Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Sunday dinner

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Around the Kitchen Table - Sunday Dinner + 4-Book & Recipe Card Collection #giveaway

MADDIE DAY here, delighted to have the Kitchen crew sitting around my table again. I hosted all the usual suspects (son and wife, plus a crew of friends who are like family) for Easter dinner two weeks ago, as I do every year except the dreaded 2020, and I got to thinking about Sunday dinners.

In some families a big weekly dinner might still be a tradition. I don't have family living close enough to come every week, but I wish I did.

Maybe that's why, in my Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, Mac Almeida's parents hold Sunday dinner. They schedule it in late afternoon, since it's a school night. Mac's brother and niece, her tiny grandma, Mac and Tim - everyone is invited, and guests are not only welcome but expected. Mac's father might make a big pot of beef stew or Cape Verdean cachupa, or her mom a massive fish soup (like the one I presented here). Bread and salad go along with the dish, and Tim brings dessert from his bakery. They all (except Cokey) drink wine out of jelly jars and share love around the table.

When I was an exchange student for a year in southern Brazil, long long ago, that family also held Sunday dinner. The aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents would come, and everyone would sip a glass of sweet Vermouth and then feast (that family did employ a full-time cook, though). It was seriously so long ago I don't remember what we usually ate.

So, dish, MLKers and readers. Do you have a tradition of Sunday dinner now, or did you growing up? Do your characters? Who comes to eat? And most importantly, what is served? A big roast beef or an infinitely expandable soup with bread? A gluten-free vegetarian meal? A repast that reflects your or your protagonist's international origins? Let's talk!

The winning lucky commenter gets a bonus giveaway this month - along with four terrific mysteries, the winner will receive one of our recipe card packets!

Our Mystery Lovers' Kitchen Recipe Card Packs
(Given out at Malice Domestic 2022)

Leave a comment, and you'll be entered to win a pack,
along with four terrific mysteries from our group!

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LESLIE KARST: For my family, Sunday dinner was not much different than any other night of the week, but like Edith, it plays a major role in my books. For fourth-generation Italian Sally Solari, whose family have always been fishermen and restaurateurs, Sunday Dinner is a BIG DEAL. But although they call it “dinner,” it’s really more of a late lunch.

Sally’s nonna, Giovanna, gets going on the Sunday gravy—a combination of beef chuck roast, pork chops, sweet Italian sausages, onion, tomato, wine, and chopped herbs—as soon as she gets up, then lets it braise for several hours while she attends mass, until it’s fall-off-the-bone tender, swimming in a luscious and rich sauce. (See Sunday Gravy recipe here.)

the gravy over pasta

Without fail, the Solari Sunday Dinner consists of the same menu: an antipasto of prosciutto and salami, marinated vegetables, and provolone and mozzarella cheese; a first course of pasta with the gravy from the braise; then the main course of the meat, served along with a green salad or veg; and for dessert a ginormous bowl of tiramisu doused with coffee and Marsala wine and dusted with powdered cocoa.

the main course of braised meat

And woe to those who fail to show up for the meal—or who take only small portions of the various courses served—for they risk being on the receiving end of Nonna’s evil eye....

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LUCY BURDETTE: Leslie, I love reading about the Sunday dinners in your Sally Solari books! Growing up, our family had the big Sunday meal at lunchtime, after church. It was usually a roast with gravy and mashed potatoes. So at supper time, we ate on TV trays in the den, eating toasted cheese, potato salad, and baked beans. I have only fond memories of those nights, though I can't remember what we watched on TV.

Though Hayley Snow and her mother are excellent cooks who love hosting dinner parties, there isn't a Sunday tradition. Hmmm, maybe I should change that... Here's a recipe for an Italian pot roast in a slow cooker that could easily serve a crowd.

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LESLIE BUDEWITZ: I too confess that big Sunday dinners are not a tradition I grew up with -- my family was the one that moved away from my parents' big families in the Midwest -- and it's not a big part of our cooking right now. The one requirement is that it result in leftovers Mr. Right and I can grab for lunch a few days in the upcoming week!

