My Mom's a great cook. Seriously good. Growing up in the Great Depression she learned to be frugal. She still is. She knew how to make a recipe without wasting one ingredient. She knew which recipes to double so that there would be enough for seconds AND some to be frozen.
Friday night was our tv dinner night. When I was a little girl, she would save those aluminum tv dinner trays and re-use them for our own homemade frozen dinners. That was of course before the age of microwaves. We always loved those special dinners. We would stand in front of the Frigedaire and peruse the offerings as if we were in the grocers. There was spaghetti with two meatballs, meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy and if we were lucky creamed corn! Succulent roast beef, fried chicken, fried catfish, you name it, Mom's freezer was always a bounty of yummy delicacies.
She still makes her own tv dinners, although always thoroughly modern and up with the times, she now saves her microwavables to keep the leftovers in.
Yesterday as I was making spaghetti, I was reminded of this as I was carefully saving some meatballs for the freezer.
Thanks Mom for being a great teacher. Betty Crocker would be proud.