As someone who has worked a lot with college freshman, I'd recommend ditching the cookbook and buying them a huge supply of popcorn/tea/cocoa/canned soup. It is really unlikely that they will be doing any real cooking in their first year dorm. A. They'll be way too busy to shop and cook (heck, they might even spend a little time studying) b. Food storage is an issue c. Roommates.
I know I really appreciated it when my mom sent me care packages of easy snacks to grab when I missed lunch or things that could be shared with friends late at night. Maybe they'll have access to a kitchen if they move to a theme house or off campus in a year or two...plus, they will be super motivated to come home for the holiday and have mom's cooking!
Yes, this makes a lot of sense. When my daughter was at this school for five weeks this summer she loved the care pkgs. but I'll give her a cookbook for the rare occasions she wants to attempt something! Thanks for the reality check!
There are some excellent threads on this hotline about college & dorm room microwave and hotplate cooking. Just type "college" in the Search box on this page and click the magnifying glass.
how unfortunate...guess the school wants to sell lots of meal packages to the parents...NOT good food...get them everything related to microwave cooking you can find so they can at least cook real food...wish I could offer more help.
@jph, it's big safety & liability issue, not just for colleges but corporations too. You only need 1 person to forget to unplug their appliance (or worse, leave it on) and then there's a small fire. I remember when my school banned halogen lamps because people were using the lamps to hang their clothes (I kid you not about this stuff) and (surprise!) starting fires in their rooms. It's more likely that the school is trying to keep their insurance costs down, not sell more dining packages.
I second Greenstuff's recommendation of Barbara Kafka's Microwave Gourmet. It was a wedding present twenty-five years ago, and it has aged well. It's filled with smart advice.
How about also gifting them with a hotplate, a few pans, and a slow cooker...how much can that cost...when my kids were off on their own, they did rather well with that stuff...plus family recipes I typed up for them (including conversions for a slow cooker) and put into a binder, plus BH&G and America's Test Kitchen cookbooks so they could eat real food...and they did.
Is microwave is the 'only' utensils he has? What about coffee maker - such as http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Without-Kitchen-Peter-Mazonson/dp/0963706217 (*not yet try it, but that is the best one I can find for coffee maker cookbook)
Some ideas using coffee maker http://www.buzzfeed.com/arielknutson/surprising-things-you-can-make-with-a-coffee-pot . The burner seems enough to make a fried egg or grilled cheese - which is comparable to mini stovetop then.
*Though, having microwave is immeasurable in college.
No coffeemakers allowed. Just these microwave/fridge combos. :(. And, just fyi, I said "they" because it's two of them. My boy/girl twins, all grown up!
have a look at Barbara Kafka, Microwave Gourmet, and Julie Sahni, Mogul Microwave, Cooking Indian Food the Modern Way. Both are >10 yr old, but/and because they are from writers and cooks with good track records, the books are probably still good. Aim was (and is) to get good food, not just speed from the machine. Looking forward to see what others recommend.
Thanks so much. I cook mostly Indian food and love Julie Sahni's other books. This is the food they'll be craving, I didn't realize she'd done a microwave book. And will definitely check out Kafka's book as well since two of you recommended it. I knew I could count on Food52!
It's old, but it's the cookbook that convinced me to get a microwave--Microwave Gourmet by Barbara Kafka. First published in the late 1980s, but there was a new edition in the 90s, and there probably haven't been a whole lot of break-throughs since then.
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I know I really appreciated it when my mom sent me care packages of easy snacks to grab when I missed lunch or things that could be shared with friends late at night. Maybe they'll have access to a kitchen if they move to a theme house or off campus in a year or two...plus, they will be super motivated to come home for the holiday and have mom's cooking!
*Though, having microwave is immeasurable in college.