“I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage” was said by American humorist Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) about the cooking of her mother, Erma Haines Harris. “I come from a home where gravy is a beverage” was printed in a Bombeck newspaper column in March 1971. “Thou shalt not consider gravy and hollandaise sauce a beverage” was printed in Bombeck’s Aunt Erma’s Cope Book (1979). “I came from a family that considered gravy a beverage” was cited in a 1985 Bombeck newspaper column and “I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage” was cited in a 1990 column.
   
Bombeck’s jocular family reminiscence has been included in several books on food and famous quotations.
 
   
Wikipedia: Erma Bombeck
Erma Louise Bombeck (née Fiste; February 21, 1927 – April 22, 1996) was an American humorist who achieved great popularity for her newspaper column that described suburban home life from the mid-1960s until the late 1990s. Bombeck also published 15 books, most of which became bestsellers. From 1965 to 1996, Erma Bombeck wrote over 4,000 newspaper columns, using broad and sometimes-eloquent humor, chronicling the ordinary life of a midwestern suburban housewife. By the 1970s, her columns were read twice-weekly by 30 million readers of the 900 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada.
         
Google News Archive
28 March 1971, Palm Beach (FL) Post-Times, “At Wit’s End: It Takes Money To Pay for Diet” by Erma Bombeck, pg. C5, col. 1:
“I wish I could afford not to eat like this,” I said sadly. “But I come from a home where gravy is a beverage.”
 
Google Books
Aunt Erma’s Cope Book:
How to get from Monday to Friday ... in 12 days
BY Erma Bombeck
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
1979
Pg. ?:
THOU SHALT NOT CONSIDER GRAVY AND HOLLANDAISE SAUCE A BEVERAGE.
 
Google News Archive
22 February 1984, Gainesville (FL) Sun, “Dieters: world’s second biggest group of liars” by Erma Bombeck, pg. 15B, col. 1:
The leader of the group was Martha. She had the warmth of Eva Braun.
(...)
“Are you still drinking gravy as a beverage?”
 
Google News Archive
9 April 1985, Ocala (FL) Star-Banner, “At Wit’s End: Spent Life Married To A Wimp” by Erma Bombeck, pg. 10A, col. 4:
I came from a family that considered gravy a beverage.
 
Google News Archive
30 October 1990, Ocala (FL) Star-Banner, “At Wit’s End: Cake dubbed Better Than Sex” by Erma Bombeck, pg. 11C, col. 1:
There are some people who believe that food is more important than sex.
 
I don’t know either one of them personally. And I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.
 
Google Books
The Fifth and Far Finer than the First Four 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
By Robert Byrne
New York, NY: Fawcett Columbine
1993
Pg. ?:
201
I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.
Erma Bombeck
 
8 November 2000, Rockford (IL) Register Star, “Never underestimate mom’s influence” by Laura Pulfer (Gannett News Service), pg. 9A, col. 4:
Erma Haines Harris, mother of Erma Bombeck, died Oct. 23.
(...)
She took up oil painting when she was in her 60s, played poker ruthlessly and specialized in plain cooking. Erma Bombeck used to say that her mom thought of gravy as a beverage. People say Erma got her sense of humor from her mom.
 
Google Books
Readers Digest Funny Family Jokes:
Something for Everyone from Age 9 to 99
By Editors at Reader’s Digest
White Plains, NY: The Reader’s Digest Association
2014
Pg. ?:
“I. come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.”
ERMA BOMBECK
 
Twitter
Petit Pois
‏@petitpoiscville
‘I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.’
-Erma Bombeck
Maybe Erma would like our sausage n’gravy
7:03 AM - 3 Aug 2014
 
Twitter
Kyle harrison
‏@Kyharrison82
At my thanksgiving, gravy is considered a beverage.
12:55 PM - 13 Oct 2014