Family Meals....A thing of the past?

Growing up, we usually had only one meal together as a family. That was dinner during the week and breakfast on the weekends. With different times for the start of the school day for my siblings and I, we all waited for our turn in the bathroom if we wanted to shower in the morning, otherwise we stood in line for the half-bathroom, that consisted of a sink, mirror and toilet. Weekday breakfasts consisted of oatmeal or cereal and milk. But for dinner, the menu contained a wide variety of culinary delights. One day it was spaghetti with sauce, the next would be tacos, while pizza with the crust made from scratch made it's way to the table at least once per week. That was one of the advantages of having a stay at home mom! Of course, the palette pleasing Arabic foods found their ways into our mouths as well. The delicious, magloubeh, kufta, shish kabob, chicken tawook, accompanied salad, tabouleh, and a variety of other side dishes. Same procedure day in day out.....get home from school....work on homework then at 5:30 it was time for dinner. Mom would ask one of the kids to help her with last minute preparations, then it was time to dig in! I remember the TV was in the living room and if you got the right chair, you could eat dinner and watch TV...but hearing it?? Forget about it...there was no way to hear over the discussions and roars of laughter!

The weekends were quite the affair! Everyone rolled out of bed at different times...but the last to rise was around 9:00 am. That allowed for everyone to be involved in making brunch. Now this is what I looked forward to every Saturday and Sunday. I usually woke up at 6 and waited for the TV stations to start broadcasting...yep...I am aging myself. From 4 am to around 7:00 am the major stations in our area stopped broadcasting. They only showed the time and the vertical bars in the colors of the rainbow....and that God awful long tone...that could drive you insane. And you didn't dare turn the volume down, because if you did then you ran the risk of missing the first few minutes of the Saturday morning cartoons!! And that is what all the kids watched in those days! There was no cartoon network or Space Toons....nothing like that...cartoons were only shown on Saturday mornings. My favorite was Superfriends (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfriends), featuring Superman, Aqua Man, Wonderwomen, the Wonder Twins, Batman, and the Boy Wonder Robin. I loved that show and the Hall of Justice!! Ah, great times!! Sometime I would get so hungry that a bowl of cereal would keep me until the hot breakfast was prepared. My parents like to sleep in, but when the go up the preparations for breakfast began! Dad would open cans of Fava Beans to make foul, Chick Peas for humus. Mom would get out the olives and cheese. The last thing made was either the eggs and cheese or Agyeh, or as I like to call them Arabic Pancakes. Sometimes, we just had eggs and pancakes, the light and fluffy kind with syrup that always seem to drip on my chin and pajamas! I didn't really wear pajama, I wore a dishdasheh a few times..but that was so uncomfortable...so I usually resorted to wearing shorts or sweatpants and t-shirt! But as soon as the table was set, mom heated the bread and everyone stopped talking and ate! And ate and ate and ate! It was so delicious....every time!

As we got older, these occasions seems to disappeared. Now we only have these breakfasts and dinners on special occasions and holidays. I am not sure about my siblings and parents, but I cherish the ones we have as I know they unfortunately will become far and few between as the months and years pass. I am sure we will continue the same traditions when we have families of our own, and of course I will make dad's famous humus to serve to my kids and grandkids!