Water conservation has been drilled into me at a young age thanks to growing up in Los Angeles during a major drought, one that seems to stick around like party guests at 2am not getting the signals to go home. PSA's about turning off the faucet while brushing teeth and not taking 30min showers were sandwiched between Saturday Morning Cartoons.
My mom made us save our shower water and bail it out ourselves to the vegetable garden, a fantastic way to get you used to short showers. So it is no wonder that I'm pretty militant about my dish washing regime. Recently I was horrified as I watched a friend leave water running the entire time he washed dishes. He'd walk away from the sink and leave it. I won't even go into the fact that the water was only warm. Ugh. (I always use water so hot it almost burns.)
So little miss bossy pants showed him how to wash efficiently. My trick, learned by watching a caterer at work, is to have a little bow of hot soapy water to dip your sponge or brush into.
I realize this seems pretty simplistic, "Jeez Miss Andy thanks for the incredibly mundane post today." But it's totally made washing dishes so much faster and I use hardly any soap, saving me money. I suds dishes in order of size, utensils and service ware first, then small bowls and cups, plates and finally larger dishes and greasy pans. In the time it took you to wash the utensils and bowls the big pans have had a chance to soak. Rinse the dishes as hot as you stand which cuts down on drying time and saves you from having all those dripping towels. After talking to the Mother about this topic she added another tip: sanitize and dry at the same time by sticking utensils, pans and other oven safe dishes in the oven and let the heat from the pilot light do the rest.
Ok back to writing about hot dogs and strippers.
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