My Oven

     My oven is used frequently, and not just for baking sweet treats. I do make pies, roast meat and such in my oven. Why wouldn't I? Have you seen my oven? It's one of those sizeable standalone dual fuel cookers with 6 gas hobs and a single combi oven, grill. Since it is an important part of my life, I decided that my oven deserves some recognition here.

       The presence of an existing oven was a major requirement when my husband and I were apartment-hunting a year ago. This might seem like a simple requirement. However, apartment-living is the norm in the Netherlands and the Dutch have become adept at squeezing as many rooms into an apartment as possible. As a result, the size of the kitchens are usually compromised. Finding an apartment fitted with the kind of oven we have is not very common. Most Dutch use (gasp!) microwave ovens.

     At this point I do have to say that I don't know when I turned into an 'oven snob'. After all, I started baking using a microwave oven. That was what my family had in Singapore. Since I started baking at 13 year- old till I left Singapore at 22 years-old, my baking was always done in the trusty microwave oven. Now, I have a microwave oven AND a proper oven at home. I hate the microwave oven for baking because it is lousy as an oven. Countless times I have tried to bake a small pie or something in the microwave oven, only to find that after 20 minutes the pie looks completely unbaked. I do however, use the microwave on a daily basis for cooking my oatmeal and reheating things.

     

     So, what do you use? A microwave oven or a gas/electric oven?