sunday traditions

When we were in England last spring it seemed like in every village we visited there was a sign outside the local pub for a Sunday Roast Dinner – that was always the special (more on the revival of this tradition here). Those quaint little signs brought back a lot of memories for us, thinking back to when our own families would to serve a big roast beef on Sunday and all the kids would play outside in eager anticipation for that slab of meat to anchor a bountiful family meal where every mouthful tasted like home. And I remember one Sunday afternoon when Star, our German Shepherd, snuck inside the Mullins’ house and nabbed the finished roast right off their kitchen counter. So much for that dinner.

This past October Mike and I spent a couple of days driving through the back roads of New England where the leaves were indeed “unbearably beautiful,” in the words of the late Charles Kuralt, and in practically every small Vermont town they too had a Sunday special posted on little signs outside their restaurants: Chicken Pot Pie. (Read about this peculiar tradition in the Washington Post.)

So happy Sunday to you. And for this last day of rest before the New Year is upon us, we’re sharing two recipes: a proper British Roast Beef, courtesy of Jamie Oliver, and a Vermont Chicken Pie supper from Saveur. Whatever you serve this day, do it with love and celebrate your own family.

 Perfect Roast Beef – Get the Recipe

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Vermont Chicken Pie Supper – Get the Recipe

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mexico in a jar

Mike is always in search of the perfect mole and we’re still on that journey. But according to some reviews, these sauces from Bunches & Bunches in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, might just do the trick. Wrapping them up now for Father’s Day. Shhhhhhhhhh.

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Available at Bunches & Bunches or through Dean & Deluca.

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this is scottish country

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sunday reading

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Dedicated to Mike D’Avanzo and dads everywhere…

A Man’s View on ‘Having It All’

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Illustration by Paul Windle

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if chairs could smile

Remember these? If you were a child in the ’70s, chances are you or one of your friends had a Butterfly Chair in the house. I remember ours so well….Mom and Dad kept them in the back gravel driveway and we’d sit out there on summer evenings, batting away mosquitoes, chattering about the day, waiting for it to get almost dark so we could go play Capture the Flag at the Werners across the street. Fast forward to 2012. As the Brooks kids prepared for Mom’s estate sale this past spring, Mike and I were getting ready to leave her house when we took notice of the old chair frames still sitting there in the rocky driveway — lonely and rusted from years of neglect, ivy literally growing up over them — all the family noise and laughter now long gone. On impulse,we grabbed the three heavy iron chairs, hoisted them onto the moving truck and carried them off to Alabama where Mike has been cleaning, sanding and painting them ever since. Then we found a great source, Circa50, which has an in-house seamstress who makes covers for these old classics. So we promptly measured each chair (each one had a different measurement; go figure), put in our order and waited. The custom covers arrived recently and now the old chairs are back in action — waiting for folks to gather round and (we believe anyway) enjoying the sounds of laughter, and life, again.

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