Food: Why microwave at all?

When we were registering for wedding gifts everyone assumed that one of the first things we were going to register for was a microwave oven but to there surprise that wasn't the case.  According to this 75% of people with lower income to 93% of people with higher income have microwaves in their households.  Wow! Those numbers are high.  So, why don't we own one? Is it the cost? Our health? Environmental reasons? No not really its simply because we don't need one.  There has been a couple of times that it seems that it would come in handy but for the most part its not a necessity for us.  When we have friends or family members come over for the first time they are usually shocked not to find one in our kitchen and are surprised when we tell them we don't plan on buying one. My mother-in-law has even offered to buy us one and we turned it down.

The reason we don't need one is because I usually do all the cooking at home so why would we need to reheat something in a microwave oven when we could use the pot/pan I cooked it in.  For leftovers we bring from restaurants it might come in handy but since I like to jazz things up a bit the food ends up tasting better being reheated on the stove.

The reason I bring this up today is because earlier tonight my hubby was looking for a snack in the pantry but since we don't really have "snack" like food in there (no chips, no cookies, pretzels, etc...) he asked me if I could make some popcorn.  The normal American would simply throw a bag of popcorn into a microwave oven, set it, and take it out when the house begins to smell like butter and the kernels stop popping.  Since I just mentioned we don't have a microwave I do it the old fashioned way my mom used to make it.  We had a microwave in my parents house when I was growing up but my mom always made it the same way.

Popcorn Recipe

• 3 tablespoons of cooking oil
• 1/3 cup of popcorn 
• Salt to taste

• Put the oil in a 3 quart or larger pan with a lid (make sure it has a lid that fits)
• Pour in the popcorn making sure its only one layer in the bottom of pan
• Cover pan and place it over medium high heat
• Gently shake the pan allowing all kernels to get coated with oil
• Keep shaking pan and slightly let some of the air get released from pan so that the kernels don't get soggy
• Once the oil gets hot enough you'll begin to hear a symphony of popping coming from the pan 
• Keep over heat and gently shaking (With all the shaking I'm sure your arm is tired)
• Once the popping begins to slow down remove from heat
• Don't open the lid until it sounds safe
• Once you're sure they stopped popping place in bowl and add salt to taste and enjoy

If you want a similar recipe but a different technique please go check out this recipe.  I haven't tried it for myself yet but next time I definitely will.  Her followers have also made suggestions on toppings that are worth a try.

Here is another site dedicated to popcorn or just google it.

The best part about homemade popcorn is not only the cost but that you can control how many calories it has depending on the toppings you add.  

Everyone tells me that once I have a child I will definitely get one but until now we haven't had a need for it so I doubt we will ever have one.  I'll keep you guys posted if we ever do.

      
My question for you today is do you have a microwave and if you do how often do you use it?  If you don't why not?  How do you make your popcorn?