Post by Lauren

The history:
Those who knew me circa 2006 knew that my absolute favorite animal in the whole world was a Liger. I even dressed up as one for the work Halloween party.

For those of you who haven’t seen Napoleon Dynamite, this wondrous creature that was half lion and half tiger, pictured below.

Part 2:

When you move to Switzerland, none of your appliances and electronics work on the electrical system, here, with the exception of chargers, etc.

What this means is you have to go out and buy new everything. The hard part is that they are generally 3-4 times what they are back home. So, Gabe and I had to seriously consider what appliances to “invest in” in our time here.

Obviously, the TV made the cut to purchase. I also added a printer, an iron, and a vacuum.

When it came to the kitchen, we bought a coffeemaker. We had to make a difficult choice on a warming appliance.

See, Gabe fell in love with my toaster oven when we were dating. A toaster oven was what I was used to – I don’t think we had a toaster when I was growing up. Anyhow, he loved how easy it was to warm up meals, or make things more than just toast. And when his roommate moved out in Atlanta, he had lived without a microwave in Atlanta for about 8 months and had managed. I wish I owed stock in Chipotle during that time.

While I loved the toaster oven as well, it seemed to be a big trade-off. I mean, our oven is almost the size of a toaster oven here. So, I really didn’t think it was saving on electricity or ramp-up time to start our oven like it would’ve in the US. But, there was something intriguing about the idea of ditching the nuke-machine.

In the end, we decided to go with the toaster oven. This is until we went shopping and much did our eyes delight find….drum-roll….toaster oven and microwave combos!!!

The Liger of Kitchen Appliances

I was skeptical at first, but couldn’t really turn down this fabulous idea down. I mean, can your microwave grill or microwave as the same time??? It is the “liger” of kitchen appliances.

I read up on the instructions….translating so that I could use it to toast the grain bread I normally had with my lunch. And I tried, doing exactly what these instructions said.

Something was lost in translation

Apparently, something was lost in translation as my result was a pop, smoke and some burned bread with black holes in it. Note: with the metal insert for grilling, it can cause much havoc if things aren’t done right.

Does anyone living in Switzerland have one of these liger microwaves and know how to properly use it? In the meantime, I am only using this bad boy for microwaving so I don’t burn our apartment building down.