Good Idea Friday - How To Clean Really Stubborn Pots and Pans

Saving a Ruined Le Creuset Pan : Squidyboo

So as some of you probably know from reading my blog, I am not a baker. At all. In fact my husband has pretty much banned me from using the oven after countless kitchen fires from my attempts at baking. But where as I can't bake, I can cook. Really well I might add.

But even the best cooks make mistakes, and that is how I was faced with a dilemma some time back (which is why this post is lacking photos, sorry!)

You see, I was using one of my beloved Le Creuset pans and ended up burning the risotto terribly. It's bad enough ruining dinner, but the idea I may have ruined a $200 pan was more than I could bare. I tried to clean it best I could by soaking it and using a melamine sponge (Magic Eraser). That barely touched it. I then tried Barkeeper's Friend, which again didn't do much, so I tried straight up baking soda, but the black remained stuck to the bottom of my pan.

So what to do? I spent quite some time doing research and seeing what other sites would recommend. I wanted to be careful not to ruin the pan by cleaning it (so oven cleaner was right out, though that does work on things like uncoated stainless steel just fine)

Well after reading a lot of forums on pan care I found the blog post over at Squidgyboo. Looks like we were in the same boat. She tested out 3 different ways of cleaning her Le Creuset, and had best results with... boiling water and baking soda?

Seriously? How is that going to work when scrubbing the damn thing with baking soda didn't work? But I was desperate and willing to try anything at this point. And wouldn't you knowit, it worked! I took about a half hour of effort, but it worked. I skipped her suggestion of a butter knife since my pan is my baby and I was worried about to ruin it, and went with a wooden spatula (rice paddle, really) instead.

So here's the trick: 

Take your baked on possibly ruined pan or pot and place it on the stove. Add 1-2" of water and bring to a gentle boil. Grab your baking soda and add about 1/2-1 cup. It will fizz. This is good. Take your wood spatula and gently start working the spot or burned on area. After a short time it'll start to flake up. If it stops flaking, add more baking soda. Once the water gets too nasty or stops fizzing when more baking soda is added, dump and start again.

That's it. I have tried this before using just water with mixed results, but I noticed a huge difference once I brought in the baking soda. So go out there and test this on any pans you may think are ruined. And if you have any other great tips on saving baked on, burnt on, pots and pans, let us know! Leave your comments and photos on our facebook or twitter page.

Baking Soda and Vinegar Instead of Helium to Inflate Balloons

"No helium needed to fill balloons for parties.....just vinegar and baking soda!"

This is a pin that if anyone took middle school science class, they shouldn't be pinning. Why? Because you can't just make up helium. Can you use baking soda and vinegar to fill balloons? Sure. But it's not going to float like helium will. You're better off just blowing them up with your own breath, unless you are planning on using it as a science experiment for kids. Which, come to find out, is what the image is actually depicting. 

A quick search and I found the source of the image. Over at the blog Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, she writes about a common trick of using vinegar and baking soda to fill a balloon, showing off the gas the chemical reaction produces. In fact, she has even added a disclaimer on the post explaining that this will not produce helium. Helium is a naturally occurring gas, you can't just make it. It's number 2 on the periodic table of elements, meaning it's lighter than air (which is primarily made up of heavier oxygen and nitrogen), which is why when you fill a balloon with helium, it floats instead of sinking like if it were filled with air. (The only reason an air balloon sinks in the first place is because you're loading it up with compressed molecules, making it heavier than the air around it.) The gas produced from baking soda and vinegar, however, is your run of the mill carbon dioxide. Since carbon dioxide is heavier than air, it won't float. In fact, technically it will be heavier than if you simply filled it normally with air.

So there you have it, this is a great experiment for the kids, but don't think this is going to magically replace helium in balloons. 

