I use my microwave a lot – really a lot. I cook in my microwave oven. Truth-be-told, almost all of my food preparation these days is in the microwave. When I was able to afford this appliance, I had made up my mind that I would learn to cook with it – that it would not sit on my counter just to warm up food. Having a family of five to feed, working as a teacher, and doing all of those things that a mom with a job away from home does, my time was limited. The microwave advertisements promised to make my life easier by using a microwave.
When I purchased my first one (after dreaming about owning a “radar range” for years – for that is what they were originally called – I remember seeing the first one I’d ever seen in a movie called The Glass Bottom Boat, with Doris Day. She had occasion to use one in a friend’s house (he was an inventor, of course), but the cake she was baking didn’t fare as the romance between Day’s character and movie’s leading man. Successful cake or not, I knew that I wanted one and would, one day, have my own! Come to think of it, I was probably the first member of my family to have and use one.
I’ve had two microwaves – both Sharp carousels. The first Sharp sat for years on a counter, taking up space that could have been used for something else; albeit, it was easy to put pots in and take them out at arms height. When Larry remodeled the kitchen, he built a peninsula with drawers, doors, and shelves. In a corner and over part of the new cupboards, he built a garage for the microwave, about head high for me and, at that time, easy for me to use. (It’s a little bit less accessible since the shoulder surgery, but that will change, soon). When he was building the microwave’s new home, it needed to hold the appliance, which meant that because it was a large unit, the garage had to be equally large to accommodate it.
Larry was very concerned: what would we do if we had to get another microwave. I assured him that a new microwave of any size would fit into the space he was making for the one we had at that time. The original one lasted about thirty years and, long after Larry passed, it needed to be replaced. Fortunately, HM Keith was available to help me get a new microwave – a Sharp carousel, looking so much like the old one and as easy to operate that unless you knew it was a different appliance, you’d think it was the same one.
I was never a person to deal with the need to turn the pots around part of the way through the cooking cycle. Carousel equals turntable. The Sharps I have owned are, I think, one of the largest microwaves made. You know, large family – large pots. So, the microwave cavity had to accommodate the larger pots. And, the controls for both units are easy for me to understand; I find that many of today’s microwaves are too complicated for me to operate!
This evening, it was after midnight when I decided I wasn’t ready for bed and should have some decaf coffee along with some sherbert and cookies. Placing the leftover cup of coffee into the microwave, I didn’t think much about the position of the cup handle until the heating of the coffee was finished. Opening the door of the oven, I was surprised to see that the handle of the coffee cup was facing in exactly the same place that it was when I placed the cup into the microwave.
I began to think about other vessels that I put into the cavity of the appliance, some with handles, and realized that it was a common occurrence for the handles to always be in the same place before and after the enclosed food was cooked.
My question is “why?” There are times when the cook time may be thirty seconds. Others when the time is several minutes – sometimes almost an hour. Still the position of the cooking pot is always the same – when it goes in, when it comes out.
How does the microwave know just where to stop the spinning table so that the pot can be retrieved as easily as it it put in? Is there a mechanism inside the turntable workings that calibrates the number of cycles of that turntable with the amount of time entered by the user? Did the engineers who planned this thing have that in mind? Did they ask any user if that would make life easier using their microwave? No one asked me – but it’s true that it does make life easier.
Whatever it is that makes this happen, I’m thankful that to get my cup or any other thing out of the microwave, I don’t have to “fish around” to find the handle.
Be Safe and Be Well
The Cranky Crone
Thoughtful comments are always welcome.
Now, here’s a Motherly (or, maybe, Grandmotherly) tip for some who don’t know. Yes, I do use the microwave to “warm up” left overs. BUT … I never use the highest heat setting to do the warming – that re-cooks the food. So, I always – and, I do mean, ALWAYS – use a longer time for warming at nothing higher than fifty percent power (that’s 50%, folks). Keeps the food edible!
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