Return to Sunday Dinner: The Simple Delight of Family, Friends, and Food

Maybe you can still see it clearly. Your mother, with an apron draped over her Sunday best, standing at the stove, tending to the bubbling pots, sneaking a taste from each one. Somewhere in this memory, you hear the doorbell ring, ushering in aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friends from church, all enveloped in the aromas of Sunday dinner—a pot roast in the oven, warm homemade rolls in a basket on the table, a coconut cake cooling on the counter. Wouldn't you like to go back there?

Russell Cronkhite's Return to Sunday Dinner revisits the time-honored tradition of the Sunday meal, a day of thanksgiving, celebrating the ritual with recipes reminiscent of the Sunday table where you pulled up a seat years ago. Cronkhite will help you recreate those memorable meals you savored in your childhood, and remind you of just how meaningful it can be to break bread each week with the people who matter most in your life. Explore this selection of twenty-four different chapters/menus, each one specially arranged for different occasions. Try the Slow-Cooked Beef Brisket for a simple after-church gathering for friends, or assemble a big pot of Chicken and Sausage Gumbo for a large family shindig. Want the crowd to roar at dessert? Be sure to whip up the Peach Cobbler with Frozen Vanilla Custard.

And because we all know that life moves at a quicker pace these days, Cronkhite offers up plenty of time-saving tips that will help make Sunday dinner easier than ever to get on the table. Introduce your family to a treasured tradition, and enjoy the distinct pleasure of preparing and sharing a delicious Sunday dinner.

Russell Cronkhite is a renowned chef, pastry chef, and baker whose culinary career has spanned forty years. His work has appeared in Art Culinaire , Bon Appetit , The Washington Post , and Weber's Big Book of Grilling . He served for twelve years asthe executive chef of Blair House, the guest home of the president of the United States.