You can live without a microwave

My microwave fried itself about four or five months ago. I don't remember exactly when. It made some scary noises and a lot of sparks. I thought maybe I had a container with metal in it, so tried a different container. Same thing. I unplugged it and that was that.

I've been planning for a couple of years to remodel the kitchen and with that to install all new appliances. So I decided not to replace the microwave until the remodel. As a result, I've found out that anything you can cook in a microwave, you can cook on the stove! (That's a reverse on the old sales pitch from way back when microwaves first entered our lives.)

Really. Those microwavable popcorn packets? Just empty the contents into a hot saucepan with lid over medium high heat. Shake occasionally to get the kernals to drop to the bottom and avoid burning. It works great. And frozen burritos? Steam them to cook through and then fry to brown slightly. They're much better than the tough microwave result. And for some reason, even hot water from my tea kettle seems to make a better cup of tea than the nuked water did.

However, as I was reminded, I'm going to need a way to heat up food during the remodel when I have no stove. Okay so I guess I'll buy a cheap one for now just to get by. But it has been an interesting experiment getting along without something I had come to rely on on a daily basis.

Now I've started wondering if I could do without TV. I am disgusted with the cost of Dish Network and I watch such a limited number of channels. Plus, I've had so many hassles with that company, I'd like to stop doing business with them (that's another whole story in itself).

Here on the north side of a hill in North Salt Lake, you have to have cable or dish to get even the local channels. I do watch TV for news, home improvement shows, and a couple of prime time shows. But often it is just background noise while I'm doing other things. Could I really do without it completely?

The internet can fill the gap for some things. And non-news shows will soon be in summer reruns anyway. I might just give this a try. I'm sure glad I didn't buy that flat screen TV for Christmas!