More Luscious than ever!

[hydralique]

Dessert . . .

Ever notice how some of that dessert always slopped over into the mashed potatoes and peas and some of the peas always ended up in the dessert?

 

[cleanteamofny]

My goodness, this is showing my age!
Swanson Turkey was great and the chicken was OK, but man how I loved the Salisbury steak!

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[polkanut]

I think growing up we had tv dinners probably no more than twice that I can remember.  When I was a kid we shared a garden with my grandma, and we usually bought a 1/2 of beef every fall.  Meat & veggies were always on hand, so Mom usually cooked from scratch.

 

[norgeway]

SWANSON!

Was the best, I remember the apple cranberry thing!! It was great!!

 

[112561]

Robert

Now I'm thinking in addition to Libbyland dinners, there was another one which used Warner Brothers characters. In Publix, there is still some children's dinner in a turquoise microwavable tray. I'll look for one next time I'm in there.

 

[bajaespuma]

Need to watch "Avalon" again

I remember Libbyland dinners. But just barely; they didn't last long. Libby's made great canned fruit.

I used to love the Swanson's turkey dinner with that nice pad of stuffing under the turkey. Must have made my poor Mother cringe.

 

There was most probably nothing wrong with those first TV dinners; aside from chemical additives that we don't know about, decent nutrition and, most importantly, a long forgotten American vintage rarity: a realistic portion size. Thinking about this because I went out with some friends last night to an "all-you-can-eat" Sushi restaurant and still feel bloated. I love my friends but some of them eat too damn much.

 

[booandsue]

Libbyland dinners

Yes Robert, there were Libbyland dinners with sort of a cartoonish package geared for the finicky child, and also there was Lipton Giggle Noodle Soup. My youngest brother practically lived on this stuff, or sometimes Franco American spaghettio's. Each meal for him ended with a Devil Dog for dessert.

 

[danmantn]

You know, this thread got me to thinking...and I confirmed with my sister.  We never had a frozen dinner growing up (70s).  I need to ask my mom why...of course she fixed all our meals is maybe why.  Knowing her, she probably thought they were too expensive, etc.  My younger brothers and sisters were exposed to frozen pizza a lot - by that point she was working.  I guess that was a big influence.

 

[lordkenmore]

I only sometimes saw TV dinners growing up. They only appeared at lunch. The TV dinner was always the same--a Mexican dinner. I have no idea why there wasn't any variety here. One guess is that when my family went to restaurants regularly, my favorite was a Mexican. The thing I wonder about now about these dinners is that I recall them having some sort of hot sauce in the middle small compartment. I'd have to think that would be acidic, and would react with the aluminum tray (which was still in use).

I saw a lot more of frozen dinners in more recent years. Actually, too much. Living alone, it's hard working up enthusiasm for cooking. I think I've even had frozen turkey dinners on Thanksgiving.

These days, I'm trying to stay away from convenience products of any sort (canned, frozen, boxed). It's still hard working up enthusiasm for cooking, although it helps making stuff that's quick and easy to assemble. But, regardless of enthusiasm, I am concerned about the long term effects of eating convenience products, given that they are often loaded with everything from salt to chemicals whose names I cannot even pronounce.

 

[jeffg]

> Ever notice how some of that dessert always slopped over into the mashed potatoes and peas and some of the peas always ended up in the dessert? <

Thanks to Swanson I discovered fried chicken + brownies taste great together.

 

[booandsue]

Jello 1,2,3,
Whip and chill
Snow's clam flavored chips in a can
Bonamo turkish taffy
Quisp cereal
Quake cereal
King Vitamin cereal
Screamin yellow Zonkers
Sugar Mama
Candy cigarettes
Bubblegum cigars
Cains Sandwich spread. A relish and mayo mix
Chocolate, or lemon, or caramel pudding cake mixes.

 

[mrb627]

Salisbury Steak

I still crave a good Salisbury Steak. Here is my current favorite.

Malcolm

View attachment mrb627++3-31-2011-17-48-49.jpg

 

[booandsue]

More Luscious

Does anyone remember what product was called the man handler. The t.v. commercial would start out with,
HOW DO YOU HANDLE A HUNGRY MAN, THE MAN HANDLER, THATS HOW YOU HANDLE A HUNGRY MAN.
The tune keeps running through my head, but I just can't place it. I was thinking a soup.

 

[hunter]

Salisbury Steak!

We used to eat the Salisbury steak TV dinners. Not often, they were too expensive.

But I loved them, especially the Apple Cobbler in the tray!

Remember the boil in bag Salisbury Steaks you could buy?

 

[henry200]

more luscious......

Now that Hungry Man tune is running through my head. I'm picturing either canned soup or the giant sized frozen dinners. Very nice Estate range by the way, booandsue. I have a vintage magazine ad for one in the same green color as yours hanging in my kitchen, alongside the ad for the 1931 Magic Chef I own.

 

[passatdoc]

I remember the Swanson dinners with the baked fruit (usually apple) dessert.

My mother is a good cook. We had tv dinners only when my parents went out to a social event and left us with a babysitter. Having a tv dinner was considered a special novelty treat. The food wasn't as good as mom's, but there was novelty value in being able to "cook our own dinners" at age seven.

