Share your time saving cooking tips with us!

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In the here and now of our chaotic lives, time seems to be something that there simply isn't enough of. Home cooked meals with the entire family sadly are becoming a thing of the past. I try to cook one big meal every week, where the whole family can sit, visit, catch up and eat together, as a family. With my day job, my hours are sorta crazy. This week I have two days off, but not back to back. So it makes it hard to do a family meal. I'm off work tomorrow, and I have a doctors appointment, so tomorrow night, I will cook a big meal. I've been on this earth for a while now, and I've learned lots of time saving tips for the kitchen. I thought I would share some of them. Okay, so here is the scenario - there is a big family get together at your parents house on Saturday. Theres family coming in from multiple states, so its a big deal to your parents. You were nominated to bring the deviled eggs because everyone loves your eggs. Even with all your good intentions, other events have required your attendence. Your son has a ball game and your daughter has a ballet recital; and of course, on Saturday. You had planned to cook the eggs on Friday night, but your sister called having a melt down, and the eggs didn't get cooked. So Saturday morning, you have a ball game and a recital that you have to be at. Hmmm... eggs, recital, ball game? How are you ever going to get everything accomplished in a short amount of time. For me, I've always found the most time consuming of preparing deviled eggs, not the boiling of the eggs, or the actual deviling, but waiting for them to cool off. Here's what you do. Boil the eggs as you always would. Drain the water off from the eggs, and put the hot eggs in a large bowl. Turn your sink faucet onto cold water and let it run. When the water is getting good and cold, take a drinking glass and fill it with ice cubes. Put the ice in the bottom of your large bowl. Put the hot eggs on top of the ice. Then put another glass full of ice on top of the hot eggs, and fill the bowl with cold water. Keep ice on top of the eggs until cooled. This little trick can save you half the time it ususally takes to devil the eggs. Now - you make it to the ball game (your son's team won), your daughter danced flawlessly (you were so proud, you cried), and your deviled eggs were, of course, a big hit at the family get together at Mom and Dads. When people ask you how you manage to do everything with so little time, you can smile and say, "Oh, I don't know, just lucky I guess." (or you can cheat and buy them from the deli of your favorite grocery store - lol) Scenario number two - your significant other has a small group of old college buddies in town visiting, and they've decided that their going to buy steaks for supper and football on Wednesday night. One of their buddies said he would buy the steaks, if you would make baked potatoes. Although you don't really have a problem with it, the trouble is you have a huge deadline at work on, yep, you guessed it, Wednesday. Matter of fact, you have to be at work early Wednesday morning and will be working way past suppertime. You don't want to disappoint your guests, but you haven't a clue how to get those potatoes baked when you not even going to be home. Did you know you can actually make baked potatoes in your crock pot (slow cooker)? Yep, you really can. Take 4 potatoes, wash them, pierce them with a fork and wrap them in foil strips. Put the potatoes in the crock pot, cover, set on low, and cook for 6 to 7hours. The potatoes will be done by the time your hubby gets home from work. And you are a hero! So what tips do you that saves you time in the kitchen?