My mom wasn't a very enthusiastic cook. Don't get me wrong...we were well-fed, but she didn't like the process of doing it. She'd get going on dinner around 4:00 or so, right when I came home from school, or more importantly when her soap operas ended. There was no "house specialty." She was a decent cook, not a great one, consistent in her consistency, if nothing else.
So when that paragon of modern convenience, the TV dinner, made it to freezers in grocery stores across this great land of ours, it became a special treat in our household. They didn't really become a staple...they were too "expensive" to buy and too time-consuming to heat up for my mom to fully embrace them, and besides she hated firing up the oven. She was definitely a stove-top cook. The oven was for turkeys on Thanksgiving and Christmas only, because it may spontaneously combust or something. Unplug that toaster, too, while you're over there.
The brand name in TV dinners was Swansons back then, and they came in colorfully decorated boxes. Part of the joy of eating one was the compartmentalized aluminum foil serving tray it was served in. As a budding OCD kid, that organized presentation appealed to me greatly, probably much more so than the bland and often tasteless food it contained. I'm not sure which actual dinner the above photo illustrates-- some kind of beef thing in tomato sauce--but I know I more than likely ate it on numerous occasions. And thanks for the dessert, Mr. Swanson. Nice touch.
TV dinners were "saved" for weekends in our house. My mom didn't really cook on weekends. There were no big Sunday dinners, at least after my grandparents got too old to handle the hub-bub and hassle of six grandsons lurking underfoot. Those colorful boxes were brought out of the freezer and opened up, their ice-cold, frozen treasures placed gingerly in the pre-heated oven, with a little wind-up timer counting down the minutes to pure unrivaled culinary ecstasy. Okay...I'm lying about that last part, just a little. The best part of the whole TV dinner experience was the anticipation, looking at that box and peering through the oven's little window and desiring that color-soaked meal arranged so neatly in its little tray. The food itself was an after-thought, just a motion you went through to complete the cycle. And if memory serves me correctly, the taste never quite lived up to the box.
Maybe we should have just eaten the cardboard.
When I was a kid (same age as you), it was a VERY SPECIAL night when my mom would call out: David... Melanie... go into the freezer and pick what Swanson you want for dinner! She didn't have to call us twice!!! About the only thing better than that was being allowed to say up past bedtime once a week to watch Captain Kirk & Spock.
Posted by: Melanie Preschutti | July 08, 2010 at 10:02 AM
We got to eat them if our parents were going out on a Saturday night. I loved the fried chicken version so much.
Posted by: Joolie | June 29, 2010 at 09:13 AM
Gary,
Looks likem salisbury steak with mixed vegs and mashed taters.. and Cherry crisp or pie as Swansons called it.
I think we may have the same Mom
Posted by: Vinnie | June 28, 2010 at 02:31 PM