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Top Ten Cleaning Tips


As many might know from reading my blog, I live in a little space and feel like I am constantly cleaning. As much as I love to cook when my kitchen nook is clean, I like to admire it and not cook! I recently came a across a book on cleaning tips which made me think of some of mine. Here are my top ten kitchen cleaning tips. Please tell me some of your favorite cleaning tips.

1) When a counter is covered with flour or dough cover with a cloth that has be soaked in boiling water. Do not wipe down until the cloth has cooled. The sticky dough will easily wipe away.
2) Cleaning a surface with a spray let stand for a moment or two to activate and then wipe clean.
3) Dirty sponges soak them in salt water or throw them in the dishwasher (that is something I dream about having one day.)
4) Stove- Vinegar and baking soda
5) Need to get a tough crevasse use an old toothbrush (that has been thoroughly washed) or a q-tip
6) Cleaning a blender- Blend hot water and soap them pour our and rinse
7) Grease- get rid as much as you can and then rub down with lemon.
8) Recently, I broke my sister’s glass pitcher I had borrowed. Thought I would return super duper clean- instead had to go to the store and get her a new one. I used boiling water to clean the hand blown glass. The pitcher broke into a thousand little pieces. Boiling water is not always the solution.
9) Floors- dampen the ends of your broom and dustpan to keep the dust from rolling back to the floor. Removing rubber sole marks just use an eraser and water can be harsh on hardwood floors so wash them infrequently as possible.
10) Do not ever mix ammonia and bleach together!

Posted on: June 29th, 2008

Posted by Patty in Tips, Terms & Tools, Top Ten. No comments »

Fresh Rosemary as a Skewer


rosemary-with-shrimp.jpg

Sometimes I am nervous and when I am making something new and I don’t feel that confident in how it will turn out. I will over compensate and make something else in addition. So when I was making my Chilled Cucumber Soup I also served a choice of Gazpacho something that I make all the time. With a heat wave going on right now in the NYC area it is the perfect thing to eat. I usually use thyme in my gazpacho but did not have any when I was making it so instead I used rosemary. With my left over rosemary I used them as skewers and put two to three shrimp on every skewer and marinated them. Perfectly simple and could easily be done with chicken. Something different for the grill this season.

Posted on: June 8th, 2008

Posted by Patty in Ideas, Tips, Terms & Tools. 1 Comment »