Thursday, April 14, 2011

Pesach Cleaning thanks to Heloise

I don't know if anyone else remembers reading the "Hints from Heloise" column in the newspaper. As a voracious reader, practical thinker, and short-cut lover, I loved reading her tidbits starting from a young age.

I was so excited to see a copy of Heloise's Kitchen Hints at a thrift store and snapped it up without hesitating. It was more as a keepsake and was promptly tucked in with my cookbooks. I haven't taken a chance to really read through it.

Fastforward a few years and I find myself knee deep in Passover prep. My oven is a disaster thanks to hubsters' speciality "Chicken ala geyser." I tried my usual combo: baking soda paste, salt scrub, and a generous dash of elbow grease. I even tried using hubsters' elbow grease. I was so tempted to buy some Easy Off and well, get it off easy. But toxically. Then I remembered this little gem on the bookshelf. Of course she has a whole section on oven cleaning. The oven was covered in a paste of baking soda and left over night. The racks were plunked into the bathtub with soap and hot water to soak over night. I got some sleep.

Today, after more elbow grease, hubsters added vinegar to the oven mix. The man has seen me in action enough to know I mix them, but not enough to know it makes a volcano, but when I went into the kitchen it was all done! No steel wool, no easy off!

And the racks? Mostly everything wiped off easy peasey.Course for Passover "mostly" won't cut it so I did re-submerge and gave em a good scrubbing with a microfiber sponge. Viola!! They are even nicer than when we moved into this place! The tub does have a heinous ring around the tub, but my calculations show it'll be easier to remove than steel-wooling the racks would have been.

Hopefully there are enough people who have yet to tackle oven who can try these Hints from Heloise. If you are in the group that is partway through your Passover cooking in a spotless kitchen, I don't want to hear it unless there is a gift of chocolate to accompany your cleaner-than-thou proclamations.

If you want your very own Hints from Heloise book, a quick Google will show you where to buy one, whether vintage or new printing. Or you can hope for a blessed thrifting like I did!

Now, does Heloise have tips for dealing with suspicious noises coming from bored, Passover ignored children? If you see my kids covered with baking soda, you'll know why!

I don't know if anyone else remembers reading the "Hints from Heloise" column in the newspaper. As a voracious reader, practical thinker, and short-cut lover, I loved reading her tidbits starting from a young age.

I was so excited to see a copy of Heloise's Kitchen Hints at a thrift store and snapped it up without hesitating. It was more as a keepsake and was promptly tucked in with my cookbooks. I haven't taken a chance to really read through it.

Fastforward a few years and I find myself knee deep in Passover prep. My oven is a disaster thanks to hubsters' speciality "Chicken ala geyser." I tried my usual combo: baking soda paste, salt scrub, and a generous dash of elbow grease. I even tried using hubsters' elbow grease. I was so tempted to buy some Easy Off and well, get it off easy. But toxically. Then I remembered this little gem on the bookshelf. Of course she has a whole section on oven cleaning. The oven was covered in a paste of baking soda and left over night. The racks were plunked into the bathtub with soap and hot water to soak over night. I got some sleep.

Today, after more elbow grease, hubsters added vinegar to the oven mix. The man has seen me in action enough to know I mix them, but not enough to know it makes a volcano, but when I went into the kitchen it was all done! No steel wool, no easy off!

And the racks? Mostly everything wiped off easy peasey.Course for Passover "mostly" won't cut it so I did re-submerge and gave em a good scrubbing with a microfiber sponge. Viola!! They are even nicer than when we moved into this place! The tub does have a heinous ring around the tub, but my calculations show it'll be easier to remove than steel-wooling the racks would have been.

Hopefully there are enough people who have yet to tackle oven who can try these Hints from Heloise. If you are in the group that is partway through your Passover cooking in a spotless kitchen, I don't want to hear it unless there is a gift of chocolate to accompany your cleaner-than-thou proclamations.

If you want your very own Hints from Heloise book, a quick Google will show you where to buy one, whether vintage or new printing. Or you can hope for a blessed thrifting like I did!

Now, does Heloise have tips for dealing with suspicious noises coming from bored, Passover ignored children? If you see my kids covered with baking soda, you'll know why!

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3 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for this tip! I was pretty far behind on Pesach cleaning so after I read this post, I went home and started cleaning my stovetop with baking soda and vinegar. It got clean so quickly! I had never thought to use these items as cleaning products. I also used it to clean my oven and it was sooo shiny.
    My husband was in awe. He cleans houses for his job and he is so excited to use baking soda on the ovens he cleans.

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  2. So glad ya'll are able to benefit from the tip! Baking soda is so much nicer on the hands too!

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