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.

Good Idea Friday - The Truly BEST Fruit Fly Trap

Fruit Fly Trap : Wormilicious

That's a pretty bold statement in the title, I know. And today's Good Idea Friday didn't come from Pinterest (sorry!) but it's so amazing that it should be on Pinterest.

A few weeks ago we woke up to a to a huge fruit fly invasion, out of the blue. Apparently they are really common this time of year. We spent the day cleaning the kitchen really well, setting out glasses of wine with a few drops of dish soap in it, and figured that would take care of that.

We were wrong. Very wrong. By the next day, they had invaded every room of the house. I was so skeeved out I wanted to run out of my house screaming. So we spent all day doing a huge deep cleaning of the entire house, setting houseplants outside, pouring boiling water down the drains, trying the paper cone method that is fairly popular. We even set out bowls of fruit and vinegar, with plastic wrap over it with holes poked in.

By day three however, it was apparent nothing was working. None of the traps seemed to work. They just hung out on the rim of the soap laced glasses, and very few ventured into the paper cone method or plastic wrapped bowls. We talked of bug bombing the house, because at this point I couldn't even pour myself a glass of wine without having fruit flies instantly descend into the glass.

But as luck would have it, we didn't need to bug bomb the house. Instead, we grabbed the fly tape. Yes, the cheap fly tape you can get at the dollar store. We hung it over the sink with a glass of wine below it, and waited. By the next morning, there were noticeably less fruit flies flying around, and the fly tape was honestly disgusting looking it. By day two of having the fly tape up, we were pretty much fruit fly free.

Unfortunately my husband and I were so grossed out by the sight of the fly tape that we tore it down before I got a photo of it for the blog, but trust me when I say this is by far the quickest easiest method I've ever tried to get rid of fruit flies. I decided to do a google search and was amazed to only find one blog post about this method. Over at Wormilicious, she builds a really ingenious trap using fly tape as well. In fact, my husband was trying to figure out how to get a fly tape around the glass to begin with. I think next time we end up with an invasion on our hands, we're going to try her method.

Post Update: I've also had a few people ask about where to get sticky tape for the fruit fly trap. I found some just the other day at Winco actually, but I assume most hardware stores will carry it. It's actually marketed as a window tape for flies, it comes in a little package that reminded me of those hand warmers you find around winter time.  And of course you can find it on amazon if you don't feel like hauling yourself to the hardware store.

Good Idea Friday - Soap Ice Pack

"DIY Ice pack: The soap doesn't solidify so it molds to the shape you need." 

Thanks to a fan for posting this over on our facebook page. I was pretty skeptical about this one personally, but it was easy and cheap enough to test out. Sure enough, it works! It  freezes but not solid like water does, and you can mash it up once it's frozen to better wrap around what you're icing. It's so easy, all you do is fill a zip top baggie with soap, squeeze out the air, and freeze. Soap does take longer to freeze than water though, so best to always have one on hand waiting in the freezer for when you need it.

In other news - you may have noticed posts here have been lacking. I run this blog in my spare time, and real life and work have suddenly picked up, so I don't have as much time to be on Pinterest like I usually do. This is where I would love help from my fans! I'm always in need of  ideas, both good and bad, so if you see something on Pinterest you are wondering about, either email it to me or just posted it directly on our facebook page. I should be back to posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in a few weeks, so don't think I've forgotten this blog.

We also had an awesome fan who shared her own attempted at the "Glitter Sugar" I wrote about on Monday. She said "So, edible glitter was an epic pinterest fail!" I think I can agree with her there. Another problem with the suggestions on the sugar was no temperature was ever mentioned for your oven, it's important to remember that sugar is fairly easy to melt, so anything over, say, 170°F is going to melt it.