Saving electricity...and dishes!

Today, I'd like to share a little kitchen tip that my marvelous mother came up with.

My Dad says that we have 8 dishwashers. I guess that's strictly true...but they aren't the electric type. No, Sir. These kind of dishwashers have hands and feet....and look a lot like the members of our family. :)

Seeing as how people always eat, and dishes always need to be washed, I'd say we've become experts on how to use just a few dishes. (Don't use the 1 cup and the 1/2 cup! Use the 1/2 cup twice to equal 1 cup, and that's one less thing to wash!...Better yet, if the recipe calls for 1 cup, 1/2 cup, and 1/4 cup of something, you can use the 1/4 cup for everything! That's two less things to wash! Did we mention that math comes in handy in the kitchen?)

So maybe Mom got this idea when she was trying to save on how many dishes she used. Or maybe, because Mom is so hard-working that she really doesn't mind washing a few extra dishes, maybe she got the idea when she was thinking on how to save electricity. Or maybe she just likes the way it looks.

In any case, I've borrowed the thought from her, and I am using it this morning, as I do prep. for supper tonight.

Tonight I plan to make chicken/broccoli casserole. Instead of boiling the chicken in one pan, and steaming the broccoli in another, and using two burners at once, I'm using a large pan, with a shallow steaming insert on top. The chicken boils in the water down below, and the broccoli steams above. The broccoli finishes cooking first, but it can simply be lifted off, and the chicken left to finish cooking.

Cool, huh?