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| Easter Sunday Dinner with Ladipo and Adero |
Easter Sunday Brunch - Dinner: April 21st, 2019
Two of my favorite young couple joined me Easter for brunch/afternoon dinner, Adero and I met up in our neighborhood Walmart and planned menu and planned on joining me since our families live out of town.
MENU:
Chicken and waffle,
pineapple toast,
fresh fruit,
kale carrot salad,
deviled eggs,
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| Chicken and Waffles, Pineapple toasted Strips as appetizers. |
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| Fresh cut fruit and berries as a centerpiece |
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| Adero picked me up a beautiful bouquet of flowers |
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| My favorite celebration punch: Recipe: White grape juice, White Sparkling Cider, Moscato Wine loaded with fresh fruit topped off with Champagne. |
This is an article I read this morning while planning for May 2019 Sunday Salon Series, which has been "Sunday Dinner" since late 2007 when I began this blog spot. Alpha Bruton
Want a way to stay connected to the family? It’s time to bring back the tradition of gathering around the dinner table. Happy multi-generation family toasting drinks at the table during a garden party.
Studies show that there are cognitive, psychological, and physical benefits of dining together.
When I was a kid growing up on Long Island, Sunday dinner was a thing. We never mentioned it, but everyone just knew that the end of the weekend meant we had a long-standing date with my maternal grandparents. It was a time to hang around the house, see your relatives, and bring in a kosher deli. Back then, the platters of sliced pastrami and whole-sour pickles didn’t hold any special significance to me. But now, as an adult with 100 miles separating me from my nearest family members, I’m realizing the importance of this designated family time.
“The family that eats together thrives together,” says Dr. Vanessa Lapointe, a registered psychologist, and parenting expert. “Mealtime has historically been a time of family togetherness. Plus, if you’re getting multiple generations together, then there is a tapestry of diversity in terms of ages and interests and that is just so good for kids.”
My childhood was influenced significantly by having my grandparents within a short driving distance and my aunt, uncle, and cousin within walking distance. While my seven-year-old twins know and love their family, visits are sometimes few and far between unless it’s someone’s birthday, holiday, or other special occasions that necessitate a visit. Around the New Year, I decided that this wasn’t ok. After losing my dad a few years ago, I’ve started to realize that these moments together aren’t guaranteed. I wanted our family to be connected and not just in a catch-up-every-once-in-a-while way. So, without telling anyone, I started a Sunday night dinner tradition.
“We’re coming over,” I announced to my mom on the phone one Sunday morning, and within hours, my sister, my cousin, and I descended on her home bearing salad, wine, and all the ingredients to make the Pioneer Woman’s Baked Ziti. (If you haven’t made it, you need to, STAT!) We all have busy schedules — errands to run, work to do, kids to shuttle around — but for a few hours that Sunday evening, we decided to take a break from it all. The best part was that it was for no other reason than it being Sunday. It wasn’t anyone’s birthday or graduation, but there we were, all gathered around the table together.
Anne Fishel, Ph.D., a family therapist and founder of The Family Dinner Project, a non-profit initiative that encourages families to connect over mealtime, tells me that there are numerous benefits of families eating together. “The benefits range from the cognitive ones (young kids having bigger vocabularies and older kids doing better in school) to the physical ones (better cardiovascular health, lower obesity rates and eating more vegetables and fruits) to psychological ones (lower rates of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance abuse and fewer behavioral problems in school).”
Fishel says that what’s for dinner doesn’t matter — it’s the communal environment that you create that makes all the difference.
