With all the roasting, baking and food preparation that takes place around the holidays, the kitchen isn’t the easiest place to be miserly. But you might want to try—including the cost of refrigeration and washing dishes, as much as 15 percent of the energy costs in the average home are related to the kitchen, according to the Department of Energy. With a few tricks from the DOE’s Energy Savers program and the Environmental Protection agency, you can reduce that cost and still serve all your family’s holiday favorites.

Seek closure. Don’t be tempted to look in the oven every few minutes to check your cooking progress. Every time you do, the temperature inside the oven drops by as much as 25 degrees, forcing it to work even harder to get back to the proper cooking temperature. If you feel compelled to check on a dish, look through the window instead.

Turn it down or off. For regular cooking, it's often not necessary to have your oven on as long—or set as high—as the recipe calls for. For example, some recipes tell you to preheat the oven before you even begin the prep work. If your range or cooktop is electric, you can usually turn it off 5-10 minutes before the dish should be done and the residual heat will finish the job. Keep the lid on until time is up. And if you're baking in a ceramic or glass dish, you can typically set your oven for 25 degrees less than the recipe calls for because ceramic and glass hold heat better than metal pans.

Big help from small appliances. Don't forget your crock pot, microwave, toaster oven or warming plate. Most of us have counters covered with small appliances that we rarely use. Putting them to work more often instead of using the oven or stovetop can mean significant energy savings. For example, the average toaster oven can use up to half the energy of the average electric stove over the same cooking time.

Make contact. If you have a gas range, you can cook with warped pans without a problem. But it’s a different matter with smoothtop ranges and cooktops. Electric elements can only transmit heat to pans they are in direct contact with. The less contact your pan has with the burner, the more energy that’s expended to heat the pan (and the food within). If cooking with your warped pan is taking longer than it should, it may be time for a new one.

Turn off the tap. Preparing for and cleaning up after a holiday meal often requires more water use than usual. Running your tap continuously while preparing food or washing dishes wastes water and can use more than two gallons of water every minute your tap is running. You should also factor in the cost of heating that water, which can be substantial.

Give your furnace the day off. If your guests tend to congregate in the kitchen and your cooking appliances are working overtime, consider turning down the furnace. The heat of the oven—and all those guests—will keep the temperature comfortable, and your furnace won't have to work so hard.