by "Microwave"

The Secret to Successful Microwave Cooking is Learning to Cook by Time, Not Sight!

If you are old enough to remember typing on a typewriter, you'll also remember that you had to go through some adjustments and up some learning curves to adapt to using your computer. The biggest hurdle you have to overcome when cooking in your microwave is learning to cook by time and not sight. The length of time it takes to cook a dish is of critical importance in a microwave oven, and the smaller amount of food being prepared, the more precise the timing must be. A few seconds can mean the difference between total disaster and delicious success.

Using different ingredients and even different brands of microwave ovens may require cooking times that are different from the times specified in a recipe. While microwave ovens are available in a wide-range of power levels, most recipes are written for a 700-watt oven (the industry standard). If you own an oven other than a 700-watt oven, you will need to convert the cooking times to accommodate the difference in wattages. An easy solution are the Conversion Charts available at the Microwave Cooking for One website. There is a chart available to convert cooking times from 700-watt to almost all wattage ovens available. If you dont find your oven wattage listed, simply write to the Webmaster and one will be created for you and added to the site.

Microwave Cooking for One by Marie T. Smith
Microwave Cooking for One

Cooking for one doesnt have to mean opening a can of soup or living on dry sandwiches and frozen dinners. With the help of your microwave oven, and Microwave Cooking for One by Marie T. Smith, you can easily learn to prepare delicious, satisfying meals in minutes. How often have you denied yourself a dish of chocolate pudding because you did not want to make and eat a whole box? You can have that pudding along with chocolate cake, the custard, and many of the other delights you have been denying yourself. Thanks to the microwave, these recipes are now practical for the person cooking for one.

Why Microwave?

It's fast! Generally, it takes one-fourth the time to cook in the microwave than it takes in your conventional oven.

It's cool! Heat is created within the food, so your kitchen does not become overheated.

It's tastier! Natural flavors are retained in the food you cook in your microwave.

It's nutritional! Reduced cooking time means more vitamins and minerals are retained in the food you prepare in your microwave.

It's economical! You only cook the amount of food you need. Your microwave uses less electrical wattage than with your conventional oven, and you're cooking for a shorter amount of time.

It's convenient! You can cook right in the serving dish, on paper plates and in paper towels. There is less mess to clean up after you're done

Why Recipes for One?

Anyone who has tried to reduce a recipe to a small amount knows that it is not an easy task, but to double or triple a recipe is a fairly simple feat. The tough reducing part has already been done for you in Microwave Cooking for One; the easy job of increasing these recipes to two or three or four servings is up to you.

We are becoming a society of single- and two-family households. Baby-boomers are retiring, and their children have grown up and moved out of the house. Microwave Cooking for One is a healthy solution for: Busy Households Full of Individual Tastes, College Students, Cost-Conscious Households, Individuals Living Alone, Individuals on a Special Diet or Any Diet, Newly Weds, Retired Couples, Widows and Widowers, and of course, Yourself!

Practice Makes Perfect

If you have been cooking for many years, no one cookbook will completely change the types of foods or spices you prefer. Once you master a number of dishes designed for cooking in the microwave, you will soon find yourself adapting your favorite recipes to microwave cooking. Microwave Cooking for One is intended as a workbook to help you in that process and to help beginning cooks as well.

You should follow recipes exactly until you become accustomed to the differences from conventional cooking. You will learn that the size and shape of utensils is important, and that weighing food produces better results. In general, when doubling or tripling a recipe, double or triple the cooking time. It may take more than one attempt for you to perfect the timing of a dish required by your oven and your chosen ingredients. Even if your first attempt at a recipe is total disaster, the small amount of food wasted will keep the cost of your failed experiment relatively low. Having perfected a recipe, write the times down that worked directly on the recipe so that you will have them for the next time.

Once you've become accustomed to and appreciate cooking in the microwave oven, you'll enjoy the speed of having a meal on the table in a quarter of the time it used to take you. In fact, just as you are spoiled by the speed of a new computer, you'll also be spoiled by the speed of microwave cooking. Make something as delicious as Chicken Parmesan (see recipe below) in less than 10 minutes in your microwave, and you'll find it difficult to go back to spending an hour in the kitchen using conventional cooking methods. Youll soon be doubling and tripling recipes to prepare for family and guests.

Chicken Parmesan

8 oz. chicken with skin and bones
1 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp. Italian breadcrumbs
Wash chicken and drain on paper towel. Put cheese and bread crumbs on a 12-inch piece of waxed paper. Roll chicken in mixture until coated. Place chicken skin side down in Menu-ette Skillet. Cover skillet with paper towel. Cook 2:00 minutes (_____) at 100% power. Turn chicken over and sprinkle any remaining crumb mixture over chicken. Cover skillet with paper towel. Cook 2:20 minutes (_____) at 100% power. Let stand 2 minutes. Serve in skillet.

This is one of the recipes from in Microwave Cooking for One by Marie T. Smith.  Visit the website, Microwave Cooking for One to sample one recipe from each chapter of the book, and to find more microwave cooking hints.'

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Marie T. Smith passed away in November 1987, just two years after the publication of her book. Her daughter, Tracy, was stunned by the many people who went out of their way to come and tell her about all the wonderful things her mother had done for them or helped them in some way. Tracy says, Thats the way she was, always helping people. I simply had no idea how much she actually did. For instance, I knew she volunteered for a Displaced Homemakers program here in Lakeland, Florida. She invited these women into her home and gave them a free all-day class on how to cook in the microwave, which included 30 recipes.

Although she is no longer with us, Marie continues to help many to learn to cook appetizing meals from scratch through her book, Microwave Cooking for One.

Tracy developed the website in her mothers memory in hopes that you too will find her efforts in writing Microwave Cooking for One helpful to your need to be able to cook healthy, appetizing meals while saving time, money and effort.