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I'm going out to a dinner theatre tonight, so for tonight, I haven't seen the menu yet. (But this reminds me, I should take a look ahead of time!)I actually use the word "supper". I grew up with breakfast, dinner, and supper in rural Saskatchewan. But when I moved to a city in Alberta, most people used breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
So, depending where I was (at school/university or at home), dinner meant two different things. So, I stopped using the word altogether! (Except when I mention I'm going to a dinner theatre! LOL!)
Fancy meal - I'm not sure I eat fancy meals. I might be a bit too picky. I love pasta, though. For potlucks, I bake, not cook. But I do make a good spaghetti and I also have a good chili recipe.
I'm not a big sandwich fan. If I was, it would be fine for supper.
I live alone, so usually sit on the couch and eat while I watch tv. If I have company, we eat at the table.
What's for Dinner/Supper tonight? What word do you use for your evening meal?- Our evening meal has always been "dinner" (maybe it's a US thing???) Tonight it is meat substitute, lettuce, tomato, and cheese in an uncooked corn tortilla.
What is a fancy evening meal you love? What is your go to meal? What is your specialty dish (what you make for a potluck)?
- I rarely eat "fancy foods" - it's a combination of my restrictive list of foods I eat and not really liking "fancy" stuff. My "go to" meal is not really one I love, but one most restaurants can make that goes along with my restrictive list -- salad with chicken and no dressing. My specialty dish is apple crumb pie, which always seems to go over well at potlucks.
Are you a sandwich person? Are sandwiches acceptable for your evening meal?
- No, I don't eat bread. It's not on the list.
Sit at a table? Sit on the couch? Eat with TV or without TV? With a book?
- We normally sit at our kitchen island. If we have company, we sit at the dinner table. There's no TV in the kitchen and I don't read when I am eating.
I grew up with breakfast, lunch, and supper. Dinner was for Thanksgiving or some other special event. But as an adult, I think I use dinner more for the evening meal. In British books from the 19th & 20th century, children and working class people had dinner at noonish and "tea" as a supper, that is a smaller and less formal meal but more than tea and pastries as we think of it. They might have a "chop" or bread and cheese, etc. Maybe not fancy but very hard to prepare at home - eggplant parmigiana . It takes a lot of steps and my husband isn't a big fan, so I like to order it at Italian restaurants. I also like seafood dishes that I probably wouldn't make at home. But I think many dishes in fancy restaurants are too complicated, with ingredients that don't necessarily go together.
I had a revelation a while back about ordering in restaurants. I would often dither about what to eat, and my husband said he was surprised, because (as some of you know), I usually have strong opinions on what I like or don't like. I realized the problem isn't that I don't know what I want, it's that I know exactly what I want, and nothing on the menu is quite right. I want the pasta dish but with extra veggies, or the fajitas without the peppers, or whatever. Some restaurants are very flexible on substitutions but others aren't.
Go-to meals are pasta with various sauces or baked chicken. I like sandwiches but I'm very picky about how they are made, like mayo must go next to the lettuce, not next to the meat or cheese, I like the sandwich as one whole thing, not cut in half, etc. A grilled cheese or BLT sandwich makes a fine meal for lunch or supper/dinner. My husband stopped eating gluten over a year ago and he didn't like any of the gluten-free breads, so he just doesn't eat sandwiches at all anymore, unless it's a corn tortilla wrap or something like that.
We have a small house with a dining table by the window and usually eat there but sometimes on the couch using a coffee table if we are watching TV. When our kids were growing up, we always ate in the kitchen, using the dining room only if guests came over. The dining room table was for games, puzzles, homework, and accumulating stacks of paper.
I am not sure what is for dinner tonight. It's raining here and definitely feels like fall, so maybe I'll put together a pot of soup or chicken and dumplings. A fancy evening meal that I love...I guess that would be some sort of Thai noodle dish at a really good Thai restaurant.
It's hard to say what my go to meal is, something quick and easy for sure. I find as I get older that meal planning is not so much fun anymore. I don't mind the cooking part, just the planning part.
Sandwiches are definitely acceptable for dinner, just the other night we had BLTs with tomatoes fresh picked from the garden, delicious. Grilled cheese is also a favorite.
