Teal

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Teal
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Teal's Modest Adventures

Life & Events > Kitchen Woe
 

Kitchen Woe

I had a kitchen disaster, this one more daunting than any I can remember.

My elbow (that pesky elbow) tipped over a bottle of olive oil and it broke on the tile. (Jay used to always admonish that I left things too close to the edge.) Ed called out and I told him what had happened. And he said “Was there olive oil in it?” I got a little testy at that point since if it had been an empty bottle, there wouldn’t have been an hour of clean-up involved. I thought maybe God was punishing me for recent indiscretions.

I stared at this mess for a few minutes, trying to figure out how to clean it up without getting oil on everything else. I was also thinking that unless I did a herculean job of clean-up,the palmetto bugs would be living off the residue for the rest of their annoying little lives. The only cloths I could find in the garage were uncut sheets, so I cut up an old white sort-of-linen tablecloth. I wrapped, at first, Swiffer dry cloths around the broom because who wants olive oil in one’s broom? I taped them but that didn’t work and I was rewarded with an olive-oil soaked broom and I stuck it in a Pine Sol and water solution in a bucket in the garage. I’ll rescue it tomorrow.

I kneeled on the floor and used the cloths to wipe up the olive oil and then I poured white vinegar on it because there was (of course) still oil slick. And there was olive oil on the nearby cabinet doors and on the dishwasher door and under the ends of the cabinets and I can tell you that, actually, olive oil is great for dislodging unseen cat hair. Then I went over the floor with the Swiffer wetjet and then I cleaned the cabinets with 409 cleaner. I know I will be picking up glass shards for some months to come because that always happens.

My olive oil reserve is in a gallon jug so I had to find a small bottle to use and the only bottles left in my little cache were jam jars. So I used one of those. I’ll have to buy a small bottle at the super market in order to have a new bottle to use. And, finally, I had to change my socks that I use as slippers, or get oil on everything I walked on. @#$%$\

While I was doing all this, dinner was a languishing but Ed was understanding that we would eat a bit later and, after all, he had offered to help but this is a one-person job. So he was reading in bed.

I got to the dinner, finally. Before all this happened, I had been sautéing minced onions and they were burned (not the result of the accident – just bad timing). They were so very burned that I couldn’t trick Ed into eating them (I don’t mind burned food). I threw them out, and was annoyed that my little wet-trash caddy was soiled because the supermarket bag I line it with leaked. So I had to wash that out and re-line it and double bag the trash I was throwing out.

In New York City, super market customers would riot if you gave them bags that developed holes right way. They are lugging those bags by hand down city streets to their apartments. But down here in the car culture, the markets buy flimsy bags to save money and you are, anyway, just going to your car and they’ll last that long.

I got more onions from the garage refrigerator, retrieved the mincer parts from the dishwasher and minced more onions. And pan fried some canned mushrooms and finally got the tilapia started while I did a salad.

I was surprised that I did everything “right” after that and that dinner was fine. And I had two fignewtons for dessert. Life is good. But I gotta watch my elbow.

xx, Teal


posted on Sept 23, 2010 3:46 PM ()

Comments:

I hate those oily spills. The cat litter is supposed to b e very good.
comment by elderjane on Sept 27, 2010 11:22 AM ()
I use talcum powder or flour to soak up everything...including vomit...my cat's that is...lol. Both very cheap and you can use a bucket load and it always does the trick. Let it sit on the spillage for a while to absorb everything and then vacuum or sweep onto a dustpan and clean up the residue with anything handy.
comment by aussiegirl on Sept 25, 2010 6:40 AM ()
I'll try flour if it ever happens again. Thanks for the tip.
reply by tealstar on Sept 25, 2010 7:12 AM ()
Girl your mishaps were just too funny (not to you of course.)
I buy olive oil in quart size plastic bottles--I have a doleful history with products in glass jars, so avoid glass when possible. Besides, olive oil supposedly gets rank after a period of time, so a quart at a time lets me use it up before it goes bad. And those cheap plastic bags that get hole-y right away--well, at the store I always ask for a few extra so I can double bag everything--Know what you mean about those.
comment by susil on Sept 24, 2010 9:09 AM ()
I buy a gallon from BJ's and store it in the kitchen and we are always air conditioned. I pour a pint into a smaller glass dispenser and use it up in about 10 days because I have a salad almost every night and I cook with it. When I use up the pint, I wash it in the dishwasher before refilling it to avoid old oil making fresher oil rancid. Seems to work so far. As for the "incident", I was beset but have long ago learned that fussing only extends the frustration, so I just get right to fixing whatever went wrong, and as I worked, I thought, oh, good, I can post about this.
reply by tealstar on Sept 24, 2010 8:41 PM ()
The clear plastic type that bottle water comes in are not leaching plastics.
comment by jondude on Sept 24, 2010 5:51 AM ()
That must have been a lot of oil. I wouldn't have thought of the cat litter either. Sounds like dinner was good, regardless.
comment by jerms on Sept 23, 2010 9:40 PM ()
It was on everything and broken glass scattered in all of it.
reply by tealstar on Sept 24, 2010 6:33 AM ()
I broke a bottle of oily furniture polish (some fancy pure-oil kind) on the kitchen floor in Las Vegas, so I know what you went through. It was everywhere, and slick! You really don't want someone else in there slipping around in it while you're cleaning it up.
comment by kitchentales on Sept 23, 2010 8:07 PM ()
Buy good olive oil, and when you get it home pour it through a funnel into an empty clear plastic water bottle. I do that from the gallon of olive oil I buy about every six months and I have multiple plastic bottles of it. No breakage, either! Glad your dinner came out after all that!
comment by jondude on Sept 23, 2010 6:27 PM ()
I do that, but I have been pouring into a glass bottle. Isn't there some evidence that re-used plastic leaches stuff into the contents? I must research that.
reply by tealstar on Sept 23, 2010 8:19 PM ()
Seems like a bit of cat litter or saw dust would have made the clean-up easier. But it's done, and that's what counts!
comment by jjoohhnn on Sept 23, 2010 4:10 PM ()
Dang! I didn't think of using litter. Thanks for the tip.
reply by tealstar on Sept 23, 2010 8:20 PM ()

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