Traditional Sunday Tea

Hello,

There are many things I love about England, but traditional Sunday tea is not one of them.

Yesterday, we spent the day at my in-laws and had Sunday lunch there.  When we do this, my MIL always, always has a traditional Sunday tea.  My DH hates it, too, and has been telling his mum this for years.  But, she is in her 70's and set in her ways.  She's not changing the routine for us!     I just can't get into a spread of bread and butter (jam optional), a selection of cakes, malt bread and meringues served up as a meal.  I actually came home last night with a queasy stomach.   

I'm not trying to be mean.  I know that it is traditional, but Tony and I always cringe and if we don't leave his parents by 5:00 on a Sunday, we're stuck and we have to eat.  Is this a generational thing?

What does everybody else think?  Does anybody else have relatives who uphold this culinary tradition?  Will Sunday tea die a slow death?  Perhaps we're the odd ones out, but surely somebody here in UKY feels the same?   

James' grandmother always used to insist on doing the full tea everytime we went to visit.  And she was so old that we all knew what an effort it must have been.  Plus we had toddlers and babies. 
Funny story, one of James' cousins has an American husband and on a visit once they went to the grandmother's house-were offered the full works and REFUSED it.  Said they only wanted a drink of water!  The entire family still talks about it.   

You guys must have married middle class lads. At my MIL's house we get pies and chips with lashings of gravy, runner beans and endless cups of PG Tips!!

Funny story, one of James' cousins has an American husband and on a visit once they went to the grandmother's house-were offered the full works and REFUSED it.

OH NO!   

That IS funny!  The older generation takes this very seriously.

You guys must have married middle class lads.

Actually, the sitcom Keeping Up Appearances springs to mind!  My MIL has every day china!
She's really of the old guard with the tea thing.  She takes her jam making and cake baking seriously too - a WI veteran. 

Anyway, I love to hear these stories.  I've always felt a bit like there was something wrong with me for not loving traditional tea!

I've found that combining traditions works well for me.  While my DF's parents are both departed, he still enjoys the full-on Sunday tea.  That's great, fine and dandy, but I have added my own things to it...that way I can enjoy a taste of home.  Some things I've added are sweets, others are savory yummies--which certainly helps lessen the sugar-round-up.

Not sure if you want "suggestions" or not--but maybe offer your MIL some help...tell her that, with her blessings, you would like to introduce a few "American-isms" to the tea, while keeping the English tradition that she holds so dear.  She may appreciate the help and who knows, the new savory treats can make the day a little more special...

Of course, if there is nothing to be done to alter the situation, look at it this way:  Your MIL is in her 70s.  She is set in her ways and does these things out of love and care (one would assume).  At some point in time, she will be gone from this world, just a memory to all who loved her.  Think of the fond memories you are creating for you and your hubby/kids as well as the pleasure it is giving an old woman in her twilight years.

Just a thought...

Thanks Frances!  My husband and I just really joke about it.  We wouldn't dream of denying her it.  We all just have a good laugh.  (and then come home with a stomache ache and suffer in private)

I'd love to offer to help her with the food because I adore cooking.  But she's the type who doesn't let ANYBODY into the kitchen and has very specific ideas on what she wants to make.  It's a real pleasure for her.

However, she has asked me on occasion for a recipes for her ladie's luncheon club, just to serve up something "different"  This is a HUGE compliment!   

Think of the fond memories you are creating for you and your hubby/kids as well as the pleasure it is giving an old woman in her twilight years.

This is very true.  We just don't like to eat it! 

Thanks for making me now appreciate that I will only have a tradition of Sunday morning breakfast to which I am expected to attend!!!

Helena

My DH's family does the Sunday tea thing but it usually includes cold meat from the Sunday roast that you had only 4 hours earlier. Not bad but way too much food in one day.

What is causing me some distress is having a range of four veggies... cabbage.. peas..... carrots... and on an odd occasion runner beans.... oh and more boiled potatoes than a person can handle...granted they are older and all our friends and my SIL use tons of other veg..but....ugh!

I love the DH's family Sunday roast, but after we moved out I cooked every spicey food I could think of and bought tons of veg not related to the four above...and I can't look at a boiled potato at the moment.   I got to the point I was plying them with mayo and making a pseudo potato salad....

I got to the point I was plying them with mayo and making a pseudo potato salad....

Hey, that's how I used to eat them as a child.  Slathered in Miracle Whip.  And when mum cooked boiled ham, cabbage and potatoes, the cabbage and potatoes would get mushed together with a nice drop of Miracle Whip.  Yum.   

Oh I agree on the Sunday Roast thing.. it's nice.. I do it too... though I do introduce my own touches like broccoli or califlower and um garlic and rosemary on the lamb and well... just spice and flavor...

I don't think I will be doing it every week though....we didn't in the USA but mostly because it was to dang hot and I was too dang tired....

ask me in the winter when my butt is freezing in my basment level kitchen and I might be just doing a roast nightly..

Love the roast.  It's the tea with all of the sweet bakery and jam, a few hours later, that does me in.

My MIL does boiled potatoes and roast potatoes.  The roasties always go, yet there are always leftover boiled ones. 

The leftover boiled potatoes and cabbage get used in bubble and squeak the next day! My in-laws are both 80, and their diet is OLD SCHOOL--celery is exotic!

* vnicepeeps Looks in fridge and sees bubble and squeak....

  FIL still goes for the Sunday gathering every week and brings home a plate of the stuff.  My fondest memory (or not) of it is when I was first visiting my husband and it was a muggy August day... FIL used to leave the bubble and squeak outside overnight so... well... think... muggy August.... cabbage, roasties, carrots, parsnip bits...... all over 24 hours old.... very hot room....

need I say more?


 

and Kelli I agree... I like the food they serve for Sunday Tea I just am usually so full I can't move after Sunday lunch. 

That and my DH's family are of the non dish rinsing type so.... I do think it is the generation as our Unlce that does the cooking is in his 70's.....most of our younger friends don't do the traditional Sunday Tea thing.... but who knows....

Just a thought, you know all the "leftovers" from a big sunday lunch, like the cold cuts of meat and those extra potatoes and veggies....
Does anybody make "Bubble and Squeak" on the Monday???


My husband has cooked it for me and my son many times and sometimes it's better than the sunday lunch in itself!!

My husband makes Sunday roast every week. Even when it was boiling hot yesterday he had the oven going. Same thing each week. Roast beef, broccoli, mashed potatoes, Yorkshire puds and Bisto gravy. It was great at first but now Im so sick of it! One Sunday I made Fajitas. lol  He said it didnt seem like Sunday without the Sunday roast. And why does he have to roast the damn meat till its dry as a bone? His sister makes it the same way. Its like eating shoe leather. Then when you poor the cheap Bisto over it you can nearly hear it soaking in. lol
Pebs