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Uhm, i use my microwave to heat up small amounts of water (say for proofing yeast) and to defrost my frozen english muffins enough that i can split them in two and throw 'em in the toaster. That's about it...

water. rice. leftovers.

i think is is great for heating up rice that has been in the fridge.

I use the microwave for all kinds of wet cooking where I don't care that it won't brown. Steaming veggies, cooking hot cereal, heating milk, etc. I also use my microwave extensively for defrosting solid meats (for some reason it doesn't handle frozen, ground meat very well).

I think the key to cooking with a microwave is that, like on a range, just because there is a High setting, you shouldn't always use it. It's a shame that all microwaves default to High, because it's really only appropriate for boiling water.

A follow-up to my comment above: it really is worth it to invest in a microwave oven with a Inverter, which actually varies the instantaneous power to the tube. It's an enormous improvement over the old-fashioned "chopper" style power controls that just cycle the tube on and off from 100% to 0% to lower the average power over time.

@jamieforrest:

A a physics student in college, we used to put all kinds of crazy things in the microwave in the student lounge. The best was a standard lightbulb; it lit up like those cheesy "Plasma Balls" they sell at Brookstone. The thing was, we knew exactly what was happening in the oven and took (mostly) appropriate safety precautions.

So, I think a more appropriate statement would be that metal in the microwave -can- be dangerous, but it is not categorically so. I have seen many microwave cookbooks suggest putting foil over the corners of a casserole in order to prevent "dry corners".

You just have to be careful - putting foil in the microwave and running it over and over again without opening the door will superheat the air inside eventually, causing problems.

I do the usual water boiling, reheating, and defrosting, but I sometimes "bake" chicken leg quarters in the microwave when I'm in a hurry, then broil it for a few minutes to crisp the skin up. I have a chicken dinner in under 15 minutes.

When my oven broke last fall, I was tempted to try one of the many micowave oven baking recipes for cookies, but I never got around to it.

Ok, so here's why you should be careful of metal in the microwave:

A microwave isn't like a standard oven, in that it doesn't cook food by getting it "hot". Microwaves (the waves, not the ovens) are short electromagnetic waves. When a microwave passes through food, the food is exposed to the alternating magnetic field in the wave. Water - the major component in all our food - is a polar molecule, meaning it has a magnetic north and a magnetic south pole. When a water molecule is exposed to the alternating magnetic field in the microwave, it vibrates as it tries to align itself with the magnetic field. Lots of water molecules vibrating together cause friction, and friction heats up your food.

if a conventional oven cooks your food with heat, a microwave oven cooks your food with friction. That also explains why sometimes microwaved food seems to cook from the inside out, or why half your potato can be cooked but the other half is cold; the waves bounce around in the oven and can leave dead spots where the magnetic field doesn't reach. (Ergo: the invention of the carousel that spins your plate around.)

Getting back to metal: the same microwaves that cause water molecules to vibrate can start a current in metal. The sparks you see flying off the ends of a fork? That's a sign that an electric current is moving from one end of the fork to the other, looking for ground. (Or a fire, whichever happens first.)

After a bachelor's in Physics, I've never put metal in the microwave and never will.

I second the "metal in a microwave is okay in certain instances" argument above. The microwave in my apartment actually has a metal rack built into it. And I also use Alton Brown's idea for microwaving popcorn & olive oil in a brown bag with a staple in it frequently with no problems whatsoever.

o I reheat my oatmeal (which my partner cooks on the stovetop) almost every day in the microwave, often with a spoon in the bowl. (He eats about an hour ealier than I do while I am at the gym.) It NEVER sparks.
o Sometimes when trying to get the last bit of honey out of a container, I'll put it in the microwave and if there's a small bit of that metallic cover that's used as a seal left around the rim, it will surely spark.
o My mother's good china with the metal rim sparks for a few seconds and then stops.
o My own microwave has a metal rack in it that is always left in the microwave oven and never causes any sparks.
o My mother overcooked a baked potato in her microwave. She's not sure if it caught fire, but it certainly smoldered, smoked, and burnt out the oven.
o When people heard that nuking a sponge on high for two minutes would kill bacteria in the sponge, many didn't realize that the sponge had to be moist. The dry sponges caught fire.
o In college (more than 20 years ago) a friend reheated a hot dog on a foil lined plate and wrapped in a napkin. It caught fire.

My point with all these examples is that people can always misuse appliances and defy safety instructions, sometimes causing fire sometimes causing no damage whatsoever. We all know that safety precautions that come with appliances are oversimplified and that through normal use of a product many of these precautions might never be necessary. Manufacturers (seeking to limit liability?) overcompensate giving blanket, un-nuanced precautions because they're trying to impress upon people, "Hey, don't be stupid!"

I think telling folks not to use metal in the microwave to avoid fires is like telling people to eat a low fat diet to lose weight. Some metals are OK in the microwave and do not cause sparks. Some fats (omega-3s, monounsaturated fats, even some naturally occuring cis-trans fats) are desirable in the diet and we need more of these. Certainly advising people to never use metal in a microwave means no sparks and presumably no fires. But my mother proved that overcooking even a potato (not even foil wrapped) can ruin a microwave.

I use mine everyday! Yesterday it was boneless leg of lamb, and the day before a crustless crab quiche. I also make baked apples, stuffed pork chops, and just about everything else. Fish and veggies are fantastic and my omlettes are almost like souffles. I have never used the regular oven in my current house and have lived here 9 years! Although I do use the cooktop. I purchased my first microwave in 1971 - that one lasted 23 years. Unfortunately, they no longer come with an interior shelf and they all seem to have a carousel. It really doesn't take much to stop it and turn the dish.