Good Idea Friday - Cleaning your Whiteboards

I was honestly highly skeptical about this tip. I'm in the middle of preparing for a yard sale this week, and I stumbled acrossed a cute whiteboard that used to be in my kids' playroom. The problem? It had been sitting in the basement for over a year covered in ink. Yikes. So I did what I always do - I busted out my trusty  melamine sponge (Magic eraser). That worked ok, but the board itself seemed stain from the ink. So I took it into the bathroom and applied a thick paste of bleach gel. A day later, and it was still stained. 

So I turned to pinterest. I knew I had seen a post before on how to clean whiteboards, but I assumed they all offered the same advice I had just tried. Until I found this post from over at the blog Milehimama. 

Her suggestions? Toothpaste. Yes, cheap, old school toothpaste. A similar tip to my post on how to clean your headlights I wrote about. But can it do the work my melamine sponge couldn't? I was highly skeptical. So I tried it on half the board and sure enough it worked! Knowing then that it was the grit of the paste and not the toothpaste itself, I tried a cup of baking soda with a wet cloth on the other half, and it worked just as well. So next time you're staring down a not so whiteboard and thinking it's a lost cause, break out the baking soda or toothpaste and give it a try. 

Good Idea Friday - How to Polish Silver With Ease

To polish silver: Wash items, then place on aluminum foil in the bottom of a pot. Add a baking-soda solution (1 cup soda, a few teaspoons salt, 1 quart boiling water) and cover for a few seconds. The result? A chemical reaction that gets the black off the gravy boat. 

I work with silver on a daily basis at my day job as a jeweler, so I not only have every tool imaginable to polish silver, I also have heard the crazy way people clean their jewelry. Everything from mouthwash to toothpaste has been mentioned to me. But this, this is not only a really amazingly simple way to clean jewelry or silver dishes, flatware and vases, it WORKS. This is honestly how I polish 99% of the items that come to me highly tarnished.

Before we get into the how to, lets talk about what tarnish on silver is. Tarnish is basically a thin layer of the silver that is corroded away. Because of this it's very important - especially for antique or silver plated items - that you try your hardest to prevent tarnish in the first place. Something as simple as tarnish preventing strips or a tarnish resistant bag is perfect for that. The more tarnished a piece gets, the more times you have to polish it, the more damage is done to the finish. Especially with silver plated items, which often just have a thin silver coating over base metal like nickel, this is important, otherwise over time the silver will fade away leaving the darker base metal exposed.

 I would highly suggest testing this on just a spot if you're working with an antique or silver plated item. Just an FYI.

So lets  get down to it - how to polish silver pieces with out scrubbing, buffing, or nasty smelling polishes.

Simply layer a small glass dish or sink depending on the size of the items with aluminum foil, set your pieces on the foil, add in a handful or 2 of baking soda and cover with boiling water.

Yep. That's it.  I guess I should also mention that often times you will smell sulfur when you do this - don't worry. The tarnish is produced by sulfur. In fact in jewelry making we USE sulfur to pre-darken pieces.

Why does this work though? Well the science nerd in me loves knowing why things like this work, and I found a great write up here about it. Basically the sulfur producing the tarnish is more drawn to the aluminum than it is the silver, so with the add of the hot water and baking soda, it transfers to that instead of staying on the silver.

Oh and for those who have seen this pin that also states in all caps "BE VERY CAREFUL IT WILL EAT YOUR HANDS AND THROUGH RUBBER GLOVES!" I have to laugh at that. NO, no it won't. The only side effect of this is highly polished silver and faint sulfur smell in the air. It's perfectly safe to use and I often times use my bare hands to fish the finished pieces from the water.

Baking Soda Microdermabrasion Scrub

"DIY Microdermabrasion - mix 3 parts baking soda and 1 part water into a paste and apply in a circular motion and rinse" 

Ah, this. This is one of those pins that inspired this blog to begin with, so I should probably do a formal post about it. We've all seen it, a lot of us have probably tried it. So why is this a bad idea?

