Stove Top Stories: What Not to Do and How to Fix It

In the event that you should have two stove top disasters in the same week, this posts for you.

I guess I should confess, I have thorn in my flesh; a constant issue in which I never seem to learn. In spite of my mom's advice to never set things on the stove, I have a tendency to burn things that shouldn't be cooked. Exhibit # 4583.

It all started one summer after sixth grade while making Crispy Treats. I placed a large plastic cereal container on top of a wrongly set coil burner.  When I lifted the container to pour the cereal, it all fell out of the bottom instead. I was so distraught I called my friend in a teary panic to come help me clean the burner. She saved the day, and I hid the evidence  my mom never knew.

Our microwave sits above the flat-top stove. On Monday I accidentally overcooked my eyebrow wax (which I also use to remove the mustache and chin whiskers that magically appeared on my 40th birthday.) When I pulled the cup of hot wax out of the microwave it spilled all over the cook top, leaving a big puddle, and lots of splatter. I don't know if you've ever used this wax, but it is stickier than tree sap, and is four-times as thick. I was worried.

The first thing I did was... wax my eyebrows, one has priorities when it comes to unsightly facial hair. 

The second thing I did was the phone-a-friend of the 21st Century: I Googled "How to remove eyebrow wax from cook top," which didn't bring anything up. Amazingly,  I couldn't find another blogger who was silly enough to make the same mistake, and then post it to her blog. But I did find that most facial waxes can be broken down with a little oil. So I took some Canola and poured it right on the cook top. Then I took my heavy-duty, non-scratch, scrub sponge and scrubbed like my mother was on her way home. I did have to use my fingers to rub down the parts that were really thick. Then I wiped the oil off with several paper towels, sprayed the top down with cook-top cleaner, and everything was good....

Until... I decided to make chicken for dinner two days later.

The Girl had decided she was going to make herself an omelet for breakfast. As she was finishing up, I decided to defrost some chicken for dinner later that night. My thawing method has always been: take a few pieces out, place in plastic freezer bag, add marinade, cook later.

Amazingly, plastic bags burn very quickly, and its hard to clean up a scorching stove. After it cooled I thought I could just peel the plastic off, but it wasn't so easy. I used a combination of scraping with a butter knife, scrubbing with the sponge, and turning the heat on for a second or two to soften, but not melt, the plastic. It was considerably more elbow work than the wax, but after I used the cleaning spray, it was as good as new.

Hopefully this will be my last post on burning plastic on the stove top... but we all know it won't.

And, if you've found this post because you are in the same situation...Good Luck!