Ok....since it's sooo dead in here today What should I make for dinner? Here's what is in the fridge/freezer. Channel your inner Iron Chef and help me out! Veggies: Onions, Sweet Potatoes, Spinach, Parsley, Garlic, Limes, Fresh salsa (from last night), bird chiles and maybe a red bell pepper Grains: all the normal stuff...a variety of rice and pasta, rice noodles, soba Meats: Kobe-style ground beef (super lean), chicken breasts and thighs, top sirloin round. Full spice cabinet, decent cooking skills.

the awesome plum wine that has your name on it would go wonderfully with the kobe-style beef dish.

do you have real parmesian cheese and butter? Grill the chicken. Nuke the sweet potatoe and serve with a little butter and fresh nutmeg sprinkled lightly on top. Cook bowtie pasta. Melt real butter in suacepan with garlic cloves. When the solids start to brown, yank it from the burner. Toss with pasta, pour on freshly shredded real parmesian, some fresh ground pepper, top with sliced grilled chicken. (add sprig of parsely to the top) If you don't have real butter, heat olive oil with the garlic instead. Serve with lots of chianti classico.

I'm all over the chianti classico especially since they have it at costco for $6. Sadly, I may get skinned alive if I serve chicken pasta again (always my fall back position)

ever hear the moose-turd pie story? THe basic moral of the story is "anyone who bitches about dinner gets stuck cooking next time around." So make chicken pasta and damn the torpedos! Although chicken tacos sounds good....

Best damn moose turd pie I ever ate, though!

-x,x for suggesting she "nuke" anything. Much better plan: Mashed sweet potato (boil then crush into oblivion and add fat and/or liquid + salt+pepper or Sweet Potato fries (slice into fries, fry in shallow oil in a skillet to brown, place in oven to finish cooking - if thick)

Pish & tush Nothing wrong with nuking a tuber. Roasting IS better, it's true.

thank goodness someone has to stop the nuking madness!

I dunno. I've eaten many leftovers that'd have gone to waste if I didn't have a microwave.

that's what toaster ovens are for microwaves are evil. I've never had one since I left my parents home and no leftover has gone to waste that I didn't want to go to waste. *shudder*

Chacun a son gout. But: Much less trouble to re-heat in a microwave; no need to dirty a pan/dish just to reheat; things reheat more evenly.

pas de tout microwaves heat rather poorly. washing dishes is good for your soul. microwaving leeches plastic into your food.

aren't toasters more wastefull of energy My toaster takes forever to heat up enough to reheat food and it's pretty new. The microwave can reheat in under a minute.

That's a wiring problem or maybe the boys are all running their hair dryers or curling irons while nuking their dinner. A toaster oven uses *** w. It has to heat the element, the interior of the oven, the container, and finally the food. It takes a long time to do that. Although a microwave oven may not replace a standard range, there are many tasks it will perform better, faster, and with less energy. Tests on microwave ovens have shown that up to x per cent of the energy used for conventional cooking can be saved. Microwave ovens are faster and use half the energy of traditional ovens because the energy (in the form of microwaves) goes into heating the food, not the oven or utensils. Microwaves don’t require any preheating. The oven door can be opened, and the appliance can be turned on and off with no increase in energy consumption.

Microwaves cease to exist? I want you to know I would starve if this happend. Or I would have to order out all the time. Let me tell you I mpted to make hash browns this weekend...yes fairly simple one might beleive, oil and the frozen hash browns. However, mine were not so much golden brown...NO, they were black and light yellow and a tinge of brown...thankfully I had ketchup otherwise I'm not sure what I would have done... I'm just throwing that out there so that maybe you will reconsider abolishing the whole microwave thing ot at least allow me to keep mine. :)

I'm not that powerful it's just my vote. There's something evil about them. Not all technology should be embraced, is all. And you really need to learn how to cook. How exactly did you manage to burn the hash browns? All it takes is medium heat and a little ntion, doll!

Well what happened was... Ok, I really have no idea how the hell I messed up the hash browns...I tried with all my effort, I was ntive and I read the directions (which I rarely do). I can't explain it! I'm telling you its fate, I'm not meant to cook...the last time I mpted to make brownies they came out as crispy as crackers and thin too! The hash brown fiasco never would have occured if Dominos or Pizza Hut delivered even though my number is out of state...so I blame them.