Welcome to our Sunday Dinner and Celebrations page! Our mission is to celebrate home-life with monthly exclusive and delicious Sweetie-licious recipes and ideas, in that we all will continue the rich tradition of lovely family dinners in our homes. We are thrilled to share our treasured library of recipes and traditions to help make our lives meaningful, our homes happy, and our palates joyous!

A few years back, I stumbled onto this vintage cookbook in an antique store, and just had to have it; not only for the recipes, but the pictures and illustrations were just too charming to pass up! After perusing through it recently, I decided that the whole cookbook needed to be highlighted on our Sunday Dinners webpage!

One of my favorite aspects of old cookbooks is the window of vintage light it lets in on our modern world. These cookbooks depict how folks ate, dressed, how they lived, and the wonderful recipes they contributed to today's wonderful world of food!  This cookbook is charmingly dated, as it refers to gender roles often, so keep that in mind while  reading the excerpts below. It is from 1960 after-all, a time when American housewives'  baked cookies in heels!  So, so glad that habit fell out of favor! Enjoy a look back in time to a backyard barbeque and the wonderful recipes for you all to enjoy! 

(All the text in quotation marks is from the Big Boy Barbeque Book published in 1960 by the Tested Recipes Institute, Inc.)

"... It's no wonder barbeques are becoming to popular! They are recognized as the graceful, informal way to entertain. Whether in a penthouse garden, a cool patio, a shady lawn, or at the beach, it's a chance for a woman to get out of the hot kitchen into the open air where cooking is a pleasure and the men often take over."

Grilled Mushrooms
Grill-Roasted Corn
Barbequed Shrimp
Fan Tan Garlic Rolls
Honey Grilled Pineapple

Seasonal Ideas

"More and more, people are realizing that the fun of a barbeque needn't be restricted to the summer months - that late fall and early spring cook-outs are exciting because of the feel of the crisp air and the smell of charcoal barbequed meats. Even in the winter, a barbeque in the garage, a breezeway, or any other sheltered spot is possible and fun too."

"Husbands become the experts and do the barbequing. Wives take it easy. All they have to do is make the salad and dessert. The kitchen stays clean. The house remains neat. There is almost no wash-up afterward."

"Be the barbeque leader in your neighborhood. Your friends will call you the best host in town. Then they'll invite you to their backyards after they've learned your tricks of entertaining in the great outdoors." 

Keeping it Simple

"Everybody pitches in and enjoys the "get-ready" as well as the eating. New acquaintances and neighbors are like old friends after you've cooked a meal together."

"You can laugh at bumper-to-bumper traffic... as you play host in your own backyard. All the comforts of home, plus the care-free informal fun of the picnics you loved in childhood!"

"Pull up the benches and have a big crowd. You can entertain 15 or 20 outdoors with less trouble than it takes for six in the dining room, and with less strain on the budget. On weekends outdoor breakfasts are fun too!"