People were seated at tables covered by crisp, white tablecloths. Appetizers were placed on the table as guests arrived and servers bustled about with arms full of the different courses, which included miniature beef sandwiches, elbow macaroni pasta covered in marinara and cheese, and a chocolate dessert.
In the front of the room, Chef Melissa Quinn was instructing those eating on how to make each of the foodstuffs they were enjoying. And she did so without an oven, stove or grill. Instead, on the table beside her mixing bowls were three microwaves.
The potato chips served as appetizers, the sloppy joes, the “micro busy day casserole” and the brownies were the menu of the totally microwave-makeable feast featured in the Student Activities Board Event “Learn to Cook: Microwave Style” on Nov. 17 in Parent’s Hall.
The organizers were happy with the event’s turnout said SAB Campus Impact Committee Co-Chair Natalie Spellman.
“We only had 50 seats for people and they were all full, so we were set and ready for that,” she said.
Junior Byron Spears volunteered to go onstage to assist Sodexo cook Melissa Quinn in making potato chips.
Spears shrugged his shoulders and admitted that he wouldn’t normally think of making the chips on his own at home. “I’d probably just go buy a bag. But I mean, if I had a potato lying around, then yeah, why not?” he said.
He nodded as he tasted the first one. “Not bad,” he said.
As the servers brought out the casserole, Campus Impact Committee member Andrea Crahan, a first-year student, grinned at another member.
“This is awesome,” she said. “We picked the right committee.”
Everyone who attended the event also received a packet of microwave recipes. All the featured foods were included, along with others like “Marvelous Microwave Cherry Cobbler” and “Harry Potter’s Cockroach Clusters.”
Spears said the clusters looked the most appealing to him because they had “all things that are good: chocolate, raisins, pretzels, and sprinkles.”
As the evening came to a close, Spellman suggested to students that they could show off some of their newly acquired cooking skills at home over Thanksgiving break. Several laughed and shook their heads, some making remarks about wanting “real food.”
But when they left, they took the leftover microwave-baked brownies with them.
