Yes please! home design

There's a wonderful home, still available as I write, that has "a separate kitchen wing with both a breakfast room and a snug"! as reported in, well, next month's The English Home US edition. You can see much more at its realtor's site: http://www.jackson-stops.co.uk/cgi-bin/properties/summary-details.pl?propID=81976 , which mentions more food glories: "Lying between the drawing room and study is an internal corridor with steps up to a cloakroom and apple store with original safe. The study has a cosy feel and has steps down to the wine cellar with brick divisions providing storage bins." And if you like me realized I never really knew what a snug was outside of a pub, here are ideas: https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/gallery/stylish-snug-idea .

Homemade TV Dinners!

September 10 is National TV Dinner Day! Last year I sort-of missed it and really wanted to make my own this year! I ordered trays from https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012BZDOHC/ that turned out to be perfect for this! Here's my first try:

It was really tasty!! But a bit too much food! I got the ideas from the 1972 edition of the Betty Crocker Do-Ahead Cookbook, pictured here with a Sweet Peas Meals! bit and a menu I made up for us for a little health concern:

BUT so far the only thing I've used from the book are the TV dinners ideas, which basically are to put these in a covered oven-safe divided dish:

MEAT: Always cooked. Either have a very tasty juicy meat (like the leftover sausage patties we had) or have one with a sauce.

VEGETABLES: Use frozen ones, put some butter on top. (We had carrots and green beans plus a marvelous potato latke -- a potato pancake with onion -- we find here sometimes.)

RICE: Use instant/Minute rice in the proportions of 3 tbl rice to 1/4 cup water plus some salt, pepper, and if you'd like a flavoring like a bit of curry powder. (We had instant brown which I hadn't actually frozen, but I think that was ideal because it takes longer to cook and this way it was perfect.)

To cook: 450 in a convection oven for about 25 minutes (in a normal oven same if you only have 1 tray, otherwise maybe 5 more minutes).

Of course my favorite part of TV dinners was always the desserts!! For any that need a crust to get crispy near the end, the tops of these pans would not work really because you'd need to uncover a bit, though I guess you could put the crusty food in a corner and turn the pan's lid to the side?

In this age of microwaves, though, I wondered, how in the world did my mom keep us kids from burning ourselves on the pans on the rare days she served TV dinners?! I've asked her...