Cooking Smart

Electricity is not cheap, neither is gas. So, whichever you use to cook with, use your head. Be smart and efficient.

My Mom, was not the finest cook, but she was smart about it. She never turned on the oven for just one item. Once a week, she would cook a roast, come chicken, maybe a meatloaf, and baked beans, macaroni and cheese and a bake a pie or a cake. At the same time, on the stove top, she would cook a pot of greens, some chili or spaghetti sauce and maybe a beef stew.

Then, during the week, we just warmed up what we wanted. Now, you may ask, why was that smart and efficient? Simple. It takes time and power to heat an oven, Once its hot, it doesn't take that much to keep it hot. In fact, if you heat an oven to 350, you can turn it off for the last fifteen minutes or so that you have food in it and it will keep cooking just fine.

In addition, using an oven, really heats the kitchen a lot and that, in turn, spreads heat to the whole house. In the winter, that's a good thing. In the summer, it is not. The more you heat the kitchen, the more your air conditioning will run and the electric bill goes up. By cooking so much at once, you are only heating things up a lot, that one time. Warming food doesn't take that much energy and you don't have to turn the oven, or burners up a lot, so less heat is created. In fact, heat things in a microwave and you create no heat and use little power.

We all need to save money and, more and more it is a good idea to not use so much electricity (every year, power companies, in the summer, threaten and sometimes implement, rolling brownouts). Gas, is not cheap either, especially if you are heating your home with it, so why use more than you must. Cook smart and be efficient.