Oh my goodness... where to start!? I've already seen so many of my favorites listed, but these are the blogs I visit every morning with my coffee. I end up following links to a bunch of others, but these are the ones I go back to all the time. http://thepoineerwoman.com http://smittenkitchen.com http://bakingbites.com http://www.elise.com/recipes/ http://tartelette.blogspot.com http://bakeorbreak.com http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/ http://jenyu.net/blog http://davidlebovitz.com http://www.cookingforengineers.com/ Some of them, like Pioneer Woman, aren't about fancy food but are just really good (with lots of butter, mmmm)! Others, like Elise's Simply Recipes are great as a go to reference source. Still others, like Tartelette, just make me drool. I'm looking forward to checking out all the other great blogs linked here. Some, like French Laundry at Home I've checked out but never really gotten into reading every day. I'll have to give them a look! Bri

When I am making pasta, I ladle boiling pasta water into the pasta plates/bowls and let them sit beside the sink until I am ready to serve the pasta. My pasta plates are shaped like shallow soup bowls with a good sized rim - I wont' serve pasta on regular flat plates. If I have the toaster oven on, I put the plates on top of the TO, and they get plenty hot that way. There are just the two of us, and I switch the plates on top of the TO half way through, as the bottom one gets hotter. I always use the TO to keep pancakes warm when I make them, and I need hot plates for serving pancakes or else they get cold quickly. I also heat the maple syrup in a bowl of hot water or else MW the bottle for a few seconds. Otherwise, I do not generally heat the plates. If food gets too cold, I MW the food and plate together. For me, pasta and pancakes are the two dishes that most need hot plates. I can MW a plate with pasta on it, but not if it has Parmesan cheese on it, as that will turn to rubber. Lars

It's a matter of planning and timing the cooking: Wednesday night - saves time and cleaning up: Candied yams get boiled, put in pyrex casserole with lid, cover with molasses and put in refrig. White potatoes are peeled and cut, placed in pot with water...ready for cooking, also in refrig. Make cranberry sauce, put in serving dish,cover with plastic wrap...also in refrig. Make my bread and sausage stuffing, put in refrig. Make cole slaw, cover and put into refrige. Set dining room table. Lay out bowls, platter and serving utensils for all the food. Thursday morning: Stuff turkey and put into the oven. 1 hour before eating. Put pot of potatoes on stove to boil. 1/2 hour before eating. Take turkey out of the oven and pan onto carving board (to rest before carving). Lay a clean, warm damp towel over to to prevent skin from sticking to the bird. Put pan on stove burner, add water... make gravy. Casserole with yams into the oven. Put frozen peas into bowl into microwave. Cranberry sauce, slaw and butter onto dining room table. 10 minutes before. yams out of the oven, to table rolls into the oven stuffing out of the turkey, into bowl..cover with a lid or heat proof plate and put on table drain potatoes and mash....cover with a lid or heat proof plate and put on table hit button on microwave to cook peas Yams on the table carve turkey and move turkey and gravy onto the table put peas on the table remove lids from stuff on table rolls out of the oven , to the table. Amazing how fast it all goes. BUT...I have to admit that I have a reputation for forgetting the rolls...er, well done rolls are almost expected from me.

One of the cousins usually brings her pierogies to the family reunion each year. After they are fully prepared she puts them in a slow cooker but she makes sure that they are all coated with butter so that they don't stick. I too have one of the thermal units that Glenda is talking about, it is really great if that is enough time for you. Mine has a gel pad that you heat in the microwave then insert in a pouch inside the thermal carrier.