But like my blog sisters, I've given a version of that tradition to one of my protagonists. In my Food Lovers' Village mysteries, Erin Murphy's family gathers for a big Sunday lunch at The Orchard, the homestead her great-grandparents founded shortly after they moved to Jewel Bay, Montana in 1910. (Read about those early Murphys in "An Unholy Death," the historical novella in Carried to the Grave and Other Stories, the 6th Village mystery.) Or if it's summer and Erin's busy with the Merc, they'll meet for brunch -- and she'll pass on the mimosas! I adore Sunday brunch, and gave my love of it to Pepper Reece, star of my Spice Shop mysteries, as well, though she goes out with friends rather than hosting. Brunch is one of my favorite meals, especially when the menu includes something I wouldn't make or eat during the week, like this Chai Spice Coffee Cake from Chai Another Day or these fabulous Turkish Scrambled Eggs with Tomato.

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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON When my paternal grandparents were still alive, we had big Sunday dinners like the characters in Leslie Karst's books. My grandmother's pasta sauce (we never called it gravy) was perfect--simmered with meat, which was served as a separate course. It was preceded by soup and followed by salad, fruit and nuts (often roasted chestnuts,) Italian pastries and liqueurs. The shape of the pasta varied--I usually got to pick whichever one I wanted! Unless we were having their homemade ravioli or lasagna. My grandfather grew his own grapes and made his own wine but that was for the grown-ups! My grandmother simmered her sauce for hours, but here's a Bolognese sauce you can whip up on a weeknight that's very good! And like Leslie's characters, the characters in my Lucille Series would never miss Sunday dinner and Lucille is always worried whether or not there will be enough to eat even though the table is groaning under all the food!

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MAYA CORRIGAN: Sunday dinner was a tradition when I was growing up. It was scheduled for 2 p.m., often included extended family, and took place in the dining room, instead of the kitchen alcove where our family of five ate all of our other meals. Sunday dinner always included a roast--chicken, turkey, beef, pork, or veal--and potatoes. For special occasions like a holiday, an anniversary, or a birthday, my aunt would bring potatoes made three different ways: mashed, twice-baked, and roasted. Vegetables, salad, and dessert completed the meal. In later years, when my siblings and I lived a few-hours drive from my parents, we had that kind of dinner only on Thanksgiving, Christmas, or a very special occasion. By then my mother was combining the vegetables and salad into one make-ahead dish. Here's the recipe for her easy and popular side dish that can be made the day before it's served.

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CLEO COYLE: Oh, yes! I grew up in a big Italian family, and we had a Sunday Dinner tradition almost every week. For years, I've written and blogged about my dear Aunt Mary, who was born in Italy (as was my mother, Rose). Growing up, I was my aunt's little assistant cook, and I learned much from her.

On Sundays, my aunt and mom would make a feast for our family, starting in the morning with the wedding soup. Yes, we had wedding soup many Sundays (no wedding needed!!) with chicken broth, pastina, little meatballs, and escarole. Spaghetti was served with a tomato sauce simmered with meat until it fell off the bone. And dessert included Italian cookies.

My aunt lived with us. She was more of a grandmother than an aunt since she and my mother lost their own mother when they were young, and she helped raise my sister and I. That's why Aunt Mary has been the primary model for my amateur sleuth Clare Cosi's nonna in my Coffeehouse Mysteries, for going on twenty years now...

Anginetti: Glazed Italian Lemon Cookies
Click here or on the picture for the recipe,
and meet Cleo's beloved Aunt Mary!

I look back on those Sunday dinners and realize how amazing that food was, which (back then) I took for granted. My father provided fresh tomatoes from his garden, homemade wine from the grape vines in our backyard, homegrown eggplants and zucchini. It was marvelous, and I miss those days and my dear parents and aunt, all of whom have since gone to heaven, where they now wait for me to join their table again. Thanks, Edith, for reminding me of the good food and good memories of those delicious days. ~ Cleo