May have to use this as the title of my Autobiography. Kinda has a nice ring to it.
Anyway, about a year ago our microwave went t*ts up. A loud, electronic sounding zzzzzPOP followed by a faint whiff of smoke, then...nothing. Being a person who has used a microwave all of his adult life, this presented quite the quandary. On one hand, I was ill equipped to live without this little electronic marvel reheating my coffee, zapping my hot dogs and yes, on occasion, even cooking my bacon. On the other hand, I'm a guy who loves a challenge, and was quite curious what it would be like to live without one. My wife, though, immediately assumed we'd go get a replacement the next day. This led to a few weeks of creative dodging on my part. Finally I admitted my motivation, and being a frugal Scot, she saw the appeal of not immediately spending money on a replacement and agreed to the "experiment".
So, for the past year, we've been essentially Luddites in the kitchen. I've come up with creative ways of reheating leftovers, such as the ziplock in hot water method, and even rediscovered jiffy pop. We found a whistling tea kettle which I've actually used a lot. We're eating less "prepared" meals and more honest to goodness home cooked ones. Our (my) one weakness is Stouffer's lasagna. I've tried and tried, but I just can't replicate that recipe. Obviously this can be cooked in an oven, it just takes twice as long. The upside is that we've gone from having it once a week to having it maybe once a month.
Overall I've adjusted pretty easily to the lack of the neutron gun oven. My wife..not so much. I caught her today looking up prices on the web.
Alas, my attempt to get back to basics may be coming to an end. I only hope the lessons learned will stick with us and we'll depend less on the instant "I want it now" method, and still enjoy the anticipation and simplicity of doing a few things the old fashioned way.
Anyway, about a year ago our microwave went t*ts up. A loud, electronic sounding zzzzzPOP followed by a faint whiff of smoke, then...nothing. Being a person who has used a microwave all of his adult life, this presented quite the quandary. On one hand, I was ill equipped to live without this little electronic marvel reheating my coffee, zapping my hot dogs and yes, on occasion, even cooking my bacon. On the other hand, I'm a guy who loves a challenge, and was quite curious what it would be like to live without one. My wife, though, immediately assumed we'd go get a replacement the next day. This led to a few weeks of creative dodging on my part. Finally I admitted my motivation, and being a frugal Scot, she saw the appeal of not immediately spending money on a replacement and agreed to the "experiment".
So, for the past year, we've been essentially Luddites in the kitchen. I've come up with creative ways of reheating leftovers, such as the ziplock in hot water method, and even rediscovered jiffy pop. We found a whistling tea kettle which I've actually used a lot. We're eating less "prepared" meals and more honest to goodness home cooked ones. Our (my) one weakness is Stouffer's lasagna. I've tried and tried, but I just can't replicate that recipe. Obviously this can be cooked in an oven, it just takes twice as long. The upside is that we've gone from having it once a week to having it maybe once a month.
Overall I've adjusted pretty easily to the lack of the neutron gun oven. My wife..not so much. I caught her today looking up prices on the web.
Alas, my attempt to get back to basics may be coming to an end. I only hope the lessons learned will stick with us and we'll depend less on the instant "I want it now" method, and still enjoy the anticipation and simplicity of doing a few things the old fashioned way.
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