> Preheat watery vegetables in the microwave
There's actually a lot of stuff you can halfway-heat in the microwave.
Air frying frozen <anything>? Nuke it for 2 min and air-fry for 3 min, instead of air-frying for 12 min.
Ice cream rock solid? Nuke a pint for 15 seconds. It won't melt, just soften.
Cold ketchup in a dipping bowl? Nuke for 5 seconds to bring it to room temperature, so you're not putting cold ketchup on warm food.
But the best? You know how tomatoes get a mealy texture when kept in the fridge, which is why everybody says not to keep in them in the fridge, even though they last so much longer that way? That's only as long as they're chilled. Nuke for 10 seconds to bring back to room temperature. The texture returns 100% to normal.
Cold ketchup on hot french fries is one of life's great joys, though.
Room temperature ketchup is always suboptimal in my opinion. It's fine if I have to open a fresh bottle, but room temperature ketchup is like room temperature milk to me: consumable, but a bit unsettling.
When I was a kid, I had some ice cream that was too goddamn cold, and I asked my mom to put it in the microwave for a few seconds.
Everyone laughed at me.
I'm still pissed off about it.
Don’t be pissed. You the one sentient being in a family of NPCs (no offence).
I always microwave my ice-cream.
People freak out when I tell them I do this.
Another thing people freak out about is when I tell them I sprinkle instant coffee on supermarket bought vanilla ice cream. The (too) sweet ice cream balances with the bitter coffee and it adds a textural element.
Instant coffee is clever.
Another great thing to sprinkle is a thin layer of cocoa powder on chocolate ice cream -- it's similarly bitter, but it's a blast of extra chocolate rather than coffee. Learned that one in Italy.
I've tried that before but I found that the texture was a bit chalky and if I somehow inhaled it then it would cause a coughing fit.
Thinking back I probably just put too much of it on the ice cream.
Thinking more it would be interesting to maybe add a little chili powder to the cocoa powder.
Yup it's incredibly easy to overdo it. Think more like a dusting, not a layer. Chili sounds awesome I should try that.
> Ice cream rock solid? Nuke a pint for 15 seconds. It won't melt, just soften.
Use 50% power and check in 10 second increments:
* ATK: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FZCgQp8D2Xw
If you think ahead, put it in the refrigerator 30 minutes before you need it.
Unless you have an inverter microwave (most don't) there's no such thing as 50% power. It's 100% power for 50% of the time. The first 10 seconds might be power on, the second 10 you might just be watching it spin around for nothing.
This is correct -- it's usually a cycle of several seconds on, several seconds off, so 50% power for 10 seconds is somewhat nonsensical. Just do 100% power for something like 7 seconds at a time, maybe, if you want to be really careful.