If you're trying to warm up a bowl or plate before using it, I think there are easier ways. You could put it into a warm oven (set to a low temp) while the food is cooking, or rinse the plate or bowl with hot water and dry it, or sprinkle water on the item and give it 10 seconds in a microwave oven and dry it.

It's too dangerous for me. I'll have to stick with my usual method. Fortunately, our 'cold' weather is in the 60's right now. My food doesn't cool down too fast.

Our dishwasher has a plate warmer but we seldom use it.

Hot cereal. I prepare it in the serving bowl with microwave.

Ed, I would be afraid to use your methods. I am accident prone and would most likely get burnt somehow

It sounds like a truly enjoyable experience for you and I hope you continue to enjoy your life. Live every minute to it's fullest!

Heck yes, WAY more than nine characters!

I use your method more often than lids.

I like using lids...easier to check contents of pan. Joyful, you should invest in a bun warmer( dinner rolls :). ) which would keep your bowl nice and warm! When eating out I like the food served on a warm plate but wouldn't bother doing it at home.

Good idea, thanks for sharing, OJ!

Depending on the shape of the pot lid, it could be placed on the pot upside down and your bowl placed in it. You would have to be careful to avoid steam when removing it, but really no more so than with any other method.

Heating up an oven to warm one bowl is a waste of energy, whether it be gas or electric.

Rusty

Is using a saucepan instead of a microwave oven for soup or cereal also a waste of energy? How about using a stove instead of building a fire outside in the backyard?

If someone drives to the store or other destination instead of walking or riding a bike, is that wasting energy?

My point - if someone chooses to do something one way instead of another, it may be more or less expensive but it's a choice, not a waste, in my view.

If it's reheating, as often for soup, I'll use a microwave, but I don't like it for cooking cereal or stew.

Actually, after putting the sugar and milk (plus some cream, usually) on the porridge ... often it has cooled enough that I'll give the whole thing about 30 seconds additional in the microwave. Which wouldn't have required a major amount of more time had I put the cooked cereal into a cold bowl, in the first place.

o j

I've thought about doing this periodically, but then I'm afraid that the heat would break the plate/bowl etc so I never do.

Mother always served plates warmed when serving her meals.

I try to 'never bake an orphan'. If there's something in the oven baking, I try to put something in with it. If I'm making a roast, I try to have roasted veggies, baked potatoes, dessert or something else in the oven with the meat.

Turning the oven on, even just for a few minutes to heat a couple of plates will *never* happen. Heating my plate when the oven is cooling......absolutely.

Your comments suggested that in an objective sense anyone who did something different than you do is being wasteful. Whatever "wasteful" means. Just as your comment "How conscientious one is about environmental factors." sounds like a suggestion that not following your practices is doing damage. That your practice is the only one that is proper and doing otherwise isn't.

Do you use electricity from a coal burning power plant? I don't. If you do, one day of your electricity consumption does more damage to the earth than a year's worth of my heating up a gas oven for 15 minutes a few times a week to warm plates, if I did that.

We all make choices about what works for us and choices differ. I try to be thoughtful without being compulsive. I think environmental consciousness and priorities vary from person to person and I try not to be preachy about it. I hope the same is true for you.

A while ago I put a dinner plate over a straight-sided bowl when reheating stew not long out of the fridge in the microwave ... and after about a couple of minutes ... there was a "Bang", as the heated centre of the plate and the cold edges of the plate didn't jive well together.

Result: one less dinner plate for the stack in the cupboard.

I don't like the idea of putting the lid on to the pot, upside down (partly because several of my lids have a handle in the middle), then putting the bowl to be heated on top. It's easy, if needing a hot pad to accomplish, to remove the bowl when it's warm ... but getting the lid out of the pot is a different story.

Anyone for sticking a knife down between the lid and the pot, then lifting the edge, to grab the (hot and wet) lid with a hot pad? I don't like it.

Sometimes, if the bowls are compatible, one can put a bowl with formerly cooked but now cool veggies on the aluminum pie plate atop the reheating stew, then stack the bowl planned for the stew on top of that, for warming.

Just one heat source needed.

And yes, my stove is of the electrical variety ... and old, and probably less efficient, at that.

Can anyone tell me why, when building these new, greatly efficient stoves ... they seem to need to build 'em to last only about 10 years, or so - if that? Many of the ones built about 50 years ago lived for about a third of my age (and I ain't no spring chicken).

ole joyful

Oh for pity's sake, Elmer! All I meant was that you look at things one way, I look at them another. NOTHING was said about anyone being right or wrong. I don't know if I'm not making myself clear or if you are over analyzing, maybe some of both. :^)

OJ, not all lids would work in the upside down position, obviously. A few of mine have a 'lip' that fits inside the pot when it's on correctly, that holds it in place. When turned upside down, this lip sticks up from the edge of the pot, so it's easy to grab hold of it (with the help of a pot holder, of course, it is hot!). I just have to be sure that whatever is in the pot is below the knob on the lid. Not a real problem at all.

Happy bowl warming everyone!

Rusty