Although my parents had 15 children altogether, we did not all live in the same house at once. As some of the children got bigger they would move out and start their own families. There was a big slew of us but we were always happy. We always had a lot of company and we always had somebody to play with.

This is a list of all the foods me and my family would eat for dinner and supper in a week. This menu is what me and a lot of other women would cook around 40 years ago. Everything back then was cooked on wood stoves. There were no electric stoves or microwaves in those days. The wood stoves took a little longer for stuff to cook, but they got the job done. In those days everybody ate a lot of bread. Bread could go with anything and it was placed on the table with just about every meal. I would have to make bread 3 times a week and each time I would make 7 pans. Every morning for breakfast I would have a slice of toast and a cup of tea.

Monday was bean day for us. For dinner I would usually cook stewed beans and sometimes I would cook baked beans with molasses. Beans were cheap and they made a good hardy meal. For supper I would either have stewed fish or fried fish. With the stewed fish I would add some onions, potatoes and turnip.

Tuesday for dinner we would have smoked salmon. For supper we would probably have corned fish and I would also bake a few potatoes to go with the fish.

Wednesday was 'Jigs Dinner' day. We would have salt meat, potatoes, turnip, carrots and sometimes cabbage when we had it. I would also make a blackberry pudding or a peas pudding. If I did not make a pudding I would cook a few doughboys. Sometimes we might not have a turnip and sometimes we might not have no carrots but we always made due with what we had. Jigs Dinner was always a good feed. For supper we would not have much. Usually we would have some bread with partridgeberry jam on it and a cup of tea.

Thursday for dinner we would have rolled oats or cream of wheat. This was a good meal and it was very cheap. For supper I would bake some kind of bird A duck, a turr or even a gull. In those days people ate gulls if that was all that was around at the time. Actually gulls tasted good and there were always lots of gulls around. I would also put some potatoes in with the bird to stew.

Friday for dinner I would cook fish and brewis and of course what would fish and brewis be without some scruchins fried up. This was a traditional Newfoundland and Labrador meal and just about everybody loved their meal of fish and brewis. For supper we would eat the leftovers from dinner.

Saturday was pea soup day. I would cook some pea soup and I would also cook some doughboys to go with it. For supper we would usually eat the leftovers from dinner Saturday was baking day for me. I would bake a blackberry cake or a partridgeberry or a bakeapple pie. I would also bake some old fashioned buns, the ones with the raisins in them.