Multitasking your kitchen hardware

Ever sit there eating practically cold penne when it's really just arrived at the table? Maybe consider trying this: when draining pasta, stash your serving bowl under your colander. This lets the water drain from the pasta whilst simultaneously heating your serving bowl. Empty the bowl of water, toss in your pasta, and mangia!

Along these lines, Tightwad is going to find herself a decent asparagus strainer so she can cook, say, pasta in a stock pot of boiling water, put it out and drain, then use the water for something else that needs to be cooked, like carrots or potatoes. Not saying that carrots and potatoes are necessarily a good fit with pasta, just that the idea of being able to pull out what you are cooking and drain it without losing the water seems like a good idea; it's already hot and it's enviro! This strategy could be used for say, cooking asparagus, then following with baby potatoes, and even get corn cooking in there, too. You know?