Does this count as 'cooking'?

–I learned something new today!  And I am so excited to now know this!

Did you know that you can microwave spinach?

I was so hungry at lunchtime... and so lazy but wanted to minimize prep and clean up.  I wanted some brown rice, roasted chicken and some sort of vegetable.  The rice and chicken were leftovers... so nuking was sort of a given.  But the veggie...

I was feeling way too lazy busy to boil water and steam anything and then have to clean up the pot and the steamer.  Is that pathetic?

Hmmmmmm.... I thought.  What will happen if I throw a few handfuls of spinach into the pyrex bowl containing the rice and chicken?  Sprinkle a little extra water to give it that 'steaming' effect and cover it with plastic wrap...  The worst that could happen is it could explode and start a fire, right?  I happen to have a fire extinguisher handy in the kitchen (like everyone does, right?) so that could be handled.  It might ruin everything in the bowl and I'd have to rethink my lunch.  Cereal could work if that happened.  Okay... so I gave it a shot.

It worked!

I am guessing that most of you already know this trick.  Well, now I know, too.  So there.  It ain't a secret from me anymore ;-)

Do you microwave?
–I used to be totally anti-microwave.  Totally.  Now I sing a different tune.  I use it at least a few times a day.


Have you ever had a microwave disaster?
–Yes!  The worst one that involved proper microwave use (i.e. not putting metal in there) was when I tried heating up a microwaveable hot pack.  I followed the directions... heat for 'x' amount of time, knead it to redistribute the heat, heat again in 30 second increments... but I may have gotten a little impatient.  I smelled something smoldering.  When I pulled it out it was SUPER hot... and smoking.  Yikes.  I threw it out onto the back porch railing and went back inside, closing the door.  A few minutes later I went to get it to try again... it was IN FLAMES!!!!!!!!  Charred the railing.  I dumped a bucket of water on it.  Whew.