Do you dessert?
If yes, is it right after dinner? Or later? daily?
It seems like my American grandma would always serve dessert immediately after dinner. Is that a typical American thing, to always eat dessert, and after dinner? Or is it done because we were guests visiting?
At our home, we might have some cut-up fruit or a small ice cream, but more like before bedtime.
Which is more normal? If there is a normal?
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Start Talking!
Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!
Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.
29 Comments:
That's a hard one to answer. And I don't mean because of diet, dining habits or "treat." My grandmother and grandfather always, always had icecream after the midday dinner and early supper, along with fruit, cake, and cookies for dessert. Grandpa was a dairy farmer who believed in whole heartedly supporting his industry. I always had a dish of icecream at their house after a meal. (Dairylea that is.)
My dad always liked his sweets along with my sister. I was more of one to make the sweets and not eat the finished results. Brownies, choc. chippers, pies of any kind, and well, Tunnel of Fudge Cake are the chocolate ones. Baked Apples with vanilla icecream are a definite treat.
Now, no official dessert for my boys, although I make assorted sweet things for them to snack on and sometimes chocolate is in one of their requests.
dhorst at 11:52PM on 12/17/08
Almost always (can't think of an exception) when I have guests for a meal. I don't like to serve it right after dinner. I prefer to wait a couple of hours, but sometimes the guests won't be staying that long.
If I have guests for a longer term (my daughter will be home for 3 weeks for Christmas), then I may have cookies available, but I won't be making desserts. Dessert is a rare treat. If I have some ice cream late in the evening, that is a snack - not dessert. If I have it with a baked good, then it's dessert. Semantics, I know.
PerkyMac at 11:53PM on 12/17/08
More often in the summer than in the winter, probably because dinners in the summer tend to be ligher, and dessert is home made ice cream. Or fresh fruit, Or both.
In the winter, I bake a lot, and whatever I make might be dessert that night, but afterwards I'm just as likely to eat cookies or pie or whatever for breakfast and not have dessert after dinner.
Then again, it depends on what's for dinner. Today was a weird day and I ended up having scrambled ham and eggs for dinner and afterwards I had a few cookies.
dbcurrie at 12:41AM on 12/18/08
Dessert
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dessert
After you read that you realize that dessert is different for where you are, who you are and what you like to eat.
When I was a kid it was pudding, jello and on weekends cake.
In my house it is more often than not fruit and cheese. In the summer I like to do fruity drinks, sometimes with booze. After that you don't care about eating anything.
But for holidays I pull no punches. The dessert is going to be great and big. 9 or 10 inch cakes and or pies. Huge cheesecakes. Maybe it was growing up in dinerland that made me this way. Maybe it was the depression era cake pans that my aunt threw out when my grandmother died (I KNOW HOW COULD SHE and the stovetop pizzelle maker too!!!)
When I make dessert for a holiday or special occasion it has to be good and real big.
I don't eat a lot of sweets. But I love a good piece of cake when I find one.
JerzeeTomato at 1:55AM on 12/18/08
In our grandparents' house, we always had dessert, just like Perky said - a couple of hours after supper. In our house, growing up, we always had "official" dessert when we had special occasion meals, and usually had something sweet that was not necessarily classified as dessert (or pudding, don't ask) otherwise. Come to think of it, this is pretty much the case in my house now.
brooke29 at 1:57AM on 12/18/08
At my house there was always AT LEAST (homemade) a cake, several cookies and choc. lingering year around. When we had guests my mother would bring it all out and let the guests help themselves to it. But if it was just the clan then she would not bring it out, we knew where it was and if we wanted it then we would help ourselves to it.
pjracz10 at 2:30AM on 12/18/08
Dessert and meat are requirements for a meal. Without them it's only a snack.
beersnob at 6:27AM on 12/18/08
We rarely ate dessert at home -- never really had the desire to. When we went to restaurants for dinner, which was around twice a week, we always ordered and shared desserts.
At home on a non-restaurant night, we'd sporadically have a snack (dessert, I suppose) in the evening at ~7:30, well after dinner, which would consist of fruits like mango, tangerines, lychee, starfruit, and mountain apples. Neighbors and friends shared the bounties of their yards, since they could have flowers, ginger leaves, and ti leaves from our yard.
When it was really warm, we'd have sorbet, mitsumame (my favorite), or go out for shaved ice w/ taro and condensed milk. During cooler months, my mother would bake mango bread or mochi wrapped in ginger leaves and we'd snack on that.
Cassaendra at 7:40AM on 12/18/08
We have dessert a few times a week for dinner at home - in summer, it's generally fresh fruit (with whipped cream or ice cream occasionally), and in winter it's most often homemade applesauce, though I do love to bake and we'll have cookies or pie once in awhile. I tend to eat dessert right after the meal, because I have trouble sleeping if I eat too close to bedtime. When I know we're having something on the heavy side, like pie, for dinner, I will serve less food at the main meal.
producestories at 8:19AM on 12/18/08
We only have dessert after Sunday dinner, and there's a break between dinner and dessert. When the kids were still at home they'd have a bedtime snack .. cookies and milk or cheese and crackers.
