The man on the phone was inviting Alicia and me to cook a Desperation Dinner on his television show.

"You'll have 21 minutes of air time," he said. "What everyone wants to know is whether you can really do a recipe that fast."

"Of course you can," I told him, "but you can't stand around waving a spoon. You've got to keep moving."

Whether it's a TV studio or the kitchen in your own home, the rules are the same. How fast you can cook depends a lot on how the recipe is organized. I call this the "flow." Desperation Dinners maximize every second at the stove, so it often may seem like you're doing two things at once.

Here's how to read our recipes to make sure you can cook as quickly as we do:

The most important words in a Desperation Dinners recipe are "while" and "meanwhile." These are the signals that you'll be overlapping tasks. It helps to read through the entire recipe first to get a sense of its flow. (At least read ahead one step.

For example, in the two minutes it takes to jump-start frozen meat in the microwave, we'll expect you to be heating oil and peeling and chopping the first vegetable. While browning the meat you'll be chopping another vegetable, measuring spices or opening cans. Work near the stove so you can easily stir the pan from time to time.

Often our recipes indicate a few minutes of simmering as a final step. This is the time to put lids back on spice jars and clear your counter, rather than interrupting that all-important flow in the middle.

We find our approach saves five to 10 minutes per recipe. That's as much as an hour a week you don't have to spend in the kitchen.

I'm sure there are lots of other ways that YOU save time in the kitchen! Please leave your tips and comments in the comments section follow this blog post.