When Following Directions Is the Wrong Thing To Do

We've all baked something delicious only to take it out of the oven and discover that our precious dinner is stuck to the pan like the bill on a platypus, right?  (I know.  I just wanted to reference the duck-billed platypus.)  So what do we do the next time?  We follow the directions on the recipe card and spray the pan with cooking spray like our dinner depends on it because, well, it does.  Five days later when we've eaten that meal so many times we never want to see it again (or three days later, when we've given up, frozen half, and will undoubtedly shove it to the back of the freezer where we'll forget about it until it's so freezer-burned it's unrecognizable and we throw it out) we carefully hand-wash the baking dish, only to discover upon drying that our favorite pan is now covered with a yellow, sticky cooking-spray goo that has forever ruined the pan.*  And the meal was SO not worth it.  Well guess what?  Today I discovered the solution to all my cooking spray woes!  Are you ready for it?  Here it is:

Yep--baking soda.  I made a hot dish (or casserole, for you non-Minnesotans) last week, ate off it for awhile, froze some, and had washed the pan by hand three times with no luck getting the cooking spray off.  I finally Googled it (What did we ever do before Google?  I mean, besides just call our Moms.  And don't worry, my mom still gets the questions Google can't answer for me.  For example, two weeks ago I texted her, "How many breasts does a chicken have?"  I couldn't get a clear answer from Google, but Mom*Star knew.  And because you're probably wondering, the answer is one.  A chicken has one breast.  However, it's split down the middle with some cartilage, therefor giving us two chicken breast halves.  This is how chicken breasts are usually sold, but we tend to refer to a chicken breast half as a chicken breast, so what to do when a recipe calls for 2 chicken breasts I don't know.  I mean, technically that would be four halves, but I have a feeling the recipe really just requires two halves.  So you see why I had to text Mom*Star?  But I digress...) and found out that my best options were to use either oven cleaner or baking soda.  Since I'm way too cheap to go out and buy oven cleaner I decided to go the baking soda route, and guess what?  It worked!  Five minutes with a little baking soda and a standard scrubby dish sponge and my pan is sparkling like new!  Totally worth the time, so I thought I'd share this little tidbit.  You're welcome.


*I read that the stuff that makes the spray, well, spray, is what coats the pan with sticky goo, so I'll be heading right out to buy a Mr. Misto so I can throw out my cooking spray and protect my precious pans from now on.  I also like the idea of knowing that I'm being environmentally-conscious and only spraying fresh olive oil onto my pans and into my food!