Usually.
Dinner to me is going out to eat in a restaurant, holiday meal, any big meal I do not have to cook every day.
Us Yankees of my generation switched meals in the winter, breakfast was what one expected to get for supper and supper was what one got for breakfast.
These were the days when woman stayed home and worked part time if at all outside the house. Of course woman did NOT work they stayed at home feeding and cooking and cleaning up, no dish washer, shopping for food, washing hanging cloths out to dry, ironing clothing, dusting and sweeping and washing floors, cleaning windows, Sewing on buttons or making the kids clothes from a patten, repairing husbands clothing, darning socks and in spare time hooking rugs and sewing quilts.
Summers added to all this they worked the garden and set up a winters worth of canned goods. Ledgers, most woman had them to track every penny spent on anything. No, in no way did they work, husband had the load to bring in the cold cash to keep them going.
SIL was telling me how Hubby's family were raised, 7 kids, both parents worked in the Mills. As soon as one of the kids turned 16 they quit school to work in the mills also to help the family. As mother had a baby every 2 years , Catholic family, life was constent problem of how to feed and cloth all these kids. 3 of them needed glasses and the oldest boy became sick and lost his ability to read and write at age 8.
Food for them was just opening cans and eating pasta. On the religious Holidays in came the Aunties and Grandmothers that cooked up a storm for 3-4 days. real food, salads and milk and MEAT. Mother did not cook she was either pregnant or working 12 hours a day.
So, at the age of 48, mother had massive heart attack and died. There were still 3 children under the age of 18 and then 6-8 weeks later their father died of meningitis. Great, 3 minors with no parents and for some reason they were left to fend for themselves, Hubby being one of them.
Years later when I met him, I told him my kids had all run away as I could not cook. He had no problem with this as he had never married an had lived on peanut butter and crackers for 20 years.
Strange but his siblings all made out well, both his brothers can and do cook, his 4 sisters pulled them selves up by the boot straps, and have a good life.
After 20 years Hubby has come to expect the unexpected for supper, but, I have been teaching him 200 ways to cook Ramen noodles just in case I kick the bucket before him.