NanaJoie at 9:00AM on 12/18/08
I love a little sweet about an hour after I eat. One cookie, a sliver of pie, a single scoop of ice cream, a tiny piece of chocolate. I always want it, though I don't always have it. But only on special occasions will I have more than just a couple bites.
annabanannas at 9:10AM on 12/18/08
when company comes -- always -- something decadent and always homemade. last week i made a sorbet with peaches & blackberries that i had put in the freezer this summer..... with a hit of organic black cherry concentrate to bump it up. it was very tasty .... if there's no company usually i forage for a piece of bittersweet chocolate or greek yogurt with a spoonful of apricot preserves and walnuts just enough to take the "edge" off.....
pooch at 9:18AM on 12/18/08
No. But I canoe.
izatryt at 9:22AM on 12/18/08
If my children had their wish, we'd have dessert every night...but I am trying to keep them fit and healthy, and so we reserve dessert for "special" dinners, like maybe twice a week...when we get together for family dinner on a Sunday or Friday night. And it's usually served a bit after dinner...like when the dishes are done. And of course, when we go out to eat, dessert is always a must...but nowadays we don't go out all that often -- man this economy really sucks out loud.
juliebugsmama at 10:12AM on 12/18/08
Is there a normal? :D
As far as food goes; I believe that it usually depends on your culture and up-bringing.
We barely ever had dessert growing up at home only because my parents didn't like it--I thought that I would grow up loving it [you know; wanting what you can't have?] but I inherited the anti-dessert gene anyway.
I like fruits and no-sugar-added sorbets i guess? Marzipan, roasted nuts, too much sugar makes me cringe :p
hungrychristel at 11:39AM on 12/18/08
I never had dessert growing up. Maybe some fruit but that's it. I was so jealous of kids on TV who got to eat dessert after dinner every night. I was astounded when they'd do something bad and their punishment would be "No dessert!" and they'd pout, and I'm sitting there like "Holy crap. I would kill to be that kid. Brat."
Anyway, now that I'm an adult, I can eat dessert everyday... but I try very very hard not to. But I do crave it with intensity. My mother does too now. She says that craving ice cream after dinner is a sign that she's becoming more and more American. Not the fact that she's lived in this country for 28 years, or that she is a U.S. citizen and votes in the elections..... but because she craves ice cream after dinner.
LHSK12 at 11:42AM on 12/18/08
normally after dinner at my mom's house we'll clear the dishes and put on the teapot. once the tea's ready-it's pie time. my mom's are legendary-she makes her own crust and every kind you can imagine.
on my own, i'm not as regimented (or as skilled at rocking out crusts like my mama) but i do indulge in desserts occassionally. mostly tho, i like a cup of espresso and a piece of chocolate. (i live above a chocolatier, which makes it convienent)
gastronomeg at 12:10PM on 12/18/08
I would much rather have a little extra of the main course and sides. Occassionally I will have a sweet with a cup of coffee, but its more of an occasional snack than a regular occurence.
kyle25 at 12:42PM on 12/18/08
Wow gastro! I know plenty of folks who would LOVE to have your place!!!
hungrychristel at 1:11PM on 12/18/08
I think that because my mother made so many desserts and their was so much of it around along with choc, that we didn't get so excited about it. We knew it was there and if we wanted some we could go for it (not the whole pan) but a piece.
pjracz10 at 4:02PM on 12/18/08
We weren't usually served a formal dessert after dinner when I was growing up, but often had a piece of fruit, popcorn and juice, or a bowl of cereal a few hours before bed. My grandmother, however, does serve dessert - usually pudding or jello - immediately after dinner.
In my household, we eat a small dessert (usually a little ice cream or a couple of cookies) about an hour after dinner. It means I don't binge on sweets during the day since I know I get a little something after dinner, and I can keep the Other out of the chocolate (don't mess with a woman's chocolate!).
jenilowrance at 4:16PM on 12/18/08
I don't bake, because I will eat it. We don't have dessert unless we have company to dinner or the grandchildren are here, but there is probably nothing nicer at about 9:30-10 p.m. than a cookie with a nice strong cup of English tea - sometimes I will buy homemade cookies at a bake sale for a special treat.
I remember as kids we used to crave desserts like other families and my Dad used to try to talk us into a nice, waxy, yellow banana, or a rosy red, delicious apple - but 50 years ago, we wanted dessert like on, "Leave it to Beaver!"
bareneed at 4:34PM on 12/18/08
95% of the time I need a sweet ending to my meal and, normally, I will have something sweet and a few cups of green tea after dinner. However, during the week I try to avoid over-indulgence so I'll probably have fruit with fromage frais or a low-fat custard dessert. If I could get away with it, I would probably eat dulce de leche by the spoonful everyday but I save it for weekends, sometimes slathered over a home-baked cake...yum!
HappyMuncher at 7:10PM on 12/18/08
Daily. Right now I'm working my way through a batch of chocolate cupcakes from Toba Garret's Chocolate Fudge cake posted on Epicurious. But with no icing. It takes away from the cake.
beth1 at 7:23PM on 12/18/08
Why have dinner when you can have dessert?
HeartofGlass at 7:49PM on 12/18/08
Very cool to hear all this! I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who does the occasional bedtime snack.
Last night it was cut up and peeled persimmons with my mom, but tonight I might be cleaning my freezer of a few near-empty ice cream cartons. ah, sweet, delicious brain freezes!
mikaque at 9:14PM on 12/18/08
@HeartofGlass because if you don't eat your ? , you won't get your dessert LOL.
pjracz10 at 10:12PM on 12/18/08
Very rarely - maybe once every week or two weeks. But I do love making dessert :)
charm city cupcake at 11:32PM on 12/18/08
i live for dessert, but the older i get, the less i can get away with. if i do have one these days, it's most likely a popsicle.
cybercita at 11:43PM on 12/18/08