Recession Revives Family Dinner Trend

If you follow me on Twitter, then you know from my TwitPic that Sunday I was making Old School Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya from the new cookbook Real Cajun by Donald Link. It was fabulous, by the way. Worth every second of standing by the skillet while I deglazed and deglazed and deglazed.

Old School Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya from Real Cajun by Donald Link

I think cool, rainy, lazy Sundays call for slow-cooked and fussy meals. Warm, sunny days, of course, demand something grilled. And once Pepper Place farmers market opens here, we’ll have locally grown fresh vegetables all weekend long. (Last year I did a Summer Soup Series with a new vegetable soup each week, like minestrone and gazpacho and a fabulous smoked onion soup. I might have to revive the soup series again this summer.)

3 1/2 hours later - the finished product!

I enjoy making dinner for the family every night. Rick will sometimes take over some or all of the duties. And Truman likes to help, too. But for the most part, I enjoy the boys sitting close and coloring world flags while I chop, sauté, stuff or baste. Rick and I were both raised in homes where our parents actually cooked dinner as opposed to slapping frozen fish sticks on a baking sheet or picking up a sack full of McDonald’s. (Not that they didn’t do that from time to time.) I am still amazed at how many parents dread making dinner. To me, food is art and creating new ways to release its flavors is an expression of love. To share it with others, like love itself, makes it even more meaningful.

NPR food commentator Bonny Wolf said in a recent story that our country’s recession is making home cooking more popular again. “But it won’t be exactly like your grandma’s. There will be slightly more sophisticated twists — artisan cheese mixed in with your mashed potatoes. And things will probably be healthier — less butter, more vegetables,” she said. “This may also bring back, the trend-spotters say, the family dinner, which has been a victim of two-income families and after-school activities for the last few years.”

Looks like for once in my life I’m riding the crest of a trend!

Source: NPR
Photos, JWJourney