food-related content? Check out my other Foodie Fridays posts.
What an interesting holiday. I grew up having a Sunday roast with the family, my parents were English, so that was their tradition.
The same with my husband when he was growing up.
We do try to keep family dinners (and especially Sundays) as much as possible. It can be a struggle but so worth it! I like the sound of your recipes… 🙂
Excellent post!
Growing up, I remembering going to my Grandparent’s house every Sunday for a huge dinner. It was a really nice tradition but sadly, we kind of got away from it as we got older and many of our family members relocated. I should probably try to start a smaller version of it with the family that is still here because I do miss it.