So Here's What Happened....

I know I have been absent from the blogosphere for quiet some time, but it usually takes just one stupid incident to bring me back. So here's what happened: I was creating a fabulous omelet the other night and I thought, "some tortillas would be great with this". Of course, I used to have a gas stove so when the tortilla monkey struck, I'd just pop one on the open flame to give it that wonderful crispy taste. But now I have a fancy schmancy black glass electric cook top. Previously I'd tried crisping one directly on the glass - it took me an hour to get the burnt tortilla off the glass so that wasn't an option. The cleaning ladies had hidden all the skillets again (save the one I was using for the omelet) so I came up with the bright idea of putting some foil over the element so the tortillas wouldn't stick. I was very proud of myself for being so smart! Well apparently aluminum foil melts at a very low temperature (I missed that day in chemistry!) and so while my tortillas were crisping, the foil melted to the cook top. Here's how it looked:

And this was AFTER I'd scrubbed on it for a while. Booooooo. Of course my spouse was just glad HE hadn't done it because he would have been in the dog house forever. In fact, we have a new cook top because he destroyed the last one with a huge pot of beans - but that's another story. So I was bummed. Years ago, I would have searched for a book on how to fix it but now of course there is Goggle. Google is your friend. So I searched and apparently there are a huge number of people unaware of the melting point of aluminum when in contact with a glass cook top so there were many recommendations for getting it off. I went to bed determined to try some of them out the next day.

After work yesterday I arrived home arms loaded with possible options to take the metallic mess off my cook top. (We got BarBQue too because of course there could be no cooking while I was working on this project). My trusty sidekick, Obiwan Helper Dog (Rocko) stood ready to assist:

Or maybe he just wanted more BarBQue I don't know.

I surveyed the players which consisted of : Crisco spray oil, WD-40, Drano, Goo Gone, and Easy Off. I also had the cleaner recommended by the manufacture which I'd tried the night before. The Windex was to clean off each chemical in between tries because I didn't want to fumigate myself by mixing chemicals. I also had a razor blade as a last resort but I DID NOT want to scratch the cook top.

I tried each on in turn and the drano was pretty good at getting some of the metal off but it wasn't too good to my skin (I know I could have worn gloves, but I forgot them at the store so I just went with it - it also bleaches out anything it touches so my purple shirt is a gonner). The oil actually helped flake some of the aluminum off and the WD-40 was even better. I was also surprised at how well the WD 40 conditioned the cook top. It made what scratches there were hardly noticeable. The goo gone was a joke and so was the easy off. I tried the easy off cold and hot. The cold was fine, but the hot I would not recommend as it left a shadow on the cook top. Here again gloves would have been a good idea. So here's how it looked after two rounds of everything:

Not as bad but still not usable. Then I got the bright idea of using the WD-40 AND the razor blade...it kept the blade from scratching the surface and did a great job:

There are still little shadows, but I'm hoping those will go away as we use it....all in all I was very pleased with the outcome. Of course my dad could have told me to use WD 40 from the start. In his tool box he always had Duct tape, WD 40, Baling wire and some epoxy. I now have those four items in my kitchen drawer (I have picture hanging wire instead of baling wire but its the same idea). Oddly enough there is very little that can't be fixed or temporarily helped with these things.

What does this have to do with writing? Not a damn thing, but it serves as yet another illustration of how far I can go to avoid writing on my next book!