My deviled eggs and crockpot baked beans are always a big hit at potlucks, and are often requested by friends and family.
I prefer to sit at the table. The TV is sometimes on, and I have also been known to read a book when eating alone.
We use dinner in the north east. Nobody says supper. Jaden has had this idea all week that for football day. He wants to make some kind of a nachos dish in the air fryer. He wants the chips, the cheese, the guacamole, and steak…. So that is going to be our experiment for the evening. I might just make a chicken dish for Cameron and I to enjoy. To be honest often I have leftovers. Because I don’t eat much and whenever we go out to eat or order out to eat there’s so much left, that I’m not normally making big meals. Every now and then I can pull something out of my back pocket. But honestly has never been my strength.
What's for Dinner/Supper tonight? What word do you use for your evening meal?Dinner and supper have always been interchangeable; however, I use the word dinner more often than not.
Dinner tonight is leftover quiche ( one is mushroom, onion with Monterey Jack, the other is cauliflower and cheddar).
What is a fancy evening meal you love? What is your go to meal? What is your specialty dish (what you make for a potluck)?
I love fine dining, but what I order when I have the fortune to dine out is totally up to the menu. I am a big foodie, and I really do not have a favorite meal. My go-to meal when I'm at home is a stir-fry, using whatever I have handy. Dish for a Potluck? Probably a pasta salad.
Are you a sandwich person? Are sandwiches acceptable for your evening meal?
I do not eat a lot of bread, but I enjoy a good tortilla wrap. Sandwiches for dinner are a staple around here, grilled, with a side of fries.
Sit at a table? Sit on the couch? Eat with TV or without TV? With a book?
My husband always sits at the kitchen table, and I usually stand at the island that separates our kitchen and family room. The kitchen chairs aggravate my back. My husband always has "the game" on the TV or the news.
I'll probably make tofu with this curry sauce and also some broccoli for dinner! Most of my meals are super simple because I hate cooking, so I'll usually just bake salmon or do some chicken in a pan, etc. If I want to make an effort, I'll do chili or something, which is especially great because I can have that for days afterwards. For potlucks, I'll usually do a baked good. I make a good jam cake that I've brought to a couple of work events, and I'm way better at baking than cooking (I also enjoy baking a lot more).
I'll eat sandwiches here and there, and I'm fine with them for dinner. Maybe I should do that more, then I can cook less lol.
I do have a dining table but tbh I use it to store my library books most of the time. I usually sit either at my couch if I'm reading while I eat or at my computer if I'm playing a game while I eat - depends how I feel at the time and what I'm hyperfixating on!
LIke Robin I grew up saying supper and dinner being for Thanksgiving or Sunday dinner which happened in the early afternoon. Since moving to CA in 1980, I call it dinner.Tonight hubby is making a smoked shoulder roast with Chile Verde. I'll make a green salad to go along with it.
We occasionally will have a blt, reuben or french dip for dinner, but hubby is of the opinion that sandwiches are not dinner food.
I love sandwiches, but Les is not as much of a fan.
We generally watch tv(jeopardy) during dinner. I read most days during breakfast & lunch.
I am the salad maker but have a few other specialties, fish fries, eggplant parmesan, beef stew, some others.
We used to go out quite often but rarely do anymore. I love sushi, oysters, duck or almost any seafood or fish.
Booknblues wrote: "LIke Robin I grew up saying supper and dinner being for Thanksgiving or Sunday dinner which happened in the early afternoon. Since moving to CA in 1980, I call it dinner.Tonight hubby is making a..."
Ooh, I need to come to your house for eggplant parmesan!
We grew up saying dinner for supper. In my experience in Canada it was farmers and people who lived in farming/ranching provinces (so not mine even though there are some farms and ranches) who said dinner for lunch. I always thought it started that way because dinner referred to the largest meal of the day.Back when I could eat many foods I loved to cook, but had a number of specialty dishes. When I got married, some of them weren't appreciated by my husband and that included some heritage ones (but not to worry, too much work to make often) and anything with curry or ginger, so I developed new ones.
