meatn3
(equal opportunity eater in the NC Triangle)
21
Growing up a basket of bread was always on the dinner table. It could be sandwich bread slices, Cuban bread still warm from the bakery delivery, corn bread, garlic bread or dinner rolls. I continued this as a broke college student and then as a newlywed watching pennies.
I think I got out of this habit when I became divorced and was cooking for one. I like a variety of bread but as a solo cook it is hard to use them up while fresh and I don’t have the freezer space.
20 odd years later I seldom have bread with dinner. Once in a while, it will show up with certain meals like garlic bread with spaghetti, cornbread with a pot of soup beans or greens. I do have toast as a snack and bread with sandwiches frequently. We have a Wegmans scheduled to open this year so this may change since they sell half loaves!
At casa digga, a giant hearty soup served with thick slices of toasted bread (sometimes rubbed with olive oil and a raw garlic clove) make a regular appearance all year long. I’m Asian so having soup as the main event is quite the norm. Luckily, my non-Asian husband loves soup and bread as much as I do. Our household could never be gluten-free.
I got out of the habit of making my own bread, but I need to start that up again especially with the warm weather helping with the rising. For those of you in the Boston / RI area, I do love Bread Obsession and Seven Stars. I’ve recently weaned myself off the garlic cheddar bread from Great Harvest which I love but unfortunately is wrapped up in plastic.
Very rarely have bread with dinner - we try to limit carbs. But my late father-law (who grew up on a sheep ranch in Wyoming) considered it a felony to have dinner without bread. So when he was at our house, we always made sure we included it. It probably didn’t hurt that my mother-in-law made bread every week.
I find rolls are more solo diner friendly, actually the whole foods near me has a nice variety of them. Shopping that store is generally a miserable experience so I won’t go just to pick up a few rolls, but your new wegman’s might have a similar set up to buy individually
Great topic! I’m a dedicated soup maker and we both love soup and bread dinners. So we always have some sort of bread on the table with soup - baguettes, sourdough, cornbread, savory scones even popovers. If we have a light type soup, we’ll usually pair it with grilled cheese sandwiches. It’s an absolute requirement with red sauce spaghetti or linguine with clam sauce. The adult children would revolt if I failed to make garlic bread for any family dinner (or rolls).
Like so many others we try to reduce our carbs so we usually skip it with most meals, but could eat it with every dinner. As they say, bread is the staff of life.
I love bread, but almost never eat bread with dinner. Only when I’m going out and they bring the bread basket or eating Indian and I get naan. Occasionally when I’m making clams or mussels for dinner, I get too lazy to make a proper starch/carb to accompany it. I’ll grab bread if it’s lying around to soak up clam or mussel sauce. I eat rice with just about everything else though – Chinese/Western, almost always accompanied by rice.
