TV Dinner is a trademarked term that has come into common use over the years, just like Xerox, Band-Aid, Hoover, and Thermos. Bet you didn't know that!
The name supposedly came from the shape of the tray it was served on. The main entrée was in a bigger compartment on one side of the tray and the vegetables lined up in smaller compartments on the other side. The arrangement was similar to that of the front panels of a 1950s television set: a screen on the left and speakers and control on the right. Also, early packaging featured the image of a TV set. Another more obvious reason is that it is a quick alternative to traditional cooking and can be consumed while watching TV.
There's been no TV in this house for the past five weeks but there've been plenty of, ehem, radio dinners, or as I've come to call them, WYSINWYG dinners which stands for 'What You See Is Never What You Get', which is hardly surprising when you consider that the food is frozen with liquid nitrogen which degrades its taste to the point that lots of extra salt and fat has to be added to compensate for it.
How do I know so much about this? Let's say that during several weeks of batching I've not only acquired a taste for but also a knowledge of them. And I'm pleased to tell you that ALDI's Green Chicken Curry is the least WYSINWYG-ish of them all: after seven minutes on High it still almost looks and tastes like chicken.
As for the rest of the housework, there's no need for it at all. After the first four weeks the dirt doesn’t get any worse. Anyway, I'm off to town now to buy some more Green Chicken Curry from ALDI. See ya later!
P.S. Today is Pancasila Day in Indonesia, so let's play their national anthem here. Quite catchy, isn't it? Makes me wonder how many Aussie kids know the words to our 'dirgey' Advance Australia Fair?