Because it's the gold pants of the beauty world. Let me explain  This is a not-the-worst-idea-but-I-still-can't-call-it-good-idea idea.  Maybe if you're young with oily skin, and by some off chance it doesn't make you break out. So this will work on about .001% of people. Like how very few people can wear gold pants and look not ridiculous in them. For the rest of us: set down the baking soda and step away from the pants, because it's a bad idea.

I actually had a hard time even finding a photo  
of someone looking good in gold pants!

Why? Well you see, skin has a natural pH to it. If you see a dermatologist it's one of the first things they will address. If your skin's pH is off,  chances are you're fighting dryness or oily skin and breakouts. Normal range is around 4.5-6.5 which mean it's a bit on the acidic side - which is good. Its good to maintain a healthy low level of acidity to fight off bacteria and other things. Baking soda, as we all know from chem class, is a base, meaning it helps neutralize acid. Baking soda's pH is around 7.5, meaning it can help lower the acidity of your skin if you use it, which is something you most likely don't want.

On top of that, baking soda is really really good at drying your skin out. Something you might not be too worried about when you're 19, but if you're up there in age, trust me, you worry about it. I've seen the same baking soda scrub idea also pinned with the suggestion of using coconut oil in place of water (again with the coconut oil!) but having tried it myself I can assure you - it will still leave your skin feeling very dry and tight, and greasy for the first hour or so. And smelling a bit like a good stir fry.

I've read a few suggestions saying to use the base pH of baking soda to help with oil production, but unfortunately for a lot of people it will have opposite effect  You see, often times your skin is oily because it's too dry. Yes, I know, that sounds crazy. But listen: your skin needs a balance of pH and oil to it. If your skin is dry from ether the products you're using, washing too much, sun, cold, living in a dry climate, etc., your skin goes into over drive. It starts producing more oil to better protect itself. And here's where a lot of people make the mistake of reaching for a deep cleansing oil-removing soap or scrub. So you just dried your skin out even more, causing your skin to produce MORE oil. You see the cycle. So the first thing you need to do if you have oily skin is to pamper and baby your skin with gentle cream based cleanser and a gentle moisturizer to see if that helps.

So there you have it. Baking soda works, kind of, but it also dries your skin and screws up your pH balance, which can cause breakouts and dry and/or oily skin. For every person you meet who swears by this, chances are you'll find a dozen more who had issues when they tried it. All in all, it's a bad idea.

Coffee to Stop Hair Growth

"get rid of unwanted hair ANYWHERE! For 1 week, rub 2 tbsp coffee grounds mixed with 1 tsp baking soda. The baking soda intensifies the compounds of the coffee breaking down the hair follicles at the root!" 

This was submitted by a couple of fans on our facebook page last week and I knew I just HAD to do a write up on it. 

So let's a take a look - does a simple scrub of coffee grounds and baking soda break down hair so you have to shave less? No. Again, with the idea that the cure to any beauty mishap is in your kitchen. This is along the same lines as the brown sugar straightener and other kitchen turn beauty product ideas. But why won't this work?

Well because studies have actually been done on the effects of caffeine and hair growth. In fact, studies have found that caffeine is a great way to get hair to grow more thicker and stronger, and was used in a study of men suffering from alopecia (aka: male pattern baldness) The details of the study can be read here (PubMed) and seem rather strong in the findings. 

Besides, a quick search later, I found the source of the image. And guess what?  It's not about a miracle coffee hair thing at all, but a face scrub how to (also great DIY for a fake beard come halloween time) Now as a exfoliant I have some concerns - you skin is highly delicate despite what some people think, and harsh scrubs can actually damage the skin, causing micro tears and clogged pores. However caffeine has been shown as a great skin treatment, so just make sure the coffee is ground finely and you should be fine, but don't expect any hair loss from this scrub. 

DIY Water Marbles

"Water marbles! Crazy how a few kitchen ingredients will make these. Weird, I can't wait to try. Science party? THIS is COOL!" 

