Sunday Dinners

I look forward to Sunday dinner (lunch) at my great aunt’s (Ilene) house all week. The fellowship with my family is special. The food is heart warming and it is a treat for me after cooking during the week. My great aunt is a great cook and prepares the main dish. Everyone else helps out by bringing dessert, salad, bread, or a side.

On the menu for Sunday dinner is red beans and rice, turnip greens (I made), jalapeno cornbread (cousin, Theresa made), salad (cousin, Andrea prepared), pineapple-sour cream cake (cousin, Jennifer made), and apple galettes (I made).

To feed the crowd we have on Sundays, my great aunt Ilene brings out her big silver pots. Her red beans and rice is not like any I have had. It isn’t thick and creamy like most. I like hers because it feels lighter with the thinner consistency. She prepares it with beans, ground beef (from their farm) and sausage.

For dessert, I decided to make for the first time an apple galette. I thought of it like a free form apple pie. Its simplicity was key because I had to bake three to be enough for our large Sunday dinner.

   (Pictured on the left) I prepared it with a traditional pie crust.                                                  

 (Pictured on the right) I prepared it with my olive oil pie crust. When trying a new recipe there is always learning to be done. So from making the apple galettes, I learned that there is a perfect balance of dough thickness. One pie crust I rolled out a little too thin and the apple slices wanted to pierce the dough. My olive oil pie crust I felt needed to be rolled out a little thinner. My third apple galette’s pie crust thickness was perfect.

Everyone enjoyed the warm, flaky, cinnamon spiced apple galettes with creamy ice cream or a dollop of homemade whipped cream. Delish!

 Kid (my younger cousins) tested and approved!

My great aunt reminds me a lot of my great grandmother (her mother). She never wants anyone to clean up afterwards but to enjoy each others company and fellowship. We made our way outside to watch the kids play.

Conversation turned to my cousin Jennifer as she told us about new exercise pieces of equipment she bought. It was weighted hool-a-hoops. So of course we all had to try them out and see who could hool-a-hoop the longest.

Being a competitive family, there is always a competition.

I won’t say who won but my mom can work those hips. I didn’t do such a bad job myself haha.  I think if anything we worked off some of my dessert.

It wasn’t long after our hool-a-hoop contest ended that my cousin Kirk’s truck with horse trailer drove up. His kids ran up to see him and their brother after they had been gone for a few days. Kirk and his son Kason had just arrived back from Oklahoma. Kirk bought Kason a roping horse. Kason decided on the name Okie for his horse after getting it in Oklahoma.

After snapping a picture of Okie through the fence. I noticed my great aunt and uncle’s fig tree. It was loaded with ripe purple hued figs. I thought I would sneak a few and my great uncle Bill saw me from the barn. He yelled, “Whitney you can get them better with a ladder.”  Sweet, my invitation to pick more! My dad and mom joined in as we filled up a bowl of figs.

My mechanically talented cousin Michael (Jennifer’s husband) said you don’t need a ladder. I can rig you up a fig picker and so he did.

With a emptied out can, he cut a “V” on one side. He then attached it by screwing a nail into an adjustable pole. We now had a fig picker that could reach even the tallest of branches. He demonstrated how you put the “V” up to the top of the fig and it will instantly release it from the limb. Genius!

By the end of the afternoon, one of the kids decided it was time for a watermelon. My dad cut into it and we knew it was really ripe when it split after just barely being cut in to. 

We all enjoyed the watermelon. Even the little green frog wanted in on it.

After scrambling to get cleaned up from watermelon juice and more, we dressed for church. Then afterwards, we came back to my aunt Ilene’s house to have leftovers and fellowship more. Jesus has really blessed me with an amazing family. Until next time……

….But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. -Joshua 24:15