clean-up

Here's what usually happens at our house when we make something delicious in a pan, like brownies or cake or chicken or casserole:  We make the delicious food.  We eat it.  The pan has cooked-on goodness all over that I know will be difficult and time-consuming to clean off.  Afraid of spending the time and effort, I don't clean it.  The pan sits on the counter for a while, goodness getting harder and harder.  A while later, perhaps a week or so (during which time I've wanted to make several hundred dishes that would use that dish, only to remember that it's dirty), I decide to tackle the beast.  After one look, I decide to let it soak for a while.  Occasionally, I forget about it soaking in the sink, and perhaps it soaks for a couple of days.  This doesn't usually happen, but definitely happens sometimes.  Later, I get brave and again decide to tackle the beast.  After a while of scrubbing and scraping and soap and baking soda and water and more soap and scrubbing... the pan is clean.  A couple of days later, I make something else delicious.  A vicious cycle.

Keep in mind, that's the process when the house doesn't have a dishwasher in it.  If it does, it's an entirely different cycle, more along the "put inside dishwasher, add soap, wash, rinse, and put away" cycle.

But!  This week, I remembered a common kitchen supply that I had forgotten, except for when I can't find the lid to my tupperware container.

TINFOIL.

That's right.  Tinfoil.  I made granola bars this week, carefully lining the pan with tinfoil as directed. (Actually, the recipe called for parchment paper, but seeing as I didn't have any, I used tinfoil instead.  And the granola bars turned out quite delicious, I might add.)  And yesterday, when I finished the granola bars and took out the tinfoil to throw it away, I saw a beautiful sight.

A CLEAN PAN.

That's right.  A clean pan.  With a quick wipe of a paper towel, that pan was ready to be put away.  No sitting around; no developing crusts; no not being able to make other foods; no guilt when I remember the pan and don't feel like cleaning it; no soaking; no scraping, scrubbing, soap, or baking soda.  And a clean pan.  Tonight, when I made chicken in that very same pan, I carefully lined it with tinfoil, baked the chicken and let it get deliciously juicy and crusty all over that pan.  Then I took out the tinfoil and threw it away, quickly rinsed out the inside of the pan with a little soap (because there was a tiny bit of leakage of seasoning, and I wanted to make sure nothing else was in there), and then it was clean.  MAX CLEANUP TIME: One minute.  That's right, ladies and gents.  That means, for the rest of the time while living in this apartment, I will probably go through a decent amount of tinfoil.  It might mean a little extra cost, but that's a sacrifice I am more than willing to make for a cleaner kitchen and conscience.  Plus, when you get your tinfoil at Big Lots like we do, it only costs like, $1.  Which is not a huge sacrifice.