I acknowledge that I may be biased since I’m a fan of Ines Bellina as a person and a writer, but her piece really resonated with me. It brought me back to Sunday lunches at my mom’s in Bolivia, with special meals and a proper dessert, along with fruit as regular dessert for the weekdays… it made me homesick, but in a good way.
More fabulously fascinating accounts of - as you said in #1 - the particulars of the mundane… grocery shopping, meal planning, recipes/cookbooks, and best of all: everything as part of the world of family and neighborhood, village, city life!
And these accounts always have me thinking (as they do for everyone I am sure) about our life, our shopping and planning (lol!) and especially family meals…
so, having been raised in a very big extended family that almost always had Sunday dinners at my gran’s with four aunties too plus the six of us, I thought that when our son and his family (two young children and a third on the way) moved from Brooklyn and in with us in San Francisco for a year, we would have these wonderful Sunday dinners together - and I confess the model I had in mind was not just my childhood at gran’s but another big Irish American family, but fictional, the Reagans on Blue Bloods - yes, everyone smiling and laughing and sharing their stories, just like at the home of my gran and aunties (and the Reagans!) - who would not want to recreate that? well, long story short, my first attempt was a bloody disaster: the kids were weeping over God knows what and did not much like what I had cooked (fresh salmon!), the three year old slammed his hand in his plate in frustration and bits of fish and veggies flew all over the place, their parents were struggling to bring things under control, and I sat there in despair, and looked at Marilyn who just shook her head omfg… I tried again, and it got better, but it was never like my grans (or the Reagans lol)… now, in the 12 years since we have had many family dinners at the home of our son and daughter in law, the kids are happy (usually - two are now teenagers, so), we laugh and tell stories together, our daughter in law cooks great meals - my dream of recreating the Irish American family life of my childhood is more or less still alive
I'll drop everything to read these (and just did)
I love this series. I find it helpful to consider if there is anything I can change with my food shopping and cooking.
Happy to hear that! I love doing them so much.
I acknowledge that I may be biased since I’m a fan of Ines Bellina as a person and a writer, but her piece really resonated with me. It brought me back to Sunday lunches at my mom’s in Bolivia, with special meals and a proper dessert, along with fruit as regular dessert for the weekdays… it made me homesick, but in a good way.
Moniiiii 🥰
my favorite series!! yay Bettina <333
love these soooooo much!!!!! can't wait for the next!!!!!!!
Great idea! Loved this, thanks.
Fascinating and illuminating.
More fabulously fascinating accounts of - as you said in #1 - the particulars of the mundane… grocery shopping, meal planning, recipes/cookbooks, and best of all: everything as part of the world of family and neighborhood, village, city life!
And these accounts always have me thinking (as they do for everyone I am sure) about our life, our shopping and planning (lol!) and especially family meals…
so, having been raised in a very big extended family that almost always had Sunday dinners at my gran’s with four aunties too plus the six of us, I thought that when our son and his family (two young children and a third on the way) moved from Brooklyn and in with us in San Francisco for a year, we would have these wonderful Sunday dinners together - and I confess the model I had in mind was not just my childhood at gran’s but another big Irish American family, but fictional, the Reagans on Blue Bloods - yes, everyone smiling and laughing and sharing their stories, just like at the home of my gran and aunties (and the Reagans!) - who would not want to recreate that? well, long story short, my first attempt was a bloody disaster: the kids were weeping over God knows what and did not much like what I had cooked (fresh salmon!), the three year old slammed his hand in his plate in frustration and bits of fish and veggies flew all over the place, their parents were struggling to bring things under control, and I sat there in despair, and looked at Marilyn who just shook her head omfg… I tried again, and it got better, but it was never like my grans (or the Reagans lol)… now, in the 12 years since we have had many family dinners at the home of our son and daughter in law, the kids are happy (usually - two are now teenagers, so), we laugh and tell stories together, our daughter in law cooks great meals - my dream of recreating the Irish American family life of my childhood is more or less still alive
Thank you for including me !!