#060 Microwave Ovens: Time Remaining

Microwave ovens (microwaves) are a most glorious invention that has been around since the mid 1950s, but didn't really start selling in large quantities until the late 1960s and early 1970s.(reference: wikipedia). They heat your food quickly and easily, and you don't have to wait a long time for an oven to heat up to cook your food. Although microwaves are not suitable for cooking all types of food, they are very effective and efficient for typical, basic food heating.

Early microwave models had dials and different settings, but these days they are mostly of the push-button design defaulted on the highest setting to heat food as fast as the unit is built to handle. But whether it is a dial- or button-model, I'm sure people then had the same irritation then that they (I) do now: time remaining on the timer. It's so aggravating when I walk up to a microwave to heat some food and there's only a few seconds remaining on the timer. Why not just let your food cook the remaining few seconds? Or, why not CLEAR the time remaining? Microwaves are supposed to be an efficient device: one should be able to walk up, insert the food and press a button to start the machine.

With all of the push-button designs out there recently, most of them actually have a "one minute" button to just automatically start the machine without having to enter a specific amount of time. Even if you don't want the machine to run the entire 60 seconds, you can place the food in, press the "one minute" button, open the door at the desire time, then clear the time remaining and walk away. It's that simple! Just don't forget to clear your remaining time before you walk away. I don't want to walk up to use a microwave and have to clear out the settings or time remaining from your microwave session.