 

[petek]

Drifting.. yes I remember Bonomo

One of my fave candies but only the chocolate.,. haven't seen it in 40 years at least
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[hunter]

it's still available!

It's still available!

http://www.amazon.com/Bonomo-Turkish-Taffy-Chocolate-count/dp/B004CHA18S

 

[booandsue]

more luscious

Thanks for the compliment Henry200. I use this stove quite often. The oven is amazingly accurate.

 

[booandsue]

Drifting

I could actually handle some banana Bonamo Turkish Taffy.

 

[tomturbomatic]

We also had Morton's brand of TV dinners and pot pies. I was thinking that they would have been great to take to school if they would pop them in the oven for you like a half hour before your class went to lunch. Some pot pies were better than others. Sometimes those with an under crust holding the contents did not do so well. Our Sunbeam electric skillet had instructions for fixing a TV dinner in it; this was waaay before toaster ovens. You either inverted a cake cooling rack in the silllet or made little balls with aluminum foil that you scattered in the skillet to keep a space between the dinner and the pan, set the thermostat for 400F and let 'er rip. You could do pot pies in it also, but the crust on top did not brown.

Pity there was no aluminum recycling in those days. The earlier trays were heavier gauge than the later ones and almost looked reusable.

 

[whirlcool]

Remember the boil in bag Salisbury Steaks you could buy?

Yes, I remember those. During my first years out of college when I was flight instructing with few students I lived on those for awhile. They came packaged one to a package and you could buy them for $0.25 each. I'd make a sandwich out of one.
While I can't remember the brand name, I remember the logo was a red block with the companies name in it. Maybe Mortons?

 

[austinado16]

Weiner Wraps.......remember those? Man, we used to eat those bad-boys like crazy.

Wasn't the "hungry man" song for Campbell's soup, for their new line of chunky soups?

 

[jetcone]

OMG

This thread is hysterical, my Mom would do up TV dinners one night a week to take a break from cooking. I always had the Turkey dinner and can remember sometimes getting the aluminum tingle on my teeth!

I think what came next was Dad would take us out Fridays for Chinese food and the TV dinner era ended.

 

Greg you have to drive me by all these landmarks!

 

[launderess]

T.V. Dinners

Can honestly say growing up never touched the stuff. Guess because Mother Dear, my grandmas, aunts and every other woman I would have come in contact with growing up were good cooks, and thus most every meal was prepared from scratch.

However as we children grew into our teens, Saturday night became a sort of "free for all" dinner wise, as everyone usually had something going on, thus grabbed what they could from the fridge or freezer. Can remember thinking how grand I was sitting in the living room alone (everyone else went out), one Saturday night eating my dinner on one of those trays watching the Carol Burnett Show. Sadly for me after CBS went off tuned into a movie that turned out to be "The Night of The Living Dead". My parents came home later that night to find me sleeping with every single light in the house on! *LOL*

Pot Pies:

Now those we did have! My mother belonged to a freezer plan from Macy's so our basement freezer and the one in the kitchen always had goodies. Remember Morton's and Swanson's as being quite good, but only like the chicken and turkey.

Kind of went off pot pies as an adult (do most of the cooking from scratch), but recently local supermarket had a sale on Marie Calander (sp?) pot pies. Since they were so *cheap* figured what can it hurt and purchased a few. Made the first via the old in the oven on a cookie sheet method, and while it was quite good 30-40 minutes is wayyy to long for "fast food" dinner. *LOL*

Next time tired the microwave method and have to say the pie was VERY good. Nice flakey but soft crust (my favourite part) and lots of chicken. Will keep my eyes peeled for the next time they go on sale.

There is an episode of the "Golden Girls" where Sophia wants to go back to her old apartment in Brooklyn,NY because she thinks she's getting dotty. Anyway through flash backs we see a young Dorothy trying to get her mother and father ready for some family event. Sophia made "Sal" a "TV Dinner", and he's eating it in front of the new TV Dorothy and Stan just brought them. Sophia says television is just a fad, to which quips they wouldn't call them "TV Dinners" then.

Guess you had to be there.

Comment About Airline Food Resembling TV Dinners:

Aside from a few brief periods during early air travel most all food is prepared on the ground and simply reheated before serving. The days of airline hostesses or perhaps a chef grilling rib eye steaks in the galley during flight are long gone. *LOL*

 

[gansky1]

We can walk by the 'landmarks', Jon, they're just a couple of blocks away! 

It was Skinner Macaroni company, I couldn't think of the name the other day.   I believe all these brands are now owned by Con-Agra today, still headquartered here.   There used to be a huge Campbells plant right in downtown and some days, you could smell the cooking food for blocks.  

 

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[lordkenmore]

"Aside from a few brief periods during early air travel most all food is prepared on the ground and simply reheated before serving."

That's always been my assumption.

This may be the approach taken by school cafeterias, too. I don't know about today--and I imagine such things can vary from school to school. But back when I was in school, I was told that most of the cooking was done in a central location. Then, it was shipped out in vats or whatever to the various schools, where they'd reheat.