Whatever Happened to Dinner? Melodie M. Davis

About the Book:

Part cookbook, part reflection on the changing role of dinner in our culture and part celebration of family and community—that's what you'll find in Whatever Happened to Dinner? by Melodie M. Davis. It's a book that invites people to eat together, even as it acknowledges the challenges of living in a culture that often pulls us apart.

"This book attempts to be an honest appraisal of family meal customs of the past while sending a clear invitation to reexamine our lifestyles of thrashing about madly in relentless activity. It is a road map—or at least ideas—for how to manage regular family mealtimes, along with simple quick recipes and more complicated dishes. It is an examination of the role food and mealtime play in the family and a reminder of how God gave us the good gift of food." Melodie M. Davis

My Thoughts: 

I was intrigued by this book's title, because, sadly, we hear so much of that sentiment nowadays. The cover suggests (at least that's how read it) that the dog is the only one who shows up and he's wondering what happened to dinner. Really clever! In today's fast paced world, family dinners seem to be a lost art, and not enough people care enough to do something about it. Melodie Davis has addressed the issue with this beautiful and well-thought out volume. Each chapter discusses some of the topics mentioned above, is woven together with a fitting Bible story, and ends with a few recipes.


There are so many aspects about this book that resonated with me: enjoying wholesome home-grown, and home-cooked food, comfort foods and memories, recycling and reusing, family and communal mealtimes, to name a few.

The main thread throughout is the benefits and blessings of families making time to sit round the dinner table and eating together, at least a few times a week. I love this quote from the book which sums it up rather nicely:

"Someone has pointed out that meals prepared and served to a group of people or family take on a certain ritual quality:food is prepared, the table is set, people are called to the table, grace or prayers are said, the food passed. Rituals like this bring people together in common, routine experiences that can be a calming balm after a busy day. Eating food together is a bonding experience that can ease tension, make conversation go easier, make strangers less self-conscious. Mealtimes may be one of the oldest rituals known to humans."

I was reminded of our own ritual of communal meals, and how here too, sadly enough, it's being taken for granted, and people often just don't seem to appreciate this 'gathering round the table' experience that is such an essential element of any Christian community. To quote from my own book, Hutterite Diaries: "Each time I sit here, I'm reminded that we're not just here for "bread alone" but rather because "all believers were together and had everything in common." (Acts 2:44) Even though every meal is a feast, it's about so much more than that. It's stopping what we're doing and 'breaking bread' with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Which sometimes means sharing in someone's joy or grief and celebrating the blessings of community -- one of them being, every meal is being prepared for me. It's a chance to pause and reflect on some of life's most beautiful gifts: faith, family, friends, fellowship and food.

My sincere thanks to Melodie M. Davis and Herald Press for providing me with a complimentary review copy of this beautiful book. I'd like to put it on the keeper shelf, but I'm leaning more towards sharing it with someone else as a Christmas gift.  

Please Pass the Waffles

I've had people suggest I share recipes, and I've been thinking about it, and even had a recipe page at one point. I'm not going to pretend I love to cook and do so regularly, because everybody who knows me, knows that's not true. However, as weird as that may seem, I do love to browse through recipe books -- and get one of my sisters to try some delicious looking morsel I found. One of my favourite cook books is by my friend, Judy Walter: At Home in the Kitchen. By clicking on the link, you can visit her blog, where she hasn't posted anything recently, but there are tons of great recipes from her book which you'd probably enjoy.

In any case, perhaps this will be the first of more recipe sharing posts.

commercial waffle iron

No question, waffles have been served and enjoyed in Hutterite kitchens for many, many years. Mostly they're made in the family kitchens, although there may be some communities who still have a commercial waffle iron. Many years ago, our communal kitchen used to have two, but when they stopped working, they were never replaced for some reason. But our waffle irons weren't as modern looking as the one in the picture. They made round waffles, too, but were big and heavy and took up a lot of counter space. Back then we had waffles served with syrup and sliced grilled bologna for supper regularly.

I wonder if there's still a colony who uses a waffle iron in their communal kitchen. Somehow I never hear of waffles being served in the communal kitchen anymore and I wonder why. If you're from a colony that still serves waffles in the 'big kitchen', I'd love to hear from you!

My family's first waffle iron came from a garage sale and although it took a long time to heat up, we still had many a waffle feast with it. These days we're using a newer model which we got as a gift. We mostly eat waffles when we have family supper. (Many colonies have days when the families all eat in their own home, as opposed to the daily routine of eating in the communal dining hall. For our colony, Sunday is when we have family breakfast and supper.) My sister whips up the batter from scratch, every time. We've tried a few recipes over the years, and I find the best recipes are the ones where the waffles are crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. One of the recipes we've tried is from my friend Judy,'s cook book, mentioned above. She allowed me to post it here. Thanks, Judy!

Waffles

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. vegetable oil

Heat waffle iron. In mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add remaining ingredients, beating until smooth.

 Pour batter from cup or pitcher onto centre of hot waffle iron. Bake about 5 minutes or until steaming stops. Remove carefully with fork.

Variations:

Blueberry waffles

Sprinkle 2 tbsp blueberries over batter for each waffle as soon as it has been poured onto waffle iron.

Strawberry Waffles

Slice 1 quart strawberries. In chilled bowl, beat 1 cup whipping cream cream and 2 tbsp powdered sugar until stiff. Top baked waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.  

I'm sure many people have special waffle memories of their own, I'd be delighted to hear some. In the meantime, get out the waffle iron and enjoy this simple but scrumptious feast. If you try this recipe, please tell me how your waffles turned out.