An Ode to the Microwave

I'm a little low on inspired topics today, so I am devoting today's blog to the wonderful modern convenience that lives above my stove. I have a gas stove and I hate it.

Short side rant about my gas stove/oven. I know everyone loves gas stoves... they cook so great, blah blah blah. It's true that the stovetop burners fire up instantly, but the oven takes FOREVER to preheat, and I *hate* cleaning that filthy bastard stovetop. The burner grates are an absolute bitch to get clean, even scrubbing with steel wool and soaking... NOT worth the hours of blood sweat and tears. Ain't nobody got time fo DAT.

my archnemesis.

Okay enough negativity, let's talk about the microwave!  A frequently underappreciated piece of scientific achievement.

I don't want to say that time is not at a premium for people who don't have kids, but becoming a mom seems to make every second that much more precious. While I used to love spending time making elaborate and delicious meals, and on special occasions I still do, most often I just don't have the time and energy to spend.  For that reason, the microwave is easily my favorite appliance. It's not just for reheating leftovers!! There are so many things you can make fresh in the microwave so much faster than in an oven or on a stove!

Who knew that you can bake potatoes in the microwave? Just poke holes in it with a fork, give it 8 minutes and you have a whole russet potato (or sweet potato) all ready to go. You can cook fish in the microwave in just a couple minutes (covered, since it tends to explode.) The best part about cooking in the microwave, besides the time savings, is you have no pots or pans to clean!  Which is even more time saved. And priceless for me since I HATE washing dishes. If I can't load it into the dishwasher, forget it. (Ok.... I really do love my dishwasher.... it could face off with the microwave for favorite appliance.)

Some of my go-to microwave items:

• hot water, to which I sometimes add lemon, lemon and cayenne pepper, or lemon, honey, vinegar and cinnamon for a sore throat. no kettle needed!
• fish fillets (usually salmon in our house)
• whole potatoes
• steamed vegetables (peas, broccoli, butternut squash.) I do admit that most vegetables are best roasted with olive oil, but in a time crunch or to go in a recipe, microwave steaming is clutch. I steam frozen peas for my one-year-old, add a little olive oil and salt and she loves them.
• "scrambled" eggs. It's true that they aren't as good as real scrambled eggs, but if you really don't want to wash a pan, you would be surprised by how good they can be.  The key is frequent stirring, every 10 (or even fewer) seconds to prevent them from getting too rubbery.
• oatmeal. no hot breakfast is faster.

Also, if you're looking for a fun activity on a rainy day, marshmallows are fun to microwave.  You can watch them inflate to HUGE proportions!!! Pure entertainment.

I won't even get into all the things you can just heat up for a quick meal like beans and cheese and frozen dinners. I really feel the microwave makes my life so much better. The number one rule is don't microwave anything plastic.  No plastic wrap or plastic containers; always microwave in glass or on safe ceramic dishes. Some plastic says it is microwave safe, but I try to err on the side of NO plastic in the microwave. I prefer to risk as few nasty chemicals in my food as possible.

There is some controversy about whether radiation from a microwave oven can be harmful, but it is non-ionizing radiation and no studies have shown any cause for concern with normal use (versus a microwave that's rigged to work with the door open or some other such craziness).

So, I am forging ahead with my love of the microwave, because the most precious thing I have is TIME and this awesome technology lets me make the most of it! Thank you to Percy Spencer for accidentally discovering the specific heating effect of a high-power microwave beam in 1945, and engineers everywhere for inventing new technologies that improve our lives every day, because lord knows I'm not doing it.

In closing, I give you a haiku:

the food's almost done
better hurry and press clear
before I hear beeps!!!

Soup Swap!

This week we've had the coldest weather Cincinnati has seen in 20 years! The real temperature got down to -6 and with the wind chill it felt like -30! I am so relieved it's going to get a little warmer tomorrow. I have to wear my Cold Avenger mask to and from work when it's this cold and it can be a little embarrassing to walk around looking like Darth Vader. But still vastly preferred to freezing my face off.

Obviously all I want to eat when it's brutally, bitterly cold and windy outside is some hot, steaming SOUP. Yum. My coworker, former college roommate and now bff 4-life Sarah suggested the brilliant idea of a soup swap and I screamed YES! at the top of my lungs.  Ok, we work in an office, I didn't really do that. But inside I did! Because a soup swap is pretty much the best idea ever, especially when you are swapping with Sarah, who is truly a legendary soup chef.

Here's the idea: we each make large batches of 2 or 3 soups, and we bring in half of them for each other! So simple yet so, so ingenious. If you love soup, find a coworker, friend, or neighbor who also loves soup and you are in business. Since I eat a pesco-vegetarian diet, Sarah was kind enough to modify her recipes to make them vegetarian (mostly by using vegetable broth rather than chicken) so we could both enjoy all 5 soups. Yes, 5 - I made 2 and she made 3! Overachiever!  So here are the 5 delicious soups we are enjoying this week:

• First I made my favorite, April Bloomfield's Chickpea-and-Rosemary Soup which I originally found in the September 2005 issue of O magazine and have made approximately a thousand times since then. With vegetable rather than chicken broth, of course. This might be my favorite recipe for anything ever. It's so easy, so delicious and so healthy, the golden trinity of recipes. I like to describe it as similar to hummus soup. If you like hummus, and rosemary, do not delay and make yourself a batch. I was lucky enough to have some fresh rosemary from my grandmother's garden left over from our visit at the end of November to add, although I cut corners on the garlic and just used the powdered kind. The one thing, in my opinion, NOT to skimp on is the lemon juice.  Squeeze a real lemon! Don't buy the bottled lemon juice!  Seriously, ugh, it is not even close to the same.

