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<\/a>\nThis is not a TV Dinner. Nor does it play one on TV; that would be too meta. (Ceci n\u2019est pas une pipe, either.) Rather, it is a refrigerator magnet measuring 4" x 3" that I bought because it struck a responsive chord in my retro heart, a dissonant chord that reminded me of my culinarily deprived childhood during which my mother\u2019s oblivious ineptness in the kitchen relegated us to a daily sentence of Swanson\u2019s TV Dinners and Morton\u2019s Chicken Pot Pies. (Curious? Read \u201cHow I Got Into Cooking\u201d<\/a> if you dare.)<\/p>\n
Good thing I couldn\u2019t remember what that thing in the middle was supposed to be or I might have taken a crack at that too. It\u2019s possible that the good folks at Swanson never really identified it as anything beyond a \u201cyummy dessert treat topped with a sweet red maraschino cherry!\u201d or words to that effect. My taste memories of it draw a blank. Can\u2019t imagine why.<\/p>\n Happily, and ghoulish flashbacks notwithstanding, the end result, appropriately presented here, was infinitely better than the ur-dinner.<\/p>\n But I still couldn\u2019t resist throwing the canonical frozen pat of butter onto the mashed potatoes. Remembrance of things past. Read on…. Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1479-edited-6-1440.jpg\")
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\nIn any event, this all started because I had been staring at my refrigerator pondering how I should repurpose the gravy from the pernil I had recently made (see post)<\/a> and since that magnet was in my direct line of sight, an itching, quirky thought of reproducing the nostalgic Swiss Steak dinner rushed into my head. So I set out to replicate the dish in all of its 60s splendor, but in a rendition, courtesy of the aforementioned gravy, that would actually taste better than either the refrigerator magnet or its original subject.<\/p>\n
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\nStay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes. \u2764\ufe0f
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