Microwave Basics: Delicious, Easy Recipes for Your Microwave

Aptly named, Microwave Basics is aimed not only at those new to microwave cooking but at the novice cook as well. The 100 recipes include chapters on appetizers, soups and sauces, main courses, including fish and seafood, side courses and desserts. Each chapter begins with a page of questions and answers about microwaving. Jester, who has written four other cookbooks including a more sophisticated microwave manual, has a bright, cheery tone that emphasizes the pros and glosses over the cons of this sort of cooking: the fact that it can't be beat for defrosting but leaves much to be desired when browning, that it's fine for steaming but difficult to control when making sauces. Well written and clearly presented, this book, on the whole, adds little to the contemporary corpus of microwave cookbooks. (February)