Bake for granted

As many of my loyal readers know I have recently moved into a new apartment, that I love, but there is one thing that escaped my attention until last night; I don't have a microwave. Now, in theory, that should be fine because I have a stove (which heats the whole apartment for hours after using, but I digress) to cook food in, but in today's age of culinary instant gratification, one forgets how many products aren't oven-compatible. You can't even attempt to make popcorn, but that's okay, I'll just reserve that treat for when I go to the movies.

More importantly, it severely affects re-heating food. As a New Yorker I have adopted Whole Foods as my "neighborhood" store and while they stock their shelves with the same food that every supermarket does, they have a wide-array of pre-made foods that are yummy! But the thing Whole Foods REALLY needs to work on is creating cooking directions for these pre-made delicacies. How does someone, who has never prepared Coconut crusted chicken begin to imagine how to re-heat it. Same story with Chicken Parm--yes, I know how to cook it, but I don't know what temperature to put an already cooked piece of chicken in for, to properly re-heat the chicken while not burning the cheese on the outside. Ditto for lasagna. And then my Whole Foods favorite, the Mac & Cheese. How do you even begin to re-heat Mac & Cheese without a microwave?!?! It's a daunting task.

So I have begun using "air" as my microwave. If I know I am going to eat something that I normally need the microwave for, I Just make sure to leave it sitting out for 30 minutes before I plan to eat it. Basically, my swanky new apartment has turned me into a caveman!

So, to this end, I will be accepting donations to the "Buy Jarett a Microwave" fund--please send all financial contributions with an additional self-addressed stamp envelope so once I purchase the microwave, I can send you a photo of me enjoying my nuked goodness.