Tv dinner

Picked up a large assortment of vintage packaging recently, and chief among the stuff was a neat stash of TV dinner boxes. The boxes were all in pretty good shape, but all of them had their end panel flaps cut off. This is one of the original style of Swanson TV Dinner boxes, the design used when they launched in the 1950's. I've wanted one of these for some time, and this is the first one I've been able to find and acquire.

SURPRISE, it's a mountain of gelatinous mayo for dinner!

TV dinners are still around, but there's probably a special place in your heart for the ones you ate when you were younger.

Andy Beach had quite a few strange, obscure books from his personal collection for sale at the Apartamento pop-up store in Milan last April. But America's Favorites kept us captivated for hours: A 1980 anthology of junk food that treated each item like some kind of museum specimen, listing its package dimensions, date of origin, ingredients, and backstory — from macaroni and cheese to Cheez Doodles. The best part was that there seemed to be not a trace of irony behind the presentation, a…

Just a front panel, and not one of the classic wood grain boxes, I include this as I'm quite certain this was the TV dinner I had at least a couple of times as a kid. I remember the beans and franks, and the chocolate cake, and recall skipping the apple slices.

Peel back the foil and dig into these beans, franks, crisps, peas, chopped meats and Twinkies. Did you ever eat a Libbyland meal?

The TV or frozen dinner, that icon of mid-century American life, offered Renee Schettler and David Leite two different experiences as kids.

Various kitchen items we used to see stocked in our homes may soon disappear completely. Which ones are you still using?

Vigoro Plant Food, 1932 Morton 3-Course TV Dinner, 1969 Hennessey Cognac, 1934 Mavis by Vivadou, 1920 Old Gold Cigarettes, 1946 . PART TWO

David Leite looks at 100 years of American food history by decade and discovered how we've undergone a massive shift in how we eat and think about food.