Just your average Sunday night dinner...

Every Sunday I look forward to a home cooked meal - and not my own! Our entire family has a standing invitation to come for a weekly dinner at my parents' house (mom just needs a headcount on Saturday or by Sunday morning) and I try never to miss it. It's a great way for us to get together and catch up for a few hours. We have laughs and serious talks. Sometimes we talk about the weather and we generally avoid politics. We share, we listen, we wonder and we muse together. I absolutely love that Sadie gets this fundamental exposure to family communion - not to mention table manners & amazing food!

My mother has always been an incredible cook. My dad teases her that more often than not, if someone likes something she's made, "they'd better enjoy it because they'll never have it again." This is because she rarely makes the same thing twice. She's the type of cook who will experiment by swapping ingredients or adding her own touch to things that sound good to her.

There are always at least 3 courses (appetizer, main dish and dessert) and she covers all food groups, using fresh, healthy ingredients. My dad has a well stocked wine cellar and is wonderfully generous with us, so we get the additional bonus of having an excellent bottle of wine or two with dinner.

Here's where you might get the wrong idea if you don't know me and my family. We aren't the "dress-for-dinner, crystal, silverware and cloth napkin" type of diners - in fact, in the summer, we frequently use paper plates and sit outside still wrapped from the waist down in towels with damp bathing suits and bare feet. My dad is quite skilled on the BBQ, and we are frequently treated to delights like tiger prawns, cedar-plank salmon, grilled veggies from the garden, lamb, and custom sausages made from the returns from my dad's hunting trips, etc. as well as rotisserie chicken, grass-fed beef burgers, and more standard BBQ chicken, ribs, and the like.
My mom is also really inventive with salads, so we get delicious concoctions with all sorts of vegetables, fruits, lettuces, nuts, cheeses and dressings all of the time.
In addition to being an excellent cook, my mom is also an incredibly savvy grocery shopper (a skill I wish to God could be hereditary) so she'll bust out things like Alaskan King crab legs "because they were on sale" at some grocery store or another. Incidentally, my sister Jill has totally picked up this skill and usually finds coupons and sales which inform her meal choices. I need to get on that train.

I love our family tradition of Sunday Night Dinner. We are so spoiled. Over the years I've come to appreciate how much love and effort goes into these meals and I'm so grateful for the time we spend around the dinner table together. My parents are also wonderful hosts, so I've enjoyed inviting friends to our Sunday night dinners and will continue to do so. I keep swearing that "one day" when we have a house and a reasonable kitchen, I will return the favor whenever possible.

Anyway, I am definitely starting to ramble here, but this week's dinner inspired me to jump up and take pictures before we dug in to eat. Here's what we had:

baked acorn squash with some brown sugar butter drizzle
insanely moist corn bread
grilled pork tenderloin
fresh veggie salad with edamame, tomato, red onion, and corn
fruit salad with orange, pineapple, pear and pomegranate seeds
and pecan cups for dessert