Good morning, it’s Wednesday.
I don’t do a lot of cooking these days. Don’t get me wrong, I LIKE to cook, I just usually have neither the time nor the energy to do so – especially not at the end of a hectic workday. I wish I was one of those people who either 1) finds cooking relaxing, or 2) takes time to batch cook and prep over the weekend. But it usually just doesn’t happen.
My hectic and unpredictable schedule also does not lend itself to regular mealtimes. Since we have no kids, there is no real reason to stick to a schedule. We often find ourselves either eating out, or doing a sort of catch-as-catch-can thing where we rely on leftovers or cobble something together from whatever is in the fridge or the freezer.
On the latter: My general experience with pre-prepared frozen meals is that they are at best OK in a pinch and at worst downright disgusting.
Frozen breaded chicken cutlets can be fairly versatile. Ditto frozen veggies and fruits – especially for smoothies (yes, I put frozen spinach and/or cauliflower in my smoothies; don’t knock it until you try it). Also, I have found some passable artisanal frozen pizza at area speciality stores of late.
Every once in a while when I’m particularly hangry I pop something that I’ve picked up at the co-op into the microwave out of desperation – something by one of the supposedly higher end food companies like Amy’s Kitchen, Kashi, or Daily Harvest.
These days the phrase “processed food” is a dirty word, which is actually kind of funny, because all good – with the exception of something you eat right after it’s harvested – is processed in some way so we can consume it. But I’m splitting hairs, because of course “processed” in this case means full of sugar, fat, salt, preservatives/chemicals, etc.
Along the same lines, freezing food is a method of preserving it. And some fruits and vegetables frozen at their peak ripeness are conceptually better for you because they have all their nutrients – vitamins and minerals – in tact, as opposed to produce that is out of season and/or has been forced into faux ripeness.
Processed frozen food – by which I mean prepared meals – does also have some benefits, aside from convenience, of course. It helps with portion control, which is something a lot of people struggle with, especially if they’re dieting. They can also combat “cooking fatigue” and introduce eaters to new cuisines, spices, flavors etc.
The old school term for frozen meals – TV dinners – seems to be a relic of another age. At one time, though, they were very cutting edge, providing an easy option for kitchen-weary women entering the workforce and their families, who were just getting use to the new fangled idea of eating somewhere other than at the table. (ie, in front of the television set).
The process for freezing and packaging food – specifically fish – was invented in 1925 by a Brooklyn-born entrepreneur named Clarence Birdseye (yes, he founded THAT Birds Eye, which is still around – and selling frozen foods, to this day).
Another New York company, the Long Island-based Maxson Food Systems, used this new technology to make full frozen dinners called “Start Plates”, which it sold to the airlines and the military in the 1940s. The death of the company’s founder, William L. Maxson, put the kibosh on plans to expand the dinners to supermarket shelves.
The concept of mass-market frozen meals bumped along in a sort of low-level way, but didn’t really take off until about ten years later, thanks to salesman at the Swanson company, which hit on the idea of portioning a post-Thanksgiving surplus of frozen turkey into meal-sized portions – along with traditional holiday fixings like cornbread stuffing, gravy, peas, and potatoes.
In the first full year that TV dinners were on the market, Swanson sold 10 million of them. The question of who came up with the term “TV dinner” and should get the credit for actually inventing the concept and perfecting the approach remains an open question. Frozen ready meals are very big business today; the global market is valued at about $46.5 billion and is projected to reach $77.5 billion by 2035.
Happy National TV Dinner Day, everyone!
The day will start out on the cooler side and with some pockets of dense fog in the valleys. That will burn off as the morning progresses, and the rest of the day will bring a mix of sun and clouds with temperatures peaking in the low 70s.
In the headlines…
A federal judge late yesterday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s attempted ouster of Federal Reserve board of governors member Lisa Cook.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb said Cook’s firing and legal challenge raise “many serious questions” the courts have not mulled before, but at this early stage, Cook made a “strong showing” that her removal violated the Federal Reserve Act’s “for cause” provision.
