Trader Joe's Saturday Supper

I never really understood why some people call the evening meal "supper" and some call it "dinner." In our house when I was a kid, it was "dinner", and so dinner it has remained. I seem to recall hearing something at home about how people with less education than my parents had calling it supper, but I could be wrong about that.

I do know that when I was a child, other kids had Sunday dinner in the middle of the day, after church, then "supper" was a bowl of cereal or soup or something. This struck me as being an extremely strange religious ritual, not so much the meat-potatoes-vegetable meal in the middle of the day, but the idea that anyone would enjoy eating breakfast or lunch after the sun went down.

I still have this idea that doing this is kind of strange, despite the fact that sometimes when we're up early on Saturday mornings, Mr. Brilliant hears the siren call of the Tom Sawyer Diner, and off we go for breakfast. You see, there is no such thing as a light breakfast at the Tom Sawyer. I happen to be fond of their corned beef hash, which is the real deal, not that Broadcast crap out of a can that looks and tastes like something Spam-eaters would reject. So I'll have corned beef hash with two poached eggs, a slice of whole wheat toast, and as few wonderfully fresh and crisp French Fries as I can moster the will power at which to stop, while Mr. B will finish my fries and demolish a Monte Cristo with a side of hash and a glass of tomato juice. After a meal like this, he's usually good for a long time, so we've taken to having a light dinner, or supper if you will, of soup and salad from Trader Joes.

Tonight it was the Curried Chicken Salad, which is a just-right portion of white meat chicken, curry mayonnaise, celery, and raisins, with an astonishingly crisp and not-brown-edged mixed greens salad; Organic Creamy Tomato Soup with mini-ravioli, and garlic/parmesan baguette.

The tomato soup has no cream in it, and it's less salty than your standard Campbell's soup. It's very smooth and a tiny bit sweet, so the mini-ravioli (half-cooked separately, then finished in the soup as the latter heats) add some texture and garlicky hints that work well with this comfort food soup.

With a meal like this, I think perhaps the "light supper" crowd is on to something.