I’m Melllllltttttttiiiinnnnngggg…

Why yes, it is that hot here in Ohio. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about how I’m melting all kinds of stuff in my microwave!

My Frigidaire over-the-range microwave has all sorts of buttons that do cool things, but the one I’m currently obsessed with is the melt/soften button.

It gives you the option to melt butter or chocolate, or to soften cream cheese or ice cream. Which, coincidentally, covers all four main food groups.

I discovered the beauty of softening cream cheese when I made taco dip for a baby shower a few months ago. I had always “softened” my cream cheese by smooshing it around in the foil pouch before unwrapping it, but that day I gave the button a try. I was surprised by what a difference it makes – it blended together with the sour cream so well, and there were no cream cheese chunks, just creamy smoothness.

I just tried out the other soften option – ice cream – the other night. Kate and Andy wanted some ice cream (I didn’t have any, I swear! I only ate a couple bites out of the carton to test the melty-ness. And also what was left of Kate’s. *ahem*), and the new half-gallon carton was frozen solid. I put the whole thing in the microwave and hit the “soften ice cream” button twice to indicate that it was a half-gallon, not a pint. Had I been using the timer alone, I would have set it for 10 seconds, so imagine my surprise when the timer started counting down from 2.5 minutes. I thought for sure I was going to have ice cream soup on my hands. Speaking of my hands, I practically had to sit on them to keep from pressing “stop.” But I decided to let the microwave do its thing, and I was glad I did – the ice cream was perfectly softened. Not too much, not too little.

From this experiment I learned two things. 1) the microwave is smarter than I am; and 2) soft, creamy ice cream is freaking good. I had no idea! Apparently I’ve always scarfed it down so fast that I haven’t given it time to get to the proper consistency.

Finally, the “melt” button. I’ve been using it to melt butter for a while now, and it works perfectly, but I had been wanting to try out its chocolate-melting skills. I googled “melted chocolate chip cookies” and came up with this recipe for chocolate chocolate chip cookies. I had to be able to give an honest review of this feature, you know! I made them for you! But since you weren’t there, I ate them all.

Anyway, when I took the chocolate chips out of the microwave, they still looked like chocolate chips. I was slightly confused. But when I stirred them up, I found that they were perfectly melted, and not the slightest bit scorched. Very impressive.

I still can’t believe how many features this microwave has. It’s pretty amazing, really. It can do it all – from melting chocolate to steaming ears of corn – with the touch of a button. Even I can’t screw it up.

Most of the time.

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I wrote this review while participating in a Test Drive Campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Frigidaire and received a Frigidaire Range/Microwave to facilitate my review.

P.S. we have a totally unrelated and awesome giveaway that your kids will love going on over HERE so check it out!!