Revelation on Self-Cleaning Ovens

I finally understand why self-cleaning ovens were invented. I used to think they were stupid and smelled bad and took forever to clean. That is, until I actually had to clean our oven by hand this morning.

Umm how come no one told me that its really not that easy to wipe your whole oven down with a wet cloth? Hmmm? The bottle of cleaner made it sound so easy..... "Spray on, coating entire oven. Leave for 2 hours to overnight. Wipe off with a wet cloth, rinsing frequently in warm water."

What they didn't add is reaching into your oven is extremely awkward and this product probably won't work well on butter-burnt-to-the-bottom-of-your-oven messes. Especially if the oven probably hasn't been cleaned since the 1980's.

The beer bread I made yesterday had two tbs. of melted butter poured into the bottom of the bread pan and two more poured on top of the dough. This made a puddle of butter around the bread and when I opened the oven after 50 minutes to check on it, there was smoke. AHHH! I am unreasonably afraid of grease fires, dating back to age 12-ish when I left a greasy pan in the top of my dad's oven and accidently turned it to "broil" instead of "off." I smelled smoke and opened the oven, which made the pan engulf into flames. Luckily my dad ran into the apartment before I could pour water on the fire (hey dad, remember how you saved me from a lifetime of pain as a burn victim?).

This fear was not helped by the butter that burst into flames that licked our cabinets a few months ago and ruined one of my soup pots while I was trapped in the kitchen. I'm almost crying thinking about it. The new soup pot Aaron bought me helped a little.

Anyway, I told Aaron about the smoke and he didn't believe me and said it was probably the bread burning (rude). So later we were making potato chips to go with dinner and I made him open the oven because I envisioned huge flames coming out...... it didn't happen, but there was smoke and he actually believed me. Also our smoke detector went off. Good to know that works!

Mmm curry potato chips.

So long story, that is why I found myself needing to wipe down the oven this morning. I should have made Aaron do it before he went to bed! We did not need to watch "Grumpy Old Men" until 10 p.m.

The worst part is, after all of the scrubbing and wiping and sweating, there is still burnt butter on the bottom of the oven.