*Microwaves and Tupperware and Leaving Food Out*

Since my roommate moved out and took her microwave with her, I've been having some major troubles. What do you do with a bag of already-cooked rice in the fridge? I've been heating it up in a pan using some oil, but I don't think that's the healthiest. How about with pancakes you put in the freezer? Meat? Cheese? (Which, by the way, is shockingly odd to Germans, as shown by the tiny size of their freezers.) It's got me wondering why she took the microwave with her.

I'm the only one who ever used the darn thing. Call me American, but I like my food warm. I don't leave old pots of vegetables or pieces of pizza out to eat later (cold or hot, no in between) or buy them that way (okay, I did once, but only because I thought the lamps on them were heating lamps, and never again).

The first few weeks I was in Germany, I thought my roommates were leaving out their food because they either didn't want the rest or they were just being slobs. Come to find out they like it that way, even the resulting rock-hard bread that you could kill someone with more quickly than you can say "David and Goliath." Once again, I'm the only one who uses Tupperware. I'm not sure why we have it if no one else uses it, but I do have to say that yes, Mom, even Tupperware that is supposedly not used by anyone, has mismatched and missing parts.

I'll make a big pot of rice and save it in the fridge to reheat and eat for a week. Others make a small pot of rice and whatever is left stays there in the pot, on the cold stove, to be eaten some time within the next week, even if there's meat or something in it that can go bad quickly (like cheese). I just don't get it.

Even rouladen is left out over night so the fat can consolidate and be scraped out of the pot. It is, however, one of the few things that is reheated before served. Thank goodness.