Sunday, November 11, 2007

hot potato

There are good microwaves... and there are bad microwaves.

Last week I saw a movie set in the late '70's.... a large box shows up in one of the scenes and one character reads the type on the box.... "what's a micro-wave anyway?"

I remember being just a little bit more than scared of our first microwave... That may or may not have something to do with the fact that it caught fire once.

Our next microwave was easy to use... pick either High, Medium or Low setting, then the amount of time... then start... pretty straight forward right?
It wasn't until I went to University that I realized I'd never used any other microwave other than my own (other than the old dial-the-time jobber at high school... but it was the same as our family's first box). Microwaves with extra buttons? Pre-set levels? Pre-set times? combos including defrost 3 portions? I was lost! All I wanted was a high heat for 40 seconds.... was that too much to ask?
It was then that I started using the "baked potato" setting to cook everything.
This method has it's downfalls.... you have to stay and open the door, or hit cancel when you've had enough... you have to hope that you want that high heat setting... and pray to God you don't need to defrost any bread! BUT.... it saves taking out the instruction manual and going cross-eyed. Last year, I decided to change it up, and I switched to the popcorn button.
(I know... I live on the edge)
Last week... I decided to have a baked potato for dinner.
I was about 5 minutes into the oven pre-heating when I thought to use the microwave.... and it took a few seconds of staring at the box before I realized that I actually knew how to use the microwave to cook what I wanted.....

triumph!

1 comment:

Fallen said...

Took me a year and a half to discover how to change the power level to something other then 100%. I had to look it up. After reading this post I had to cook a baked potato. It was the first time I realized there was a handy baked potato button on it. So thanks for that :o)