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We took advantage of the snow day and trooped over to the post office to get T.’s passport renewed. On the way, R. and A. got lunch at McDonald’s. T. is not feeling well, so he had leftovers from the kids’ visit to Julie’s Place last night. I had leftovers from Feng Shui, supplemented with a bunch of vegetables, some hoisin sauce and wrapped up in a flour tortilla. Hey, it’s leftovers. Also, it was quite tasty.
The microwave, unfortunately, really has gone horribly awry. I noticed yesterday that the turntable was still moving when I opened it, and today it did that again, so I didn’t just imagine it. Needless to say, I no longer trust the interlock — if the turntable is moving, it could still be emitting microwaves and I don’t feel like engaging in a bunch of experiments to find out. I have ordered a new one, rather than go to Kmart, because it occurred to me that I have already bought 2 microwaves at that Kmart and I’ve only lived in this house for less than a decade. Either microwaves these days suck (possible), our house kills microwaves (surprisingly also possible — RHI that arc fault breakers and microwaves are not good buddies) or Kmart has unusually awful microwaves. I can experiment with the third option and I did by ordering from Amazon. Also, lazy.
A.’s Luciana Vega doll arrived, so she’s wearing the equivalent dress and carrying the doll around. That’s fun.
List of things I normally cook in the microwave, but have done something else to prepare today. Thawing frozen blondies: normally 20 seconds in the microwave, or sit on the counter for 20 minutes. I sped things up by putting them in the toaster oven at around 250 for a few minutes. Worked great. Heating up leftovers — frying pan on the stove. Various mugs of tea allowed to cool to room temperature before drinking — found the travel immersion heater I had never taken out of the package and figured out how to use it. Wow, that is awesome. I may actually pack that when I travel again. Then I thought, why do I need that microwave, anyway (don’t answer — I do want it and need is a really tricky concept in a developed nation). Popcorn! We have one of those silicone poppers, so we were already using normal kernels and oil. I thought, I’ve never made popcorn on the stove and we don’t seem to currently own an air popper (honestly don’t love air popped popcorn anyway). So I read a few blog entries, decided unilaterally that these people were making things way too complicated, found a saucepan, put the usual amount of oil in with a kernel. When it popped, I dumped the rest of the kernels in (lid, obviously!). Shook it while it popped. Took out the popcorn, salted it, handed it to A. who said it was at least as good as microwave popcorn. Turned the burner back on and reheated the kernels which had not popped; popped them. So. Wow. So much innovation applied to this task that strikes me now as wildly unnecessary.
Oh, and s’mores. We make A. s’mores with hershey squares, fluff and graham crackers. Usually, this is a 10 seconds in the microwave sort of activity, if she even wants it heated up (fluff vs. marshmallow makes the heating up very optional). She wanted it heated tho, so I gave the gas burner a go. I pulled the metal grate that supports the pots off, turned on the burner I wanted to what I thought was a reasonable level, held the s’more over it for a few seconds using tongs, turned it over, and then handed it to A. on a plate. She asked why it was a little burned on the edges, but said that it tasted as good as the microwave version.
So. Interesting kitchen experiments today for people with very middle class standards.
The microwave, unfortunately, really has gone horribly awry. I noticed yesterday that the turntable was still moving when I opened it, and today it did that again, so I didn’t just imagine it. Needless to say, I no longer trust the interlock — if the turntable is moving, it could still be emitting microwaves and I don’t feel like engaging in a bunch of experiments to find out. I have ordered a new one, rather than go to Kmart, because it occurred to me that I have already bought 2 microwaves at that Kmart and I’ve only lived in this house for less than a decade. Either microwaves these days suck (possible), our house kills microwaves (surprisingly also possible — RHI that arc fault breakers and microwaves are not good buddies) or Kmart has unusually awful microwaves. I can experiment with the third option and I did by ordering from Amazon. Also, lazy.
A.’s Luciana Vega doll arrived, so she’s wearing the equivalent dress and carrying the doll around. That’s fun.
List of things I normally cook in the microwave, but have done something else to prepare today. Thawing frozen blondies: normally 20 seconds in the microwave, or sit on the counter for 20 minutes. I sped things up by putting them in the toaster oven at around 250 for a few minutes. Worked great. Heating up leftovers — frying pan on the stove. Various mugs of tea allowed to cool to room temperature before drinking — found the travel immersion heater I had never taken out of the package and figured out how to use it. Wow, that is awesome. I may actually pack that when I travel again. Then I thought, why do I need that microwave, anyway (don’t answer — I do want it and need is a really tricky concept in a developed nation). Popcorn! We have one of those silicone poppers, so we were already using normal kernels and oil. I thought, I’ve never made popcorn on the stove and we don’t seem to currently own an air popper (honestly don’t love air popped popcorn anyway). So I read a few blog entries, decided unilaterally that these people were making things way too complicated, found a saucepan, put the usual amount of oil in with a kernel. When it popped, I dumped the rest of the kernels in (lid, obviously!). Shook it while it popped. Took out the popcorn, salted it, handed it to A. who said it was at least as good as microwave popcorn. Turned the burner back on and reheated the kernels which had not popped; popped them. So. Wow. So much innovation applied to this task that strikes me now as wildly unnecessary.
Oh, and s’mores. We make A. s’mores with hershey squares, fluff and graham crackers. Usually, this is a 10 seconds in the microwave sort of activity, if she even wants it heated up (fluff vs. marshmallow makes the heating up very optional). She wanted it heated tho, so I gave the gas burner a go. I pulled the metal grate that supports the pots off, turned on the burner I wanted to what I thought was a reasonable level, held the s’more over it for a few seconds using tongs, turned it over, and then handed it to A. on a plate. She asked why it was a little burned on the edges, but said that it tasted as good as the microwave version.
So. Interesting kitchen experiments today for people with very middle class standards.