How Do You Prepare Sunday Dinner (Noon Meal)?

[pneu-engine]

Hi Everybody,

I'm scanning the field for ideas, and thot this might make a discussion-worthy thread. :D

We do a variety of things, but lately have been convicted against going out to eat, because doing so means someone has to miss church to have that restaurant open and serve us.

This Sunday it's going to be a crockpot dinner that was prepared Saturday, and will serve for two meals::: Saturday lunch-time and Sunday lunch-time. When we get home from church services it is all made, and a little heating up in the microwave will make for speedy satisfaction for our empty tummies. :D :D

When we get home I usually wash my hands and set the table quickly. By that time the ladies (my wife and daughter) have their clothes changed and I go change mine. In this way it's almost no time at all till our hunger is being satisfied. It's about an hour's drive one way to church and we get home [i]famished[/i].

At one particular church we attended we would do the "Round-Robin" thing wherein several families would get together taking turns hosting another family. The following Sunday someone else would do it.

[Bakershalfdozen]

I chose "other" because I fix dinner in several different ways. The crock pot works well for us. Sometimes I crock pot something that takes 4-5 hours and sometimes I cook something that takes 8-10 hours so hubby :D rigged up my crock pot with a timer that turns it on automatically for whatever time I need it to come on.

Other times I will prepare something Sat. night that can be cooked in a reasonable amount of time when we get home. For instance, I will assemble a chicken pot pie on Sat. night, put it in the fridge and pop it in the oven when we get home from church. This way the pie is fresh and doesn't have that soggy microwave effect. Our drive is 30 minutes one way so that isn't too bad.

Sometimes I will buy a precooked sliced half ham. Those are great cold or hot and just fix something quick to go with it. In fact, that is what we are having tomorrow.


So here are some of the things we do...


Roast in crock pot
Chicken breasts in crock pot
Pork chops in crock pot
Pot pie assembled night before and cooked next day.
Precooked ham
Premade spaghetti reheats well
Precooked chicken or roast beef (this reheats well in a little water on the stove top)



Many side dishes can be made ahead and reheated to satisfaction in the microwave.

[Sophie]

I'm not much of a cook, so usually I go out to eat on Sunday. But the last Sunday of the month, my church has a fellowship dinner and everyone brings something to share. Then we have our evening service right after dinner instead of coming back later. That's nice for me because I work every other Sunday evening, so when fellowship Sunday falls on a day I work, I make it to both services. For fellowship dinners, I usually fix something simple in my slow cooker on Saturday. Today I cooked a pot roast and vegetables and put them in the slow cooker which I'll take to church with me in the morning and plug in in the kitchen, and then it will be warm for dinner.

[Anon]

I admit it, I am a terrible housewife lately when it comes to cooking...with young kids, I really don't think much about a menu and cooking! (I love to bake but I am terrible at menu planning and variety in menus...) Terrible..I hope to improve next year when my oldest begins half day kindergarten and I am home full days.

Right now we do the occasional crock pot meal...sometimes leftovers or sandwiches...and many times we either get invited out to eat or we sometimes go out ourselves...sometimes even just fast food since this bad housewife didn't have anything planned.... :( :( :(

I'll get better, I promise! :D

[pneu-engine]

[quote]
Sometimes I will buy a [b]precooked sliced half ham[/b]. Those are great cold or hot and just fix something quick to go with it. In fact, that is what we are having tomorrow.
[/quote]

YOWZA!!! We do think alike. :D :D :D

We like to get those, too Except we buy the whole ones at a local discount grocery srore. They are listed as [b]"Gourmet Quality Honey Cured and Spiral Cut"[/b], and sell for 99 cents per pound with the bone in. They are typically ten to twelve pounds.

In the warm weather (Spring, Summer, and Fall) we like to set up our outdoor smoker-roaster-cooker with one of these hams in it and let it cook all morning long whilst we are at church. I've done a whole turkey, too. It's the easiest thing to operate. There are four layers, and can cook a whole meal. To cook a ham or turkey, I use only three layers.

[b]Bottom Layer:::[/b] This is a large removable enamel-ware pan that we fill with charcoal for how long we want the smoker to operate.

