Needful Things

I usually have a cup of hot tea every morning and today was no different.  And as usual, for one reason or another, I never get to drink it before it gets cold so I end up re-heating it several times before I hit the bottom.  So I pop my mug into the microwave, hit the Start button & instead of the normal humming sound, it makes an awful buzzing / grinding sound.  Immediately hit Stop & open door wondering if a fork or spoon or something unnatural to the interior of a microwave had managed to get in there.  Nope.  Just my harmless, cold cup of Vanilla Chai tea.  Hit the Start button again & the same horrible microwave-death-rattle resonates throughout the kitchen.  How bad could it be?  Maybe I’ll just ignore the funny noise, hope that the door doesn’t blow off or my head doesn’t get micro’ed while I’m sitting there staring at it. 

Well, Paul heard the racket & put the kibosh on the attempt to warm my tea.  And just in case I don’t heed his warning to NOT use the microwave, he unplugs it to make sure that I CAN’T use it.  No, it’s not like I couldn’t just plug the thing back in.  Well, I guess I could, but it’s one of those above the stove units & the plug is located way up in the wall behind a cabinet so it wouldn’t be easy to plug back in even if I wanted to.  My diabolical plan to continue using it when he’s outside has been foiled.

So, how does one re-heat a cup of tea sans microwave?  Get out a small sauce pan, dump the tea in it, heat it up on the stove & then attempt to pour heated tea back into mug without spilling all of it over the countertop.  I had to do this three times before I finished my tea.  I get sidetracked a lot and I don’t guzzle my hot beverages, so the re-heating of tea is done about half a dozen times a day. 

Hungry?  How about leftover spaghetti & veggies?  Sounds like a good lunch, I’ll just pot it into the micr…..oh, it’s broke.  Dump all into a sauce pan, turn on heat to low so it doesn’t scorch, keep stirring it so spaghetti doesn’t stick to bottom of pan, and continue stirring until it finally becomes barely lukewarm.  Warm up the tortillas for Mu Shu Pork dinner?  No probl……..oh yeah.  Yes, I know it sounds pathetic.  It’s not like I have to start a fire in a wood cookstove or anything, we have an electric stove so I just turn the dial & viola – instant heat.  I suppose I’ve taken my microwave for granted all these years.  My apparent lack of appreciation caused its little microchip feelings to be hurt so it had finally forsaken me. 

I had been wanting to get a smaller counter-top microwave eventually.  The one above the stove takes up too much room & I can just barely get my pressure canner to fit on the stove because of it.  So I guess it’s not all that bad….now I have an excuse to get rid of it & replace it with a smaller vent / hood.

We’re going to the “big” town to pick up some tractor parts & stock up the pantry sometime this week.  Maybe we’ll come home with a microwave.   And this time I’ll try to say nice things to my new time-saving, food-warming appliance.