I could never be a professional chef for many reasons (slow in the kitchen, for one thing) but invented many new recipes unlike other things I'd ever eaten for cooking and baking. I must have inherited that ability from somewhere, and I liked to do it old-school by hand and to make soup stock without bouillon cubes because it was more of a challenge.
In university I'd have a different set of special things I did each year, and that's when I learned to make mayonnaise, becamel sauce, brown sauce, etc.) My teacher for those? The very best Fanny Farmer edition ever, which my mother gave me when I was very young. 1979. Older ones don't have the teaching and newer ones use too many shortcuts (for me.) (for bread it was a different book.)
Robin P wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "LIke Robin I grew up saying supper and dinner being for Thanksgiving or Sunday dinner which happened in the early afternoon. Since moving to CA in 1980, I call it dinner.Tonigh..."
I only do it about once a year. I also have a moussaka recipe that I do once a year and I haven't done it yet.
Karin wrote: "We grew up saying dinner for supper. In my experience in Canada it was farmers and people who lived in farming/ranching provinces (so not mine even though there are some farms and ranches) who said..."That is my favorite cookbook. My husband gave it to me the first Christmas of our marriage (not because I couldn't cook, but because I love cookbooks). I still use it, 45 years later! So many of our family favorites come from that cookbook :)
Karin wrote: "In my experience in Canada it was farmers and people who lived in farming/ranching provinces (so not mine even though there are some farms and ranches) who said dinner for lunch...."In my anecdotal experience, I would agree with this. I grew up in a farming community and (as mentioned above) dinner was at noon and supper was the evening meal.
It was only when I moved to a city that "dinner" was the evening meal. Since my parents still use breakfast, dinner, and supper, but my adult friends say breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I stopped using "dinner" altogether because it means (in my world) different things to different people. It's obvious what lunch is and obvious what supper is.
Karin wrote: "We grew up saying dinner for supper. In my experience in Canada it was farmers and people who lived in farming/ranching provinces (so not mine even though there are some farms and ranches) who said..."I had that book too! It was a great one
Well, I'm late to dinner - or supper! Yesterday I was out all afternoon, then reading in the evening, staying off the computer. It should be no surprise, since we all grew up in the same
area of upstate New York, that like Robin & BnB, we had supper in the evenings, with dinner being midday on Sundays, big holidays like Easter and such, and during those parts of the year that the neighboring farmers rotated through with equipment to help with haying and silage - those midday dinners would have the table expanded to accommodate the extra men and literally groaning with food with few leftovers. Suppers weren't necessarily light as much as quick prep - lots of steak, potatoes, veg. during the week, lighter on Fridays and weekends.
However, on moving to NYC, the evening meal became dinner and usually the biggest meal of the day, the one where you really cooked something. I still call it dinner but some years ago I went back to the heavier meal in the middle of the day with lighter in evening because I needed the calories to feed the energy I needed to get through long work days where I had meetings every night. Getting home at 9 or 10 at night is not conducive to a big meal. A great side benefit: way better for losing and controlling weight.
I think as LibraryCin said, agricultural and more rural areas use supper with dinner big special meals, but urban areas are dinner in the evening - as you are reminded on menus. In fact, you really only hear 'supper' in connection with special restaurants called 'supper clubs' where you get a fine dining meal with a socializing aspect or live music, even dancing.
I had some leftovers for dinner last night, having had halal cart chicken over rice for lunch in Bryant Park at midday.
I love breakfast all day and often have breakfast for dinner - in part because my stomach can't handle much first thing in the morning. But my favorite meal, which I don't make often given I live alone, is porkchops and scalloped potatoes.
Not much of a sandwich eater though I do have them for any meal if that's what I am in the mood to eat. I am not much of a bread eater, plus I am a messy sandwich eater.
Fancy meal - from a home cooked perspective - a fancy meal is a holiday meal where you have spent hours even days cooking for it. It is also eating out at an expensive restaurant - or as a friend always described it, a 'white table cloth' restaurant. When my friends and I had lunch in the Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower - that was definitely a fancy meal!
As I've been cooking and baking since very young, and I'm good at it, what 'dish' I make to take somewhere varies on the event and even time of year. Also how much time I have to make something - and I always make something, not buy something already made. The 3 recent most commonly taken: white bean and scapes dip with pita triangles (seasonal), clementine cake (flourless - Nigella Lawson recipe), and most often cranberry upside cake (recipe from a fundraising cookbook for a choir that ceased existance in the 1990s).
