Amazing what you can cook in the microwave

So, my induction cooktop has gone on the fritz, and thus here I am with no cooktop. Someone is supposed to come out on the 14th to fix it. It will have been broken for 3 weeks by then, and then what do you bet they need to order a part and it takes another three weeks to actually get fixed? And costs an arm and a leg, too, I expect.

But that’s not the interesting part. That’s just the annoying part. This is the interesting part:

Did you realize you can cook medium-coarse bulgur in the microwave? I got the water boiling, then cooked the bowl for 30 seconds, then off for 3 minutes, then 30 more seconds, etc. The bulgur cooked perfectly. I was making bulgur with eggplant and halloumi cheese, in case you’re curious.

Feeling a bit under the weather? You can cook ramen noodles — my usual alternative to canned chicken soup, which I don’t like — in the microwave. The noodles came out starchy, but okay considering I was not in a mood to care.

Eggs, not very easily or very well. I don’t find that the broiler works well for eggs, either. I miss being able to use my small skillet on the stove. Usually I use my electric skillet mainly for pancakes, but finally I realized I could of course use it for eggs. It’s way too big for just one egg, but that’s life.

I made chili yesterday. I know, it’s far too hot for chili, but all these peppers were coming off the plants, so I made chili with pork shoulder and tomatoes and lots and lots of roasted, chopped, seeded chilies. Anaheims, mostly, plus hot wax peppers and jalapenos. Then I figured out how to use the slow-cook feature offered by my oven and cooked the chili for nine hours on low. I had never even noticed the slow-cook button before, so that was nice to discover.

Rice, I guess, is impossible. Unless it can be cooked in the oven, I suppose. I am not desperate enough to try that, yet.

Cooking raspberries into a sauce, no.

Steaming Chinese dumplings or buns, no.

I can make potstickers in my electric skillet, though, so there’s that. But I’m still crossing my fingers that the repair person will be able to actually fix my stovetop on the 14th, rather than just come out and gaze helplessly at my stove top and go away again. In the meantime, certain recipes are shuffling into a pile of maybe-in-a-few-weeks . . .