Hi all, My grandmother is constantly buying random things she sees on TV that will "help" me in the kitchen. Very rarely do they prove to be anything more that Ebay fodder, but there are exceptions.
The RangeMate (www.rangemateusa.com) is one. It claims to let you cook hamburgers, chicken breasts, quesadillas, grilled cheese, and so on, all in the microwave. Aside from flipping halfway through, you need only put the item in, put the lid on, and nuke it. I was skeptical, but I have to admit that I've had success so far. My hamburger was good, my grilled cheese nicely done, my quesadillas (once I got the cooking time down) quite tasty… I expected a different taste or texture, in the same way food in a slow cooker can taste more steamed than one would like. This wasn't the case, though. The website lists a lot more recipes--muffins, oatmeal, eggs, and more--but I haven't tried them yet. The RangeMate is a large rectangle made from plastic. The long sides are slightly convex and sport small handles. Inside, you have a grill pan, complete with the ridges that will give things grill marks. The plastic sides extend above the pan a few inches, until terminating in a rubber ring that goes around the inner perimeter. The lid, which has a knob-like handle on top, rests on that rubber. It just sits there, no locking mechanism or anything. Once you put your food on the pan and put the lid on, you place the entire contraption in the microwave and hit 'Start'. As I said, you'll have to flip your meal partway through cooking; the small size of the RangeMate can make this a bit of a challenge, but I doubt most people would have a problem. If you've been considering one of these, or have never heard of it, my personal--and still somewhat limited--experience is that this thing does what it says on the box. Give it a try, especially if you have a glass-topped stove or can never get the timing right when cooking something in a pan. -- Have a great day, Alex Hall [email protected] _______________________________________________ Cookinginthedark mailing list [email protected] http://acbradio.org/mailman/listinfo/cookinginthedark