Cobb concluded that Trump’s effort to fire Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud that predated her time on the Fed board violated a federal law meant to insulate the interest-rate-setting body from political pressure.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. yesterday temporarily paused a federal judge’s ruling ordering the Trump administration to pay out $4 billion in foreign aid that had been appropriated by Congress.
The chief justice, acting on his own, issued an interim “administrative stay” of the ruling and ordered the challengers to file their brief by Friday.
Trump took the streets of Washington, DC yesterday and dined out with members of his Cabinet as he touted the “spectacular” outcome of his crime crackdown in the nation’s capital.
Trump made the short trek from the White House to Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab to show that his federal crackdown on crime was working, only to be met almost immediately by protesters who called him “the Hitler of our time.”
Trump signed a memorandum yesterday directing his administration to revive a decades-old policy that is likely to sharply restrict advertising of prescription drugs on television.
The move reflects one of the top priorities of the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has repeatedly called for a ban on drug advertising on television. The policy change threatens to dent the revenues of pharmaceutical companies.
The Trump administration released a report yesterday outlining a broad strategy to improve children’s health. It calls for a wide range of executive actions and policy reforms aimed at tackling a rise in chronic diseases.
In announcing the report, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called chronic disease in kids “an existential crisis for our country” and said the report’s 128 recommendations are “historic and unprecedented.”
The report calls for better nutrition, more exercise, and a review of vaccines and drugs — but is light on specifics and stops short of cracking down on pesticides and ultra-processed foods.
First son Barron Trump is residing at the White House while he attends classes at New York University’s campus in the nation’s capital. NYU’s DC campus accepts up to 120 students each semester.
Despite staunch opposition from the White House and Republican leaders, a bipartisan resolution directing the Justice Department to release all of its investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein is still on track.
A photo in Epstein’s birthday book shows the disgraced financier holding a novelty check with a signature of “DJ TRUMP.” It includes a woman who dated both men in the 1990s.
The U.S. labor market is on much weaker footing than many economists had assumed — and Trump’s campaign to pressure the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates is about to turn the dial to 11.
The U.S. economy probably added close to a million fewer jobs in 2024 and early 2025 than previously reported, the latest sign that the labor market, until recently a bright spot in the economy, may be weaker than it initially appeared.
Annual revisions to nonfarm payrolls data for the year prior to March 2025 showed a drop of 911,000 from the initial estimates, according to a preliminary report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Democrats scored a win in the race to replace the late Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, narrowing the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
Boston held its nonpartisan mayoral primary, setting up a November showdown between incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu (D) and nonprofit executive Josh Kraft, who is the son of New England Patriots own Robert Kraft. Both now advance to the general election.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and MTA officials said that traffic is significantly down in a major part of Manhattan as eight months of congestion pricing wrapped up in August.
It’s been six months since the conclusion of the three-week illegal correction officer strike at New York’s state prisons, and Hochul said that it may take at least that long before prison staffing is at an acceptable level.
Hochul and other state and local officials gathered yesterday for the official grand opening of Plattsburgh’s new bus factory and what they hope will be a new era for manufacturing in the Lake City.
“This is a real shot in the arm for this area … and continues to foster that sense of pride and purpose that has defined this community for such a long time,” the governor said.
Hochul commented on the Cato immigration raid in Plattsburgh as she spoke about security in New York’s Northern Border and what the state is doing to upgrade it.
New York may have improperly paid $1.2 billion in Medicaid managed care payments for people who live out of state, according to a state comptroller’s audit released yesterday.
Some New York police departments have taken a lax approach with officers caught drinking and driving, protecting them from the punishments faced by ordinary citizens.
A terminally-ill 9/11 hero and his first responder wife slammed Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani for associating with left-wing influencer Hasan Piker, who once said “America deserved” the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Mamdani would still beat Andrew Cuomo in November’s election — even if Trump somehow cleared the field for a one-on-one match-up, a new Siena poll found.
With the grim anniversary of 9/11 just days away, Cuomo went after Mamdani for appearing on the show of megapopular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who once said “America deserved 9/11.”
