There is one staple of my former life that living without really took no getting used to at all: the microwave oven. At the end of the day, I don’t “need” one, but it sure would come in handy for heating up leftovers. While I’m now just about fully comfortable with the stove top–you have to turn the gas knob, then separately light a flame to get the burner going—I’m still terrified of the oven and I avoid using it all costs. The reason? Once again, you have to use a lighter or some kind of flame-making device to light a fire inside after the gas is turned on. My first attempt was successful, but the flame scared me so I blew it out, shut the oven, turned the gas knob off and haven’t opened it since. Therefore I haven’t and won’t heat up anything inside it. Unless my leftovers were something for which a quick little sautee would suffice, it was either eat them cold or not at all.
The solution was pretty simple: just cook less at one time. How do I do that? With my nifty kitchen scale! I make just enough pasta for me–no more than 100 grams–and I’m good! Anyone who knows me can vouch that I usually eat anything and everything that’s in front of me, so by measuring my portions, I eat just enough for one & therefore less overall. So, it’s thanks to my scale that I have managed to make some kind of sense out of portion control.
The metric system? Well that’s another story. I haven’t mastered that yet and like celsius, I’m not certain that I ever will! I’m also hoping to get over my fear of the oven soon because I would really love to make some banana bread. We’ll see.
Are you conversing in Italian all of the time?
I try!