Fine Dining

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What strange things I find myself doing to use a coupon.

Yes, I bought a TV dinner.

Up until this point in my life I have managed to avoid this strange part of American dining. I've had the frozen burritos and pot pies and pizzas, but never a frozen dinner.

I admit, I've almost been tempted to eat them as a babysitter's lunch, but boxes hanging out in the freezer were always for meatloaf or Salisbury steak, and I know better than to assume that my distaste for those particular foods when made fresh would be impressed by the frozen variety.

So even though I have managed to avoid TV dinners my long, varied life, for some reason as I pulled the little tray of lasagna out of the box, I was reminded of some repressed memory.

And then I knew: airplane meals.

As I grabbed a bag of peanuts to tide me over until the lasagna was ready, I tried to guess as to why you hear so many complaints about airplane food, and yet ready-to-eat dinners are the salvation of many a household.

I still hadn't come up with an answer by the time I was cutting up my lasagna. But as the knife sliced through the noodles and the fork speared a bite, I realized the answer was right there in my hands.

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