How To Use a Microwave

Two years ago, when we went to San Diego for Mark's step-mother's funeral, there were literally hundreds and hundreds of flowers all over the house for the funeral. Mark's father didn't know what to do with them, so Natasha asked if she could dry them. She had heard about using a microwave to dry them, so we gave it a try. One minute, one rose, one microwave up in flames! It arced and spit flames at us as we hurriedly tried to shut the thing down! Kicking myself for having to now buy a new appliance I don't even want, while I had a brand new one at home not being used, we bought Mark's father a new microwave before the day was out.

Fast forward to our home, which came complete with a brand-new built-in microwave when we bought the house. If we removed it, the kitchen would look very odd, not to mention that the range hood is built into the bottom of the microwave. So what we do with it? It works well for melting wax to wax your legs with (but I don't recommend that painful experience!). We use it once in a great while for heating up those homemade rice heating pads. But mostly, it works best for storing placemats in - until a friend decides to use it to heat up pizza!

Here's a great experiment: Take 2-3 plants, identical in every way, and place them side by side inside. Water one with tap water, one with microwaved water, and one with any other kind of water you'd like to experiment with, if desired. Watch what happens. Remember that what the water does to your plants is what it does to your body as well.

Microwaves not only zap ALL the nutrients out of whatever you are cooking, they cause free radicals to form as well. I've seen too many people die from cancer. That's not for me.

Life without a microwave is NOT easy. I will not pretend it is. But it's not really hard either. My favorite way of warming things up is in the dehydrator. We have an Excalibur dehydrator that has an adjustable thermostat up to 185 deg. I often defrost foods in there. It is especially great for breads and bread products. They taste just as fresh as when we made them. I can warm up butter (I MELT it on the stove or in the oven if I'm preheating the oven anyway). I use it to raise bread dough at a perfect temperature. We have a WhirlyPop popcorn stovetop popcorn maker (I recommend the stainless steel version) for popcorn. It takes 2-3 minutes for a large batch and never burns. It also has a little butter cup that drips butter while you are popping for some incredibly good popcorn! I boil water in a kettle. Mostly I just do everything the old-fashioned way - heat. Once I got used to it, I didn't mind it at all.

Hey, life without a microwave is really pretty good! And I don't have to worry about leaving the butter knife in the butter dish!

Nifty Gadget: Lettuce Knife

If you haven't yet discovered how valuable a good quality lettuce knife can be, let me share with you about one of my favorite gadgets! A lettuce knife is plastic. I know it doesn't sound like it could actually cut anything, but it works wonders on lettuce! After spending years tearing lettuce piece by piece by piece, day after day, the lettuce knife is responsible for making salad prep enjoyable once again, saving me many precious minutes for every salad I make. Do you ever despair of serving rusty lettuce? The lettuce knife will come to your rescue. I have used it to cut lettuce which still looks fresh several days after cutting (although it is not recommended to let salad sit that long!).

Here's how I use it: I wash the lettuce as a whole first. After draining, I cut strips in one direction, then turn them to cut across in the other direction. Then I put them into a salad spinner for nice, crisp, dry lettuce. A whole head done in 1-2 minutes!

Here's the key: get a good quality knife (Bed, Bath, and Beyond, for example) that is one solid piece of plastic. The first one I tried had a handle attached to the blade and it quickly broke in half.