Sunday Dinner

I guess most people call the noon meal lunch, but I was raised in the South where we called the noon meal dinner and the evening meal supper.

I cook for my family most Sundays. My family includes, My dad and his sister, my sister and her son and wife and their twin boys, and my son. My daughter and her family come every now and again when they can. They do not live in the same town as the rest of us, so it is more difficult for them to come to lunch.

Growing up we had two menus for Sunday dinner, fried chicken and roast beef, and you didn't stray from that! Well now that I am cooking for them, we have different menus. The first time I cook something different, my sister declared it a red letter day. She announced just how long she had been in the family (all I will say, it was over 40 years!) and we had NEVER had such a meal as I had prepared that Sunday. Not that she didn't like the meal, oh she did, it was just not our traditional meal. Since that time, we have really branched out, I have even cooked lasagna. Now that raised some Pilgrim (my maiden name) eyebrows, but not a one of them turned it down.

Today we had a traditional dinner with fried chicken, greek potatoes, (now that is a little off tradition) green beans, and rolls. I cooked a yellow cake with my mothers wonderful chocolate icing. My dad's sister came in with the paper plates (I do not have a dishwasher other than me!) and sat them right on top of the cake. I didn't even notice until I was ready to serve it. Now I had cooked it in a 9x13 pan so that might be one reason she didn't notice it. The other reason might be that she is 94.5 years old and was told this past summer that she couldn't drive anymore due to her eyesight. I pried the sack off the cake and we ate it anyway.

Cooking that icing this morning, sure made me miss my mother. She was a wonderful cook. My dad's parents, then my parents owned West Gadsden Cafe from 1945 - 1990. It was a landmark in our little town. I was raised in that cafe, so I know just a teeny bit about cooking, to be exact, meat and three. I will write more about that at another time.

This is my mothers' recipe for chocolate icing.

2 Cups Sugar
3/4 Cup Cocoa
3/4 Cup Pet Milk or any evaporated milk will do
1 Stick Margarine

Mix together the sugar and cocoa then add the milk and margarine.

Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until it boils. Continue cooking for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and beat with a mixer for 5 minutes more. I stir mine with a wire whip the whole time I am cooking it.

Ice your cake immediately! Let someone in the family that loves chocolate licked the bowl!


I don't have a picture of the cake, you wouldn't want to know what it looked like after the sack was removed anyway!