Oh these are fun! My kids have quite a few themselves that it seems they are constantly playing with, so the idea that we could spare a few bucks and just make it ourselves is always nice. According to the links, all it takes are a few easy kitchen ingredients - baking soda, vinegar, and salt. (is there anything apparently baking soda and vinegar can't do?!) mix parts of baking soda and vinegar then freeze, mix with salt and more vinegar then boil. This apparently will get you your own set of water marbles.

But it's false. What you'll end up with is a huge mess to clean up. It's a hoax. Water marbles are polymers, not something you can just cook up normally in your house. There's a great write up over at ChemSpider on this hoax, which originated with a Youtube video and has quickly been making the circuit everywhere. 

Good Idea Friday - How to Boil an Egg

"Add baking soda to the water when you hard boil eggs to make peeling easier"

Just in time for Easter, this is going to make a lot of peoples lives a tad bit easier. Because yes, it's true! I was honestly skeptical myself so I gave it a try and did notice it seemed to work really well. But WHY? Well over at TheKitchn, there's a great write up that talks about the science behind this. Turns out that the baking soda helps alter the pH of the egg membranes, allowing them to weaken and making it easier to peel. All it takes is a 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to the water to do it's magic. They do mention sometimes it can cause the eggs to taste more sulfuric, but my kids haven't complained so far. (disclaimer - I hate hard boil eggs, so I haven't tried them myself) 

Good Idea Friday - Toothpaste on Your HeadLights

"How to Clean Your Car Headlights-with toothpaste"

This post is for a fan who asked how true this was. 

(Have questions or submissions? Post it on our facebook page!) 

So, can toothpaste of all things really clean your car's headlamps? Yes. Oddly enough. However there are a lot of things that can, so I'll explain how and why it works. Things like this often times will stress that it must be toothpaste, not the more modern gel styles of toothpaste. Why? Because more traditional toothpastes tend to have a higher grit content - if you put some on your fingers and rub them together, you can feel the difference between toothpaste and tooth gel. The gel has a much smoother gel like consistency. It's the grit of the old fashion toothpaste (bonus points if it's something with baking soda) that is what is really cleaning the headlamps. 

You can get the same effect using a dozen different things from around the house - a water and baking soda mix, a magic eraser, Bon Ami cleaner, etc. The goal is to cut through the grim and oil and dirt, which ultimately needs something with a bit of texture to clean away but not enough to scratch the glass of the light. This works well for a lot of things that need a little extra cleaning help - from your oil splattered toaster to the top of your cookstove to the rubber white soles of your converse shoes. 

So what do you think? Good idea? In a pinch I'd use it, but I'm sticking with my tried and loved melamine sponge (aka Magic Eraser) for this personally. I don't think my headlights care if they are minty fresh or not. 

Magic Toilet Cleaner

Magic Eraser uses... did you know you can cut a piece off and float it in your toilet overnight and voila! no more toilet ring! The website has a list of about 100 uses!

Magic Erasers.. they clean like magic. I honestly love these things and use them in place of typical sponges on most everything. (Though I personally prefer the generics.)

But will they be so magical as to do the work for you? 

No. No they won't. You can't just cut up a sponge, toss it in the toilet, and expect to wake up to having the bowl cleaned for you magically over night. The way these sponges work are that they are basically like super fine sandpaper (which is why they tell you never to use on skin. Though I'm surprised I haven't seen it posted a great DIY micro dermabrasion facial on pinterest yet.) So you actually need to scrub with these. Plus you still need to fish that out of your toilet come morning anyways so wouldn't it be easier just to clean it the old fashion way?

Honestly if you keep your toilet fairly clean then in a pinch you can add anything from your usual bowl cleaner, bleach, or even baking soda and let it sit over night and then just flush in the morning to get rid of the ring.  I've also read where people have had good results with the old 3rd grade science fun of mixing equal parts baking soda and vinegar to clean with out scrubbing. However if you have hard water or mineral build up that isn't responding to the usual cleaner and brush it's best to slap on the industrial rubber gloves, grab a pumice stone and get scrubbing.