Guide to Microwave Cooking

Guide to Microwave Cooking by Cynthia Kanneberg, Ideals Publishing Corporation, October 1978

I'm old enough to remember when most people didn't have microwaves. I don't think my family acquired one until at least late in my high school career. I remember the promise they held for making meal preparation effortless and lightning fast.

We use our microwave many times a day. We warm things up in it. We melt things. We thaw things. We even boil water. But the truth is we never really cook in it, as in prepare an entire meal or even an entire dish. And when I browsed this cookbook, on our shelf since we have no idea when, I could see why. The book includes many tantalizing recipes (orange-almond rice ring, corn and crab soup, for example), but somehow the idea of cooking them in the microwave made them seem cheap and unappetizing. I couldn't even bring myself to try them. Perhaps if the cookbook had also included stove top instructions (defeating the purpose of the book, I realize), I could have been a good sport about it.

So this book has been officially weeded. If you don't share my microwave hang up, let me know and it's yours. It's also available on Amazon for as little as $.01 used, $.89 new. Mine is a mint condition, hardcover copy that is yours for the taking if you act now.