Whilst the oven is on cooking what I fancy for my dinner I’ve always filled any empty shelves with food that could do with being baked and then frozen it for another day with the belief that I am saving energy by using up what would otherwise be wasted space in a hot oven, however, my question is this: am I in fact wasting energy by placing items upon an empty shelf that will now absorb energy to cook, energy that the oven must work to replace? Would it have been more efficient to leave the shelf empty so the oven needs only maintain the temperature?

The other day I cooked some egg pasta in salted water and left the pot on the stove. I was away for a couple of days afterward and was surprised on return at the extent of the bacteria that had grown in the slurry at the bottom of the pot. Can anyone identify the bacteria from the photo in particular the red blooms?

Dried, leftover cereal such as Frosties forms a cement which can take quite some scrubbing to remove, even with detergent. Why?

I have been informed by my family that the love of soup is genetic for the Scots. Myself, I can take of leave it, I am confused to whether it is a main or an app.

This weekend however I popped a bowl of soup into the microwave, and after 2 minutes when I reached in to get the bowl back out I found that the bowl was so hot that I an oven glove was required to retrieve it. The contents however were only lukewarm. I am ashamed to admit that I know very little about microwave ovens, it is therefore perhaps unsurprising that I am perplexed as to why the device would heat the ceramic bowl more than it would the contents. Emperical study would suggest that some ceramics get hotter than others. What's going on here then?

My girlfriend and I were having an argument the other day. Sometimes when it is cold in the kitchen, I turn in the gas hob to warm the place up. The argument is that she claims that the room gets hotter if you put a pot of water on the hob to boil and let the room get steamy. I disagree and think that the room gets just as hot without boiling a pot of water.

Who is right? Does the room get hotter with the pot of water or does the room get just as hot without it?