My mother and father in-law (Barbara & Ray) stopped by yesterday. They where dropping off their computer, which is in need of repair. Anyhow, they hung around and visited for a while as Mrs A. zipped around the house, cooking a huge batch of chicken parm and ziti for the big Ladies Cookie Swap being held later in the afternoon at our church. Being the nice daughter that she is, she packed up a few pieces of the chicken in a little dish and offered it to her parents to take home for their dinner later. She advised that they would probably want to cook some pasta to go with it, and asked if they had some at home to make with it. They said that they had plenty of pasta, and Ray offered that spaghetti was the meal so easy to cook that "even he could make it, and has!" That got a big laugh, as Ray, although a brilliant guy, is not known for his cooking skills. Then, Ray offered us all a cooking tip he had devised. I offer it here (almost-sorta) verbatim:

"First, I put a BIG pot of water on the stove. When it is boiling, I put in the spaghetti and when it is done, I scoop out the spaghetti without dumping out the water. Then, I put some potatoes into the boiling water, and cook them until they are done. I take out the potatoes, and then put some eggs into the (still) boiling pot of water, and boil them until they are hard boiled. That way I cook lots of food ahead of time, and I've only used 1 pot of water!"

I'll bet none of you ever thought of that.

PS - Lest any of you think that my father-in-law is just some sort of a wacky dope, think again. You've all heard that expression: "You don't need to be a rocket scientist...", well Ray IS, in fact, a rocket scientist. He is an engineer that spent his career working on stuff like the APPOLO program and the Patriot Missile system, and other mind-bending projects. It is very probable that his assistance is the sole reason I got through 5 semesters of calculus when I was in college.So he is anything but a dope. "Wacky", well maybe...

PPS - Only a few hours after being offered the above cooking tip, it occurred to me that one could actually just put the eggs into the water at the same time as the potatoes, and cook them together. Thus upping the efficiency of the entire process by 33.333%! And Ray thinks he's so smart...