Oops!

You cook something and make a mess — the potatoes boil dry while you’re busy checking email, the barbecue sauce on the chicken carbonizes when you turn on the broiler, you are carmelizing something for reasons best known to yourself and it just gets away from you…whatever.

Does any of it mean you have to stand over the sink with a scraper and a brillo pad, ruining your manicure and breaking a sweat in the process? Absolutely not!  Once the smoke clears, just pour some dishwasher detergent into the fouled vessel, fill with hot water, cross to the portable bar, mix a drink and walk away. The next morning all that gunk should be loose and ready to be sluiced down the disposal.

If this doesn’t work, throw the pan in the trash and next time consider drinking a little less til the burners are turned off. Just a thought.