Sunday Lunch and Dinner: A Smith Family Tradition by Tasha Wright

Tasha Wright is a single mother of two. She holds her family traditions near and dear to her heart, including food traditions. Tasha’s most cherished memories are the ones over a hot meal. Whether it’s a birthday celebration, Thanksgiving, or Christmas the Smith family always has an extensive spread. As a mother herself, Tasha tries to mimic and keep her family traditions going. On Sunday mornings she prepares her a huge family style breakfast, much like the ones she had when she was a child. Although her boys are still young she hopes that as they grow older they understand the significance of this tradition; it’s about more then food but just spending time together as a family.

As a child there was always one thing I could look forward to: Sunday breakfast and dinner at Nana’s house. For as long as I can remember my mother was a single parent and she raised 3 girls by herself. She worked so most nights our dinners consisted of something relatively easy like spaghetti, hotdogs, or Chef Boyardee; something to fill our bellies. One thing that was a constant was breakfast and dinner at Nana’s house.

As I’ve mentioned before, my family’s style of cooking is what I like to call “old school”. Being the oldest girl, my grandmother took on the role as the chef very early on due to her mother’s sickness. During those times there really weren’t “boxed” items so most things she prepared were from scratch. At a very young age my grandmother learned how to prepare meals for 13 people and her technique stuck with her throughout her entire life.

In 1994 my grandfather became sick with brain cancer, so Nana spent more time with him and less time with preparing meals. In 1995 my grandfather passed and so did an era of Sunday breakfast and dinners. Every now and then my mother will prepare breakfast and dinner on Sunday, but it’s never the same and it never will be.