Uncle Ray's Microwave Cooking Hints....

"Who is Michelina?" you ask. Who, indeed - probably some bewhiskered old coot who looks nothing like the kindly old Italian Momma image on the cover. The back of the box says it comes from Bellisio Foods Inc., of Duluth, Minnesota, 55802. 

Duluth has long been famous as a Great Lakes port, shipping coal, iron ore, and grain to other places, but it has only been recently that it is becoming known for shipping frozen dinners to the starving singles of the world. And that's where my helpful hints get into the act. What do I know about Italian cooking? I don't know any Italians, and I've never tried to cook one, but I've been a healthy eater for going on 77 years, and that qualifies me to say something about the process.

What I'd like to say is this: these frozen dinners tend to dry out in storage, because ice, like water, evaporates into the surrounding air over time. So to get a nice properly moist result from cooking a frozen dinner, you should first add two or three tablespoons of water to it. I add that through a short slit made in the clear plastic covering, rather than lifting a corner as they suggest. Sometimes, a lifted corner allows food to escape during cooking, while a slit near the middle does not. Next, when they tell you to peel back the top cover after five minutes to stir the contents, your Italian dinner will taste a lot better if you add a couple of inch-wide or inch-and-a-half wide slices of real cheddar cheese to the top. Then replace the clear plastic cover (to prevent splashing during the final stage of cooking) and again nuke the whole thing for a minute or minute-and-a-half. Just long enough for the added cheese to melt into the top of it. And I don't stir the contents when told to, because they're happier the way they were. You will be too, when you try my recipe. Take that, Michelina!