Scrubbing Pots
My husband hates scrubbing pots.
He is, in all fairness, really pretty willing to clean up the kitchen after I cook and he rarely complains. But pots are his nemesis. Particularly, pots with anything stuck, splattered, or burnt on them.
The other day, I made the unfortunate mistake of looking away from a sizzling skillet of bacon for about five seconds. Besides the seriously unfortunate waste of perfectly good bacon, we ended up with a nasty mess of burnt-on bacon grease on one of my beautiful new stainless steel skillets.
Fab Hub was less than pleased and so I told him I would take skillet duty.
And then I forgot.
For like two or three days.
(Please no one tell my mother that I forgot to clean a skillet for a day or two or…three…she would absolutely die.)
It’s not as bad as it sounds, really. The Fab Hub actually did wash the skillet. But when the burnt-on stuff didn’t budge, he kind of bailed. So it was “clean,” but not scrubbed.
Today, I decided to tackle the skillet. Sure enough, soap and a kitchen sponge/scrubbie did exactly nothing to solve the problem. So I busted out the bumble-bee colored plastic-ish scrub thing Kidzilla picked up at a kitchen store recently and the good old Bon Ami cleanser. It was time to get to work.
After only a few minutes, the leftover bacon burn started to disappear. I was quite excited by this and made Fab Hub come over and look at it. It didn’t excite him quite as much. The process was painstakingly slow, make no mistake. I soon tired of standing at the kitchen sink and moved the project to the kitchen table. This intrigued Kidzilla.
Zilla: “Mom, can I help you clean the pot.”
Me: “Sure, if it makes you happy. Come on over.”
Zilla: “I’ll be right there. Don’t finish too fast.”
Not a problem.
She joined me at the table and was concerned that I had chosen her bumble-bee colored scrub thing for the job.
Zilla: “Mom, that’s my bee scrubbie.”
Me: “Yes.”
Zilla: “You shouldn’t use that. I need it for when I’m scrubbing the pots and washing dishes.”
Me: “Right. Because you do that so often. Zilla, you haven’t scrubbed a pot once in your very short life.”
Zilla: “Well, I’m going to start. Right now.”
If nothing else, my Daughter has a great sense of humor. And she was about to learn how to scrub a pot – a skill that will come in handy for both of us.
She dug in to help, making little circles on the black burn marks with her bee scrubbie. After a few more minutes of working together, it was time to rinse. Our efforts had paid off. Where earlier lived an ugly black coating of the residue of a mistake now shone a clean that was almost perfect.
But not quite.
The skillet will bear permanent marks of burns, scratches, and other evidence of regular use. But showing it a little love and patience in the cleaning process will produce a more seasoned finish – one even better than brand-new. It won’t be perfectly clean and new ever again. But that’s OK. Pots and pans are meant to be used, not admired. They should show signs that they are well-used and well-loved.
Our Selves are like that skillet. We get a little beat up by daily use. We get scratched and burned and a few ugly reminders of past mistakes get stuck on our surface. But a little love and patience will help us shine again. Perhaps not quite as perfectly new as the day we were born, but better. We will carry with us the signs that we have used and loved the life we have been given.
As I put away that skillet later, I thought of another skillet sitting on top of a cabinet in my kitchen. It was my Grandmother’s skillet. Not an heirloom or anything – just a plain old stainless skillet she probably picked up somewhere because she needed one at some point. It has a lot of marks and scratches. She gave it to me right out of her own cupboard when I moved into my first apartment. “Here,” she said. “You’re going to need this.” It has remained with me ever since.
For a second, I wondered what kind of magic my bee scrubbie and Bon Ami might work on that finish…
But that one I think I might just leave alone.
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You completely lost me at the line, “he tried to clean the skillet.” Whaaa? Your husband knows where the sink is? GET OUT. xoxo
He absolutely does. Definitely a keeper. A well-fed keeper. 🙂
Because I hate cooking, I am usually the one relegated to scrubbing the pots. No biggie though as I know it will be done properly. What I hate doing is scrubbing anything in the bathroom (ie shower, toilet, sink). Foodstuff doesn’t gross me out nearly as bad as other stuff. M
In a perfect world, I don’t have to scrub any of them…
Oh, this is precisely how I feel about all my “treasures” from both sides of grandparents’ and parents’ homes. Beautifully written.
Thanks, May. 🙂 I enjoy reading about your treasures, too. I’m on a hunt for some of those beautiful old Corning Ware pieces.
Love this post.
The older I get, the more I leave things as they are. My mother used to tsk me as I lamented over the marks on my new pizza stone, the graffiti that my daughter scratched into our antique writing desk when she learned how to write her name.
Like you, I’ve learned to leave some things alone. They’re simply better with a few scuff marks.
True story – when Hub and I got married, we picked a table for our kitchen/dining room that had a butcher block top. I remember all the scuffs, scratches, burns, and carved-through homework assignments that marked my Grandparents’ table. We figured those imperfections would be inevitable, but we wanted a top that could take it and would allow us to treasure the marks of love and wear. We don’t have much, but there is a definite start. It’s awesome. 🙂
I love the analogy comparing ourselves to pots. It’s so true. Let all the buildup go without scrubbing it away and what do you have? It’s not good. We can get beat up by mistakes and regrets. Giving it a good scrub and cleaning would be great.
I’m with your husband though. I hate cleaning pots and pans. Usually I just leave them or put them in the dishwasher and let that clean it. But sometimes that’s not enough and it comes out of the dishwasher still dirty. That’s when I have to put in the elbow grease and just scrub that thing clean.
I mentioned elbow grease and he made some wisecrack about not being able to participate because he had to go to the store to get some. And headlight fluid. Funny guy.
I perfectly understand your husband! I also hate cleaning pans and pots! Who actually does love to clean them! Thank you for sharing the post! Really well written post, indeed!
Thanks, Ann. I’m glad you commented here today – I’d quite forgotten about this post and it was nice to revisit. Thanks for coming by!
I went to Florida recently and upon my return I saw my brand new skillet (I think I’ve used it maybe three times) in the sink. I picked it up and the bottom of it was was burnt in several places. I should have hid it deep in the bottom cabinet somewhere. Anyways just wanted to say I really enjoyed reading this. I don’t know if you can get this product in the states but I use a product called Bar Keepers Friend. Cookware cleanser and . Works great on stainless steel and copper bottom pots.
Thanks for your comment, Susan. I do, in fact, use Bar Keepers Friend. I was actually wondering why my original post talked about Bon Ami. Might be that this was written before I started using Bar Keepers? But anyway, yes, we get that here in the US and I absolutely love it!