I hope you won't think badly of me, but there is a microwave in my new house.

I had never wanted a microwave oven. I remember one Christmas when my parents, my husband's parents, and my husband's grandmother all tried to give me a microwave. I said "no." I don't think that I was scared of microwaves, though I did stay away from them when I was pregnant. Nothing scientific on my part, just superstition or over cautiousness.

I learned to cook the old fashioned way, and I'm comfortable with it. What's the point of boiling water in a microwave, when I could be chopping vegetables while water comes to a boil on the stove. Besides I would miss the whistle of the tea kettle. The only time I wished for a microwave was when I didn't plan ahead for dinner, and I thought how nice it would be to thaw something out quickly.

However I pack my husband's lunch every morning before he goes to work. He warms the food up in the microwave at the office, and he's used to it. When we were planning the new house he said, you can arrange the kitchen any way you want, but I would like to have a microwave. So, we got one.

It has an automatic defrost function on it, which I tried once. What with all of the timing and stirring and restarting, I decided it was easier to thaw ground beef or turkey on the stove the way I always have.

However, I do use it for sweet potatoes. There were uncountable times at the old house where I would be 15 minutes away from dinner a meal and realize I had lots of sweet potatoes, but no time to cook them. It's nice to wrap a sweet potato in a paper towel, push one button, set the table, and pull out a perfectly cooked vegetable.

The interesting thing is that sweet potatoes cooked in the oven and sweet potatoes cooked in the microwave don't taste the same. Oven baked sweet potatoes are sweet and gooey, almost like pudding. Sometimes they are so moist that they are messy. Oven baked sweet potatoes remind me more of the texture of a baked Irish potato. They are drier and fluffier. They do not taste quite as sweet, but they are delicious mixed with ghee.

The funny thing is that both are good, and I can't quite make up my mind which I like better. It's sort of like adding a new beneficial vegetable to the list.

I'm going to read the recipe book that came with the microwave oven. I'm sure as time goes on, I'll use it more. However I don't want to get in such a hurried mindset that I impatiently think of cooking in seconds rather than enjoying the process of minutes and quarter hours.