WHAT’S FOR DINNER….

WHAT’S FOR DINNER….

 

Depending on your age …  and I am strictly guessing…..  of what is considered dinner.. compared to our generation..  (the silent generation is what they call us.. which I never got, as we were  and are hardly silent)

I AM GUESSING..  if you are around 10.. you are raised by a 30 yr old parent..  which means fast food and can food is the main meal of the evening..  What ever Mom or Dad pick up thru the drive thru…  Or that parent opens a can of chili,  spaghetti O’s and etc..   And depending on the size and age of the family..  how many are there at the table..  if there are teens there, it is a less chance of all being there. 

Now when I was that parent.. there were can goods involved, but it was tomato sauce, paste and etc..   and for soups, it was a good chance they were canned.   The meal went from meat, potatoes and a veggie..  to soups,  or a pasta dish.  None of them were straight out of a can..   The can goods were part of a mix.   Gravy was made from scratch.  Mash potatoes were real potatoes,  and summer time it was real veggies…   winter was frozen or canned.

I was raised, as just about every household of my generation.. with home cooked meals..  a lot of them cooked for the whole day.. My mother made her own spaghetti sauce, with onions, peppers, tomatoes  all the raw kind.. not canned. With spices to make it Italian..  and of course meat, this was cooked all day long…   and we did not mix it with the pasta..  it went on top of the pasta..    The stews were another all day cooking.  

Also same generation had Sunday dinners..   it was a two to 3 generation around the tables..…  mostly Italian, Portuguese, Greek and even Jewish…  and even some old time Yankee… and I think it was true of Southern families.

Now we have one of the generation.. heading back to the days of Victory gardens..  for those who don’t know.. during WWII we had victory gardens..    even if you had a small yard, you still had a garden..   and people canned those veggies..   some even canned meat..  definitely fruits were canned as it was hard find in the winter time.. Some of those houses that had basements..  or even the hole in the ground ….. called.root cellars..  .  had shelf after shelf of can goods..  some of them were in there for years..    When I helped Ken clean out the family house before they left…  there were can good in there 15 years or more.. (not recommended) ..  and they are coming back.. the big gardens, the canning and even some root cellars.

SO WHAT IS FOR YOUR DINNER….???  Has your family changed from your grandparents?    I think women going to work really changed it..  having only about an hour to cook up something for dinner after work.  There is slow cookers that some use to cook while they are at work.    One of the things that is lost, is the cooking for rather the eating, of old fashion dinners.. is the younger generation..   if it isn’t fast food…   hamburger, hot dogs, fries, taco bell, and etc..  they won’t even try it..  I tell my great grandson.. they have to take a taste before they can turn it down..  Sometimes they are surprised at how good some things taste.