Pressed on the Siena poll results at an unrelated news conference, Mayor Eric Adams pointed to past polls that proved inaccurate.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he met on Monday with Mamdani and the two “know each other well.” No endorsement from the senior senator was forthcoming.
Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, has faced backlash in the US over his identity – but in Kampala, Ugandans of Indian descent are unquestioningly considered African.
Mamdani has launched a “Game Over Greed” petition that calls on FIFA to abandon its plan to use dynamic pricing for the 2026 World Cup, which will be co-hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
In a video posted by Mamdani on Monday, actor Morgan Spector is seen dressed as his railroad tycoon character, George Russell, from the HBO historical drama that’s set in the late 19th century and follows the lives of New York’s megarich.
Real estate bigwigs are flocking to Cuomo in a last-ditch attempt to stop Mamdani from becoming mayor — as the ex-governor shakes up his campaign staff just 56 days before the election.
The pushes to get Adams a new job are aimed at maximizing Cuomo’s chances in November’s mayoral election as he faces a polling deficit running against Mamdani, who has alarmed the business community with proposed tax hikes on the rich.
Business leaders who hope Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee for New York City mayor, will suspend his campaign may find themselves disappointed: “No, no, no. A thousand times no,” he said.
Adams’ friends and foes agree: The discussions swirling around the New York City mayor joining the Trump administration aren’t done.
Adams and Trump could meet during a game at Yankee Stadium this week instead of at the White House as speculation grows over the future of the mayor’s long-shot re-election bid.
New Yorkers will get a chance to vote on three housing-related ballot measures that would shift more power over new development to the mayor despite a late push by the City Council to keep the initiatives off the November ballot.
The dispute over the ballot questions marked the latest front in an ongoing battle over the separation of powers and development decisions in a city mired in a severe housing crisis.
Adams launched a new facility in Hell’s Kitchen that will house severely mentally ill New Yorkers and connect them to city services.
New York City’s public education system is failing to properly serve children who are learning English as a new language, according to a report from the city comptroller that illuminates the plight of one of the most vulnerable groups of students.
The NYPD is monitoring a potential terror threat against East River bridges and tunnels linking Manhattan and Queens as the anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
The NYPD is probing an alleged bomb threat as it prepares to increase security presence at “critical” locations around the city ahead of the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, the UN General Assembly and the upcoming Jewish high holidays.
An NYPD cop committed suicide early yesterday after he learned he was facing a Homeland Security Investigations’ probe, law enforcement said.
A piece of debris that fell off an Amtrak train in an East River tunnel snarled commutes for thousands of Long Island Rail Road riders heading to Penn Station yesterday morning, according to officials at both transit agencies.
A federal lawsuit was filed this week on behalf of nine inmates at a state prison in Oneida County who are allegedly being held unlawfully in mental health units for roughly 24 hours a day and without access to therapy or medical treatment.
A city judge was displeased when a prominent Queensbury developer who allegedly tried to strangle a man during a brawl at Adelphi Hotel did not show up for a scheduled appearance in City Court yesterday morning.
A top federal prosecutor had a message for upstate New York businesses days after immigration agents detained dozens of people at a food processing plant: There’s more to come.
Dozens of immigrant workers are being sent to their countries of origin and five will face felonies for reentering the country illegally after an immigration raid at a food manufacturing plant outside Syracuse, Acting U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III said.
The parents accused of neglecting and ultimately causing the death of their 3-year-old daughter had their bail revoked after they were charged with violating orders of protection that forbid them from contacting their surviving children.
A judge in Albany has ordered that Nauman Hussain be deposed from state prison in the civil lawsuits filed against him in connection with the 2018 limousine crash in Schoharie that killed 20 people.
Tanpopo Ramen and Sake Bar in Schenectady will close, according to a Facebook post to the restaurant’s page Monday evening.
It’s been a decade now since Price Chopper and the Golub family that started the business in 1932 introduced its new concept store with the Market 32 brand, a move that brought a new, modern shopping experience to Price Chopper customers.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