• Next I made a butternut squash-apple soup. I used Ina Garten's recipe as my main reference but also deviated from it somewhat since I didn't have any apple juice, cider or curry powder on hand. For the seasoning I used some turmeric and nutmeg instead. And I used broth and water instead of the juice. There are 4 chopped apples in it so it is plenty sweet! It took forever to chop up 4 apples and 3 onions so I will definitely look for pre-chopped onions next time. Such a time saver!! Plus less crying in the kitchen. When I wore contacts, I never cried chopping onions, but ever since I got Lasik it's a different story. 

The huge time saver I did take advantage of was a big bag of pre-chopped butternut squash from Trader Joe's. I chopped up a whole butternut squash once and I won't be doing that again! 

One other thing I love: my Cuisinart immersion blender for pureed soups. I can't sing the praises of this thing enough. It's so super easy to puree soups and a breeze to clean up. No transferring to a blender or processor - we don't even own a blender since ours broke a couple years ago and I haven't missed it!  I just stick the immersion blender into anything I would blend and my god, it's so much less mess. It also has a mini food processor attachment which I love for things like pesto. Ok, Cuisinart should really start paying me at this point, I'll move on.

Sarah made 3 Rachael Ray soup recipes: black bean, farmer's market veggie and pumpkin, cheddar and chipotle. She modified the black bean a lot to remove the chorizo and add rice and it was super delicious.  Definitely a great black bean soup base reference. The farmer's market veggie comes with a side of pureed herbs in oil and that soup is AWESOME as well, so good. I haven't tried the pumpkin one yet but it also sounds amazing and I can't wait - I am soo spoiled with a fantastic variety of soups this week, I can barely contain myself. Soup swap for the win!

Puerto Rico December 7-14 Part 2 Cabo Rojo

The most relaxing, beach- and pool-centric portion of our trip was the last 3 days, in Cabo Rojo. This whole region had a really wonderful and secluded atmosphere to enjoy some honeymoon-style R&R.  A highlight for us was the awesome view from our condo, where we got to just sit and drink mimosas to start the day.

The key word here is secluded. No one goes to Cabo Rojo for vacation, as least as far as I could tell.  We did not see other tourists around anywhere, and it was honestly a little sad at some points, that we were the only two people in really beautiful settings, enjoying secluded dinners, secluded beaches... it was amazing, but also, it makes me want to get the word out about Cabo Rojo! Why aren't more people vacationing here!?!?  I want the nice restaurants to stay in business!!

We enjoyed lovely dinners at

• Tino's Restaurant, where our waiter was as kind and sweet a middle aged waiter as you've ever met. His English was many magnitudes better than our Spanish, but still he made the most endearing effort to communicate and also quickly correct my meal when the kitchen made the wrong thing by mistake. This was clearly a local place, serving Puerto Rican food and frequented by locals; the only other two tables while we were there were large local families. It's nothing fancy, but fabulous service and authentic food.
• Agua al Cuello at the Parador Bahia Salinas Beach Hotel, on our way back from Playa Sucia. We were the only people here, and the best thing about this place is the ambiance. Really beautiful resort setting on the water.... just lovely. I could not fathom the absolute lack of people at this resort and the restaurant!  Where was everyone?!?!  The food was good, we got a huge salad with mango and almonds, some ceviche and a fried appetizer, as well as some festive and affordable Bahia Sunsets to drink.
  

• Miski Mikuna, which is Peruvian cuisine, and the chef will knock your socks off by coming to your table, explaining what the specials are that night, and customizing your dinner to you. I was SO excited to come here after reading the TripAdvisor reviews and it wasn't fancy like I thought it might be, but the food was definitely the focus. Unfortunately, we had eaten a late lunch that day and didn't have tons of room for feasting, or else we definitely would have tried more courses. As it was, we enjoyed a salmon appetizer, and DELICIOUS passionfruit cheesecake and key lime pie for dessert (the key lime pie!!!! WOW maybe the best I've ever had) -- and... drumroll... our most adventurous food of the trip, the whole red snapper (head included) which was that day's special.
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  We saw the snapper come out to the table next to us and got nervous.... should we have ordered that??? But it was actually delicious and I was proud of us for trying it. It came with tasty leeks and carrots in cream sauce. And I mean, it WAS deep fried, so there really wasn't much chance it wouldn't be delicious, with or without the head and tail.
  
  
  The only "activity" we really did in Cabo Rojo, other than stopping by Walgreens and the grocery, was a day spent at Playa Sucia. It was the most glorious, fantastic day and we did not want to leave.  We had a perfect shady spot under a tree with our beach chairs, books and towels and very few other people around.  The only mistake was not bringing food and drinks (and bug repellent). I may have come away with bites all over my back. Bummer. But totally worth it. Around lunchtime we started getting faintly hungry. Rich said, should we go? I said, maybe another 20 minutes.  2 and a half hours later we finally reluctantly decided we had to leave and get food.  It was absolutely beautiful and zen and one of those days I wish I could relive over and over. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It was a bit challenging to find since it's pretty remote and the trip was rough on the rental car but definitely WORTH it. I'm so glad I got to spend a perfect afternoon in this heavenly spot. I'll always remember it. 
  
  
  I can't recommend enough to anyone going to Puerto Rico to get away from San Juan (as much fun as it is!) and get over to Cabo Rojo for at least a day or two. If you want secluded, this is your place. Not to mention the weather is reliably spectacular. It's more arid than San Juan and the rainier east side of the island; high of 88 and sunny most every day. I would even compare it to Hawaii as a perfect tropical weather location. We had such a lovely time here. Sadly, all good vacations have to come to an end. Bye Cabo Rojo!