How many pots & pans...

...are you willing to use when cooking a meal for yourself? Your family? Guests?

I was eating alone last night and made a new recipe (braised brussels sprouts & poached chicken over whole wheat spaghetti with a garlic broth). Once I was done cooking, I realize that I'd used 4 pots (one each for pasta, chicken, sprouts, and garlic sauteed in olive oil), plus a cutting board, strainer/colander, knife, spoons, measuring cups, microplane & possibly some other utensils I'm forgetting about. The recipe was good, but not spectacular, though I might have liked it more if it hadn't required the preparation of so many separate components.

I realize that the number of cooking implements doesn't always directly correlate to complexity or sophistication of the dish. (My paella, for example, is a showcase kind of dish that requires fewer tools than last night's dinner to prepare.) When cooking for others I'm happy to use a lot of tools, but I'd rather use fewer when cooking for myself.

If I'm making dinner for myself, ideally I'd use a cutting board + 2 major items (2 pots, pot & baking sheet, etc.). If I'm making dinner for a couple people, 4 or 5 big items is fine. And dinner for a crowd? The sky's the limits. (In fact, I expect to run the dishwasher once my mise en place is done just to stay on top of things.)

What about you?

I try to cut down on the number of pots and pans if I can. Usually two but if I am making a big meal like Thanks giving it usually takes more.
I try to do double duty in some pans. For example if I am having pasta for dinner with premade sauce, I'll boil the pasta and put in a colander to drain then I'll warm the sauce in the same pan I cooked the past in, and when its warm, I'll toss in the pasta to coat. This only works well if you are making a couple of servings.

I also look for one pot or pan meals that are easy to make and cook and don't dirty a lot of dishes. I sometime do dual purposes if I have a big pot already out so last week I was making brownies and I mixed them in a pot I had just cleaned instead of getting a new bowl out.

Three sounds like too many for the two of us. But I feel better about it if I can store the finished dish in the Dutch oven/baking pan. Any recipe that uses more than three pots/pans is definitely one I would rewrite.

This is going to sound terrible, but I don't really pay to much attention to it, because the DH and I have this deal....
I cook, he does the dishes...
he never ever cooks.
unless I am AWOL
I never do the the dishes
unless he is out of town.
so I just never pay attention.
28 years it works for us...

That's our deal too, but if I use a lot of dishes, boy, do hear about it! In fact my mother warned me:
Mom: Do you still bake and leave all the dishes for him to do?
Me: Yes, most of the time.
Mom: You better watch it so he doesn't leave you.

cut veggies before proteins then wash the cutting board and knife
plastic wrap over serving dishes for Mise en place ( or prepped proteins) one dish and you only have to wash it once
clean while you cook

In my example, the dirty dishes were only half the problem...I had four burners going at once, which also requires some coordination in terms timing.

Pie Lady, I love your arrangement! Does he have a brother? (I joke...I'd actually prefer a man who will cook & clean up with me.)

Enough to get the meal prepared? Obviously I don't use unnecessary pots and pans, but I'll use however many it takes -- be it one or half a dozen. An extra pot or two isn't a big deal since most of the dishes and cooking utensils go into the dishwasher, and only the pots and knives get washed by hand most of the time.

For the division of labor, I usually cook and my gf cleans up; at least for dinner. Sometimes we swap duties depending on work schedules and she likes to make breakfast on the weekends.

Hi,

I cook. I clean. The kids (my parents) leave dishes in the sink, when they dishwasher is empty. Or my other favorite, don't turn dishwasher on because one more dish could fit in. Meanwhile I make dinner and have to pile dishes in the sink waiting for the dishwasher to finish its cycle. I hate the smell of dirty dishes in the morning.

The first time I ever heard anyone complain about dirty dishes was my piano teacher. She cooked. Her husband cleaned. The dish was Spaghetti Carbonara from the Time-Life cookbook series. This simple dish needed a large pot, a frying pan, a bowl to beat the eggs, a cheese grater and a serving bowl. Her husband complained such a seemingly simple dish generated a lot of dishes to prepare.

To conserve dishes and have one less pot to watch: I cook eggs with potatoes for potato salad. I might sear or cook something a skillet, wipe it clean and wilt spinach or vice versa. I might put brocolli in the rice cooker with rice, it gets steamed while the rice cooks. If I make pasta with a cauliflower-anchovy-garlic sauce, I will cook the cauliflower, remove it and toss in the pasta while I finish the sauce. I layer things whenever possible.

In the end, I use whatever pots it take to get the job done. I try to clean while waiting for something to cook. Hopefully once dinner is over, its dishes in the machine, turn it on and do something else.

Regards,