I live alone in a one-bedroom apartment in NYC - there is no dining room or dining table. I do have an eat-in kitchen - a rarity in that size apartment - and occasionally sit at that table to eat with my tablet standing in front of me to read as I eat, but mostly I eat at my desk when working or on the couch watching tv as I'm mostly alone. If I am with others, it's sitting at a table to eat.
I made homemade chicken soup for dinner last night. It came out pretty well, if I say so myself! We usually use the word dinner for our evening meal – supper is something they have on Little House on the Prairie.
I think my favorite meal is my mom’s brisket. I’ve tried to make is several times but my doesn’t even come close, so my go-to dinner is usually meatballs. I know it sounds weird, but I like making a big batch of meatballs on the weekend to use in various meals: meatball parm, pasta with meatball, Swedish meatballs (in mushroom gravy), Salisbury steak meatballs (in brown gravy).
I’m not big on sandwiches. I used to love grilled cheese – but I’m cheese-less since my gallbladder surgery so now I just stare longingly at blocks of cheddar in the grocery store. However, if you can eat them, sandwiches are 100% ok for a Sunday night meal!
My boyfriend and I usually eat at the table, except during football season – if we eat dinner late, we usually eat in front of the TV to watch the game. Otherwise, we eat at the table with some music on in the background.
What's for Dinner/Supper tonight? What word do you use for your evening meal?We call our evening meal dinner. Sunday night we polished off (almost) the lasagna that a friend brought over when I first got out of the hospital. That beast would feed 12 hungry people. She also brought over a stack of "leftover trays" that are freezer and microwave safe. We attacked the lasagna when my brother and best friend were still here the Sunday after my surgery. Had four generous portions left over to freeze. And last night hubby and I ate two of them, with a side salad and the chianti my friend also provided.
What is a fancy evening meal you love? What is your go to meal? What is your specialty dish (what you make for a potluck)?
Many years ago my husband made what we've come to call "the infamous duck dinner." It was breast of duck, pan seared and served with a three-peppercorn sauce. He actually made the creme freche from scratch, also the duck stock. It was absolutely delicious, but we've never tried to repeat it. A fancy evening meal I sometimes make is chicken piccata ... it's not hard, but definitely putzy. I like to make a fine presentation as well, so I take the time to zest lemons and finely chop the zest with parsley, which I then sprinkle on top. And I have to serve a colorful vegetable to go with (usually a carrot / zuchini blend in an herb butter).
Go to meal is either Spanish chicken & rice, or picadillo, both of which I learned to make from my parents (mom for chicken & rice, daddy for the picadillo). Hubby loves them. One pot meals!
For potlucks I usually bring a dessert... my Mexican brownies (with cinnamon and chipotle seasoning) are a recent favorite among my friends. I've also been asked to bring what my friends call "Tessa's corn" ... fresh, cut off the cob corn, lightly sauteed in a skillet with butter, fresh herbs (varies by what I have on hand) and cumin seed. Takes about 5 minutes to make (not counting cutting the kernels off the cob) and everyone loves it.
Are you a sandwich person? Are sandwiches acceptable for your evening meal?
Yes, and yes. BLT's are a favorite, especially in summer when vine ripe tomatoes are available at the farmer's markets. But even just a simple ham & cheese sandwich will do sometimes. When I was a child Saturday evenings were always sandwich meals.
Sit at a table? Sit on the couch? Eat with TV or without TV? With a book?
When I was working, I always read a book at lunchtime if I was alone. Lately we spend more of our days together, so I don't usually read at the table.
When we had our large house, we usually ate at the kitchen table (seating for six), using the dining room only for more formal dinner parties. When we first moved to the condo, we ate at the dining room table because we had no table in the kitchen, but we've since purchased a nice "cafe" table set which is perfect for just the two of us. Last week, with my brother and friend staying with us in the immediate post-op period, we sat at the dining room table for our meals. Never have the TV on for meals, unless it's on the music channel just playing background music (though we frequently ate in front of the TV when I was a kid).