[b]Second Layer:::[/b] This is another removable enamel-ware pan that we fill with water and into which we place our favorite type of wood chips for smoking. I have a lot of white ash trees in my woods, and they are very fragrant when smoking. You can use hickory or anything you like. Please resist the urge to use wild-cherry, as that is deadly poisonous. The water evaporates slowly, exposing the tops of the wood chunks, which begin to smolder and smoke. They can't catch fire completely and burn up because they are still partly submerged in water.

[b]Third-Layer:::[/b] A chrome-plated steel grate/grill. I always use a double layer of heavy duty aluminum-foil over this as I want the meat to cook and smoke very slowly. It also aids greatly in clean-up.

The very top layer is another grate/grill that can be used for ears of corn still in the husks, other veggies, or kabobs. These have to be watched closely, as they do not take long to cook.

[Anon]

We got a smoker last year but so far hubby hasn't figured out how to keep the meat extra moist...it is tolerable, but not as moist as we like it. He uses the water and everything per directions but...guess it takes practice.

[pneu-engine]

Kitagrl, :D :D :D

You remind me so much of my daughter. You and she are even the same age, essentially. She loves to bake and comes up with the tastiest things, but menu-planning and straight-up cooking are just not her forte. :D

[pneu-engine]

To kep things from drying out too much::::

We use a tin-foil tent/wrap to trap in the flavors and juices better. :D

[Anon]

[quote]
You remind me so much of my daughter. You and she are even the same age, essentially. She loves to bake and comes up with the tastiest things, but menu-planning and straight-up cooking are just not her forte.
[/quote]

:lol: :lol:

Welll, I feel better.... :D

[Anon]

[quote]
We use a tin-foil tent/wrap to trap in the flavors and juices better.
[/quote]

Meaning...you wrap the meat loosely in foil? Just the top or all around it?

[pneu-engine]

Completely covered, and wrapped to prevent too much moisture from escaping.

I know people who use a dutch oven and place the top grate down on the third shelf. In this way, there is plenty of heat, but the covered cast iron dutch oven traps in the moisture quite well.

Also the smoke flavor really does seep through the dutch oven. I.E. Under the lid

[Anon]

Oh good...we'll try that next time!

[Chelle]

Suzy, I'm glad you feel better about it. I wanted to add that I'm also a bad housewife/homemaker when it comes to cooking and menu planning...and I don't even [i][b]have[/b][/i] kids, young or not! :oops: :D

As for Sunday dinner, we usually just have sandwiches at home or go through the pantry to see what we can use up of our stored food.

[Jesuspaiditall4all]

We usually stop at a fast food place in the city before the hour long drive back to our home, in the country. :D
This arrangement works best for us because we stay and fellowhip after our service ends at 12:00 PM. Around 1:00 PM we stop at a fast food place for lunch and it is generally around 2:00 PM before we arrive back home.

Shortly after we arrive home, I usually prepare a roast in the oven, with all the fixins for our supper and we are ready to enjoy it all around 6:00 PM. Family and friends are always welcome to join us.... :mrgreen:

[Guest Guest]

[quote]
I admit it, I am a terrible housewife lately when it comes to cooking...with young kids, I really don't think much about a menu and cooking! (I love to bake but I am terrible at menu planning and variety in menus...) Terrible..I hope to improve next year when my oldest begins half day kindergarten and I am home full days.

Right now we do the occasional crock pot meal...sometimes leftovers or sandwiches...and many times we either get invited out to eat or we sometimes go out ourselves...sometimes even just fast food since this bad housewife didn't have anything planned....

I'll get better, I promise!
[/quote]

girlie I understand about time issue, often we have fastfood 3 times a week. I feel like such a bad mother and poor example to my girls.
(another reason I encourage my girls to run)

I pick my girls up from school at 3:30 have to leave the house by 5:00 and in that hour and a half I half to take a shower have devotions and cooking is often left to Mickey D's.

I meet my husband at the skyway mcdonalds at 6:00 pm and it takles them 45 minutes to get home, so it is either fastfood or something simple he makes (because of time).

As for Sunday's it varies on what we decide to have. winter we use crockpot alot, summer time the grill alot.

So if that makes you a bad mother, count me as one too. :oops: