I have known for a while that our meals are not balanced. I knew it was time to get back to basic with old fashioned meal planning. I started adjusting recipes and spent a lot of time planning only to find I still did not have it right.
I went back to my older books and looked through them and still could not find what I was looking for then I found this one book that brought back so many good memories. My husband and I spent a good part of one day reading together, discussing, talking and laughing about our past. We started remembering things that we had forgotten and compared the differences in our meals while we were still at home with our parents.
Here are my Grandmothers. The one on the left my Grandmother from the North and on the right, my Grandmother from the mid south. My Grandmother from the north was French Canadian and Grandmother from the south very southern.
My father was loving, fun, and entertaining, however, he had certain table rules and when we came to the table we were to behave a certain way. He wanted the table to be set proper.
His mother is the one on the left pictured above, born in 1898 in Canada, spoke fluent french and lived most of her life in a village in Upstate New York.
My mother knew what my father expected and she took care to seeing that our table was set proper and we were to be taught table manners. One thing my father did not stand for, we were to never say we did not like something. If we did we would get a second helping. It does not take long to know not to say that as we would have to sit at the table until that second helping was gone. As time has passed and we all became older (even my father) we became a bit too relaxed at the table and we somehow lost our proper table setting as well as the manners we once had.
To those that are familiar to my blog you will recognize this photo that I seem to use often. Photo taken in the late 1940's.
I am trying to regain my knowledge and go back to having a more proper table setting but I want a slightly more casual setting where there is not too much work in doing so.
My article here today is about Supper verses Dinner. This comes from the 1940s and 1950's meal planning, not today's time.
There is Breakfast, Luncheon or Dinner, Supper or Dinner. What does this mean?
The noon meal may be called Luncheon or Dinner. The evening meal may be called Supper or Dinner. It all has to do with the size of the meal and or portions. Whether the light meal is called Supper or luncheon, the same types of food are used.
Here is what makes it Dinner or Supper.
The word Dinner means the heavier meal which can be at lunch (as we know it today) or evening meal. Luncheon and Supper are the lighter meals. Supper would be a light evening meal.
The word "Dinner" would mean "Heavier Meal". For balance in how we eat we would never want to eat two Dinners in one day or we would have eaten too much. I am using noon just as an example for time to explain to eat lunch as we know it today, so Luncheon means light lunch and Supper means Light evening meal. Dinner can be used at noon or evening describing that it will be a heavier meal at those times.
If we had Breakfast, Luncheon and Supper we would have not had a lot of food that day. But if we had Breakfast, Luncheon and Dinner our evening meal would have been a full meal. If we had Breakfast, Dinner and Supper our Noon meal would have been our heavier meal.
Here is a sample menu showing both ways.
Here is a menu with two choices for a late 1940's NOON meal at home. Which is Luncheon and which is Dinner?
Cream soup cucumber sandwich
Strawberry shortcake Whipped Cream
Beverage
OR
Vegetable Soup Croutons
Roast Pork and Pickle salad Bread
Orange Marmalade Beverage
If you choose the meal with the vegetable soup, croutons, roast pork and pickle salad you would be eating Dinner at noon. Notice the 1940's meals are quite a bit different than today.
Here is another example using a full day's home menu.
BREAKFAST
Strawberries on Puffed Wheat
Buttered Toast Coffee
LUNCHEON
Vegetable Salad with Grated Cheese
Bread Olives Butter
Ginger Bread
Tea or Milk
DINNER
Tossed Green Salad
Veal Steak in Mushroom Sauce Mashed Potatoes
Buttered Beets
French Bread Butter
Raspberries Wafers
Coffee
ANOTHER MENU (Saturday meals)
BREAKFAST
Fresh Berries on Shredded Wheat Biscuit
Coffeecake
Coffee
DINNER
Beef Pot Roast Mashed Potatoes
Brown Gravy
Carrots Onions
Garden Vegetable Salad
Biscuits Butter
Cheese Tray Fruit
SUPPER
Frankfurts Baked Beans
Brown Bread Apple Jelly
Green Onions and Radishes
Fresh Pineapple Sauce Cupcakes
Tea or Milk
In the past portions were much smaller than they are today and plates were smaller as well. There was more variety to help satisfy our taste buds. When I was a teen and we moved to the deep south I did notice a difference in the foods and how they were placed on the plate. It was more casual. Servings were about the same but gradually over time portions have increased as well as the size of the plates.
I hope this was informative and I did not confuse you even more. Grandma Donna