I should add that I wore my Fanny Farmer book out and am now using a replacement acquired from eBay.
I loved reading all the comments and differences. The night I made this post, we had a chicken and dressing casserole (the chicken inside the dressing already).
I use dinner and supper interchangeably. Mostly dinner thought. There is an ongoing debate at work as many say dinner is lunch. I am enthralled by the idea of the word dinner being defined differently but era and area.
Fancy meal at home is steak, pasta, or stuffed clams with wine. Going out is seafood or something new. For a potluck, my wife normally makes cucumber salad or fluff. Have you ever heard of fluff? or deviled eggs.
I love sandwiches. I am a sandwich man. I will eat a sandwich for breakfast, lunch and dinner all in the same day. My wife is opposite. For her, sandwiches are for picnics or lazy days. And never for dinner/supper. One of our first fights was me taking a roast she made for dinner and making a sandwich with it. Hot roast on white bread with cheese and mayo. I'm drooling right now.
I have to have a table of some sort to put my plate on. I cannot stand holding my plate in my lap. Our dinner table broke recently so we have been eating in the living room but I still have to move the end table in front of me.
If I'm alone, I like to eat in front of the TV, watching an old movie and not the news, because I don't want to be put off my feed.In my language, it's called 'cina' and my latest experiment was a cauliflower gratin that I managed to make extra spicy because that the way I roll when I don't have to take the guests expectations into the calculus.
Jason, I make deviled eggs, not too often and not often enough for my husband's love of them.
I love deviled eggs but am too lazy to make them! We did make them while I was growing up. They are actually very trendy now at NYC restaurants -- offered as an appetizer though fancier than what your wife or I make. In fact I ordered the Deviled Eggs appetizer at Red Rooster Harlem in August when I was there for lunch with a friend. https://www.redroosterharlem.com/And I do know about Fluff - though my family's version was called 12 hour Fruit Salad and came from our catholic church's self-published cook book. I think it's called ambrosia salad in different areas, probably other names as well.
Jason, you made me laugh about sandwiches. It is just the opposite in our house as I love sandwiches and my husband doesn't.It reminded me of a detective mystery series, I read in the 70s. Edward X Delaney was the detective and he loved sandwiches, The book always took time to describe them and Delaney classed them as either sit down and eat or stand over the sink and eat. The first book in the series is The First Deadly Sin by Lawrence Sanders, I'm not sure how they would translate to this day and age, but at the time I got a kick out of him and his sandwiches.
I too, love deviled eggs.
Booknblues wrote: "Jason, you made me laugh about sandwiches. It is just the opposite in our house as I love sandwiches and my husband doesn't.It reminded me of a detective mystery series, I read in the 70s. Edward..."
Oh, I loved that series! And yes, the sandwiches!
The word for my evening meal varies with where I am and who I'm with. I make good vege lasagne (people have been known to visit just for the lasagne....ex-told me that he stayed longer for it), chilli, tacos etc but can't eat those myself now with the cancer diet. I've never really been able to eat out due to being allergic to garlic so I've had to learn to cook and find other ways to get flavour in. I eat a lot of different salads and a lot of different curries but the best food I've had in years is vegan Gow Gees cooked by one of my ex-students while I was recovering from surgery and radiotherapy. He even made up a heap of pre-prepared ones I could freeze then cook when I wanted to. So good, and the chilli and soy dressing he should bottle and sell.
I love fresh bread, but unfortunately processed carbs (white flour) are a no go now, so I rarely eat it or sandwiches. Mostly I sit on the floor under the fan since my aircon is still broken and I can't afford to fix it after paying the medical bills. Either a book or TV is always present.
I love, love, love sandwiches although I can no longer eat them. My husband, OTOH, isn't keen on them. When my son was going through his growth spurt, he'd make sandwiches that reminded me of this (he could eat half a loaf of bread in one meal--he's just over 6 foot 2 now:)
Yes, there were some strange combos because he was having fun.
What is a fancy evening meal you love? What is your go to meal? What is your specialty dish (what you make for a potluck)?
Are you a sandwich person? Are sandwiches acceptable for your evening meal?
Sit at a table? Sit on the couch? Eat with TV or without TV? With a book?