Seventeen Years : One Hour

We're hosting a school event at our house this weekend for both adults and children.  To keep the children occupied, we've got a holiday craft planned.   The person who is coordinating the craft decided on Shrinky Dinks.   I absolutely loved doing Shrinky Dinks when I was young. There is something about watching the magical wiggling and shrinking of the plastic in the oven through the glass door that never really loses it's wonder.    I was all for it.

We talked about how we would do the baking of the ornament.   We have an oven in the kitchen, but we had planned for the children to be in the basement while the adults had cocktails and socialized upstairs.   It suddenly occurred to me that our toaster oven could do the job downstairs.   We could just relocate it to the bar in the basement and some of the older children could help with baking and shrinking part.  

I sent an email with my toaster oven suggestion and I got positive responses back.  That's when I realized what I'd done: I'd just offered up my burnt-on, baked-in, crusty toaster tray covered in seventeen years of grime.    Oh dear.

I talked to my husband about it and we briefly thought about getting another toaster oven, especially given the age of our current one.   I considered it, but the one we have really doesn't have any issues, other than the serious layers of residue.   I wondered if there was some magic cleaner that would whisk away all the baked-on mess.    I checked the internet.    I wasn't overly excited with the results I found.

It turns out (from what I read) that there is no magic, "stick it in this solution and in an hour, presto, good as new."   There were several people who debunked suggested quick fixes—with pictures.    The  message was clear: it was going to take hard work and lots of scrubbing.

Could it be that bad?   I'd been covering up the tray for, oh, over a decade with aluminum foil that I'd let go until it was hole-ridden and nearly baked on itself.   Then I'd peel it off the sheet, which was stuck to the gunky tray underneath and apply a new sheet.  

This morning I prepared to clean that tray.  With abrasives in hand, I started to scrub.   One suggestion was a magic eraser and another said steel wool.   But be warned, I read, steel wool is strong stuff and you might get scratches on your pan.    I went through not one, but two full-sized steel wool pads to get that tray clean.   That Magic Eraser helped about as much as a cotton ball would have.  The scrubbing continued and as I started to discover bits of aluminum under the brown and black layers, I became more resolved to not stop until the pan was clean.

It took an hour.  I'm disappointed I didn't take a before picture because it was pretty frightful.   I think an hour's scrubbing for solid, uncomplaining service from a kitchen appliance for seventeen years isn't too bad a price to pay.    But I'm not waiting seventeen years to clean that tray again, though.

The Big Boy Update:  My son asked for milk at dinner.   I told him I would get him some.   He said, "I like milk."  I told him, "I think milk likes you too."   My son said back, "milk doesn't like me.   Drinks don't like anyone.  They don't play with anyone.  They don't work with anyone.  They are just drinks."  My husband told him he was right.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter can fall down when nothing is in her way.   She can trip, run into the only thing in the room and bump her head on the single thing in the way.   I have no idea how she has made it this far being as clumsy as she is.

Fitness Update:   My L4 joint has been so bad I've had problems getting up and down lately.  It was in a serious state this morning at the gym and I spent probably a fourth of the time trying to get the muscles to release.   I got put on "kiddy" exercise.