So I cook. A lot. It would stand to reason that my oven gets dirty. Fast. Boy does it ever. And I hate to clean it. I shouldn’t say hate. Let’s say I strongly dislike cleaning my oven. Very strongly dislike. I also dislike my oven smoking like it is about to burst into flames any minute when I am baking something. The other day I had a kitchen full of peeps. It looked like this…

I love my kitchen being packed with friends and laughter…but if the oven starts smoking it is a bit too much

So I had just put the last batch of Pioneer Woman’s olive cheese bread…seriously like crack…it is addictive and it draws people to it like a cheesy savory magnet. Here is the recipe I had posted a while back…https://cajunmamacookinblog.com/2013/09/30/olive-cheese-bread/. It’s good stuff y’all. But a few minutes after I put the last batch in, my oven started to smoke. When you have 20 + people in your house, in your kitchen, that is a little alarming. Yeah…I knew then it was time to clean the oven again. It’s funny now and thank heavens the smoke alarm did not go off. Ha ha!! But really. So yesterday I spent much of the day wrangling my youngest monkey (he is a cute little mess) and putting the house back together after all the fun from the night before. Cajun mama and friends can get down now. lol! I am working on a post including all the recipes from that night. Anyway, this morning I woke up and decided it was time to get ‘er done as BD and every other Southern male says from time to time. I strongly dislike oven cleaner so I don’t even have it. I am pretty sure I lose brain cells every time I use that stuff and frankly, I have lost enough during my fast track to motherhood. I will keep the ones I have thanks so much. Thanks to Pinterest, my go to cleaning ingredients are blue Dawn, vinegar and baking soda. I found a post that told me kind of how to use these ingredients to clean the oven. Here is that linkhttp://www.couponingtodisney.com/homemade-oven-cleaner/. But I just looked at ratio of ingredients and got to it. In a big plastic glad ware container I combined about 1/2 cup baking soda, 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup dawn. Those are guesstimates. Just combine and add more of one or other until you have a paste like substance. It’s not an exact science and you can do this.

my cleaning trifecta

Now just spread the paste all over the oven door and inside the oven. Let it sit for about 30 minutes. Use a sponge to about 10 minutes in to give it a good scrub. Then just leave it for about 20. Get back in there and scrub. Rinse your sponge in between. It is a pain to rinse it completely clean but it works. After I had gotten most of the grime cleaned up, I took a dry old towel and wiped up the wetness. Then I went back with a damp old rag and rinsed again. Then dry rag again. After it dries you may see some residue. Go back over it with a damp rag. I promise you it is mostly painless and your oven will be cleaner than when you started. I am not into perfection, I am mostly cool with good enough. Three cheers for good enough!!!!~AMB

yuck

much better. Good enough. Happy me