I moved into this tiny apartment three months ago and never got a microwave. I’ve discovered that there’s a presumption in this country that if you have a kitchen, it will contain a microwave. People seem to think my kitchen is incomplete. I have an oven and a toaster for warming things up.
The biggest problem I’ve found so far is defrosting meat. I have to plan farther ahead when I want to use my frozen chicken breasts.
Other things I can’t do:[ul][]Microwave popcorn. This limits my popcorn-making abilities significantly. []Heat water quickly and efficiently (I use my coffee maker to heat water for tea) []Some frozen dinners don’t give directions for conventional ovens []Reheat leftovers. I eat most leftovers cold. Sometimes, I’ll stick it under the broiler, but this doesn’t usually produce very good results. Fun with peeps.[/ul]I’m not complaining, of course. Just making some observations.
I moved into this tiny apartment three months ago and never got a microwave. I’ve discovered that there’s a presumption in this country that if you have a kitchen, it will contain a microwave. People seem to think my kitchen is incomplete. I have an oven and a toaster for warming things up.
The biggest problem I’ve found so far is defrosting meat. I have to plan farther ahead when I want to use my frozen chicken breasts.
Other things I can’t do:[ul][li]Microwave popcorn. This limits my popcorn-making abilities significantly. []Heat water quickly and efficiently (I use my coffee maker to heat water for tea) []Some frozen dinners don’t give directions for conventional ovens []Reheat leftovers. I eat most leftovers cold. Sometimes, I’ll stick it under the broiler, but this doesn’t usually produce very good results. []Fun with peeps.[/ul]I’m not complaining, of course. Just making some observations.[/li][/QUOTE]
[ul]
[li]Popcorn was made for years before microwave ovens[/li][li]Tea kettle, buy one.[/li][li]Buy a different brand[/li][li]Depending on the leftover use a pan on top of the stove or the oven set on bake[/li][li]I got nuthin.[/li][/ul]
I remember a couple years back when those “as seen on TV” meat thawing sheets were being discussed on here we found you could get the same results by just laying your meat on a cookie sheet or (room temp) skillet. I don’t remember the science behind it but I’ve done it and it seems to work pretty well. Also if you split up a large bulk package of hamburger for freezing make sure to flatten it out after you divide it into separate bags so it’s wide and thin, not a super-thick ball that will take 16-hours to thaw out.
Air popped popcorn is still worth it, especially with a bit of melted butter and Cabot Cheddar Cheese Powder (yum!).
We usually defrost meat by putting it in a bag and into some room temp water. I hope that’s not bad. We haven’t gotten sick yet. I don’t like how the microwave slightly cooks the edges.
I like the microwave for reheating things. Popcorn is popped on the stovetop like god intended, and I’d just as soon put a piece of frozen meat directly in the trash as defrost it in the microwave.
I found out just this week that two of my friends (three, technically, in two houses) don’t have microwaves. I was flabbergasted. I’ve lived without microwaves before, but I don’t like to.
I won’t get into the defrosting thing right now (I’m not too good at forethought either) but this is just a crime. Get an electric kettle, man! Is it perhaps a British (or in my case, Canadian) assumption that a kettle is just an essential kitchen appliance? I’m shuddering at the thought of tea heated to the pitiful temperature of coffeemaker coffee.
On an aside, a friend of mine moved into a place without a microwave because this is Victoria BC, land of the hippies, and her roommates reacted like she said she needed some sticks of radioactive matter, like in the Simpsons intro, to throw in the frying pan with her food. They finally let her get one and keep it in the basement, next to the washing machine. I said they’d regret it when their sweaters came out with three arms, but did they listen to me?)
I don’t have a microwave either, and i heat up little things in my toaster oven. Can’t make actual toast in it but i can heat up food. The downside is that often there are no directions for use of the toaster oven, and i have to put stuff back in longer…
I made popcorn for some kids. Their dad is a friend, and was working on my computer. I took a pan, put some oil in the bottom, added popcorn, covered it, turned the heat on high. Pretty soon, popcorn! Which got melted butter poured on it. The kids were amazed “How did you do that?”
We don’t have a microwave and it’s never been a problem. We reheat things on the stove. We make popcorn on the stove. We boil water on the stove. I sometimes wish we had an oven, but none of us likes or even knows how to bake, so why get one?
I use the microwave at work for popcorn and heating and reheating and reheating coffee (pour cup, take two sips, do some work, reheat, take two sips, do some work…ad naseum), but I don’t have one at home. My stove works just as well.
When I was growing up, my luddite-ish (or maybe just cheap) parents didn’t have a microwave. Popcorn got made on the stove-top, meat got defrosted in the fridge, and TV dinners and leftovers got heated up in the oven or in a skillet/saucepan. A microwave isn’t all that necessary unless you’re really big on cutting time. I’ve tried cooking some meals exclusively in the microwave, and they never taste the same or have the same texture as food cooked the old-fashioned method.
I have a microwave but I don’t have a dishwasher or a garbage disposal. Since I live in NYC these are things that you do without and that is just an accepted part of life here. The people I left behind in Dallas sometimes act as if I told them I don’t have a bed or a shower or something when I talk about washing dishes by hand.
I remember when home microwaves became feasible and inexpensive enough that even lower-income people could have them. The first one I saw was at a friend’s house and we spent the night giggling and trying different things to see what cooked normally and what exploded. It was fun but we had all managed to live without them up until that point.