The Joy of Cooking with the RV Microwave Oven
I have already admitted: Charlie The Unicorn has a washer & dryer. (The washer isn’t working, has never worked. I mentioned that in Full Time RV Beginners Top 15 Lessons Learned: Part 3 of 3 ).
We have a (broken) washer & dryer onboard, but what we do not have in our fancy rig is a “real” oven.
We have a fancy all-in-one convection microwave oven. What am I supposed to do with that?!
And it draws a lot of power. I never had to think about power and amp usage before, in a house or condo. But this is RV Life now, and amp usage is a thing to which we have to pay attention. (I’m not complaining, just saying.)
Things Go Boom
The first time I tried to use the RV microwave oven to bake something, it blew out the power on the kitchen side of the rig. Not good.
After consulting our unofficial go-to mentors on the Entegra Owner’s Facebook Group, Russ eventually found a mystery breaker, off by itself in a hard-to-reach spot in the “basement” of the RV (the huge storage cabinets below the “house”). With that, he was able to restore power, yay.
That was in Dow Creek/Hoodsport, WA, in November. We haven’t used the oven since. (It’s now July.)
We have been faux-baking, or, basically microwaving, out of urgent necessity: We managed to figure out an excellent version of 15-minute microwave nachos. While it doesn’t trip the breaker, it does set off the smoke alarm. Every time. ?)
How to Bake in an RV Microwave Oven
Until last week… our 4th-of-July-birthday boy (youngest son) special-requested his traditional Star-Spangled Fruit Tart for his 21st birthday.
No way I could disappoint him!
But I had to figure out to use the microwave oven BAKE feature, without blowing out the mystery breaker, to make the delicious sugar cookie base of the tart.
The tart itself is super simple, after baking the sheet cookie, now that I’ve got the fruit design down, more or less. After nine years of making this cake for the birthday boy. (Before that, traditional homemade birthday cake was the favorite — frosted Portal cakes and Minecraft cakes and favorites like that.)
Needs must: we figured it out!
We Googled the Samsung Convection Microwave Oven User’s Guide for instructions. Meh. Reading User’s Guides online is like reading Greek or Latin or tech-speak.
Even better (and faster), I posted the question on the Entegra Owner’s Facebook Group. (An invaluable source of info & support! Advice to new RVers: Find & join your RV brand owner’s group on the Facebook!)
I had answers and advice immediately. Within minutes, I knew exactly what to do.
Success! We didn’t blow a fuse OR the breaker!
Our college kid loved his 21st birthday 4th of July cookie cake/fruit tart.
And I (cautiously) know how to bake in the Samsung convection microwave oven.
Bring on the real nachos! Woo hoo!