pax

I used oven cleaner. It ruined the towels but I used cheap old ones that were worn out anyway. And I ventilated the kitchen to a fare-thee-well and made my husband turn off the gas because I was afraid I'd blow the house up. Mine is a 36" with a back splash only halfway up the wall, the rest is a passover. Edited for spelling and to add: This works on various things, like sinks/baths you can't de-scum because the overflow valve is too low, *ahem* the insides of the john (use tp), etc. Cheers, The Queen of Lazy Ass Town

Can you drape something over the back of the backsplashes or are they tight against the wall? I've had good luck soaking kitchen towels in noxious chemicals and draping them over the filthy bits, and leaving them there overnight. Stuff wipes right off in the morning. Paper towels will stick if you can't drape something, but they dry out faster and don't work as well.

This morning in a PMS haze I reached for the bag of Munchos I KNEW were stashed under the counter for just this occasion. My 7 yo had opened them at some point this week and didn't put them in a ZipLock. Normally, this would be an exectutable offense, but I exercised discretion, let her live, and threw them in the oven on "warm", onto a perforated tin "pizza pan" I used to make garlic bread on last night by (I know, heresy) using garlic and onion POWDER. Which remained on the pan which didn't get washed because it was hot and I left it in there to cool. What I got coming out were warm, oniony, garlicy Munchos, and I hurriedly matched them with an ice cold Root Beer. I wallowed like a pig.

Melt a little of your favourite cheese crumbled over them, and maybe some basil? Wrap them around teeny marinated Mozz balls and have them cold? Save by and add to your next chii?

Their babies were drinking it.

Gimme S'mores

I make my husband stop there so we can swap out books on tape.

Ok, now that you've gotten a lot of great ideas, I hope you don't mind when I veer slightly off topic to tell you that when I saw your OP come up, I wondered how you knew your kittens were salty.

I just finished a course of blood transfusions over the eight weeks and my hormones and blood levels and chemicals are going wild. I have gained ten pounds. I'd like to say I could blame it on blood volume but I'm thinking probably not, I think it's got to be the medicine they put me on, I can't stop craving stuff. For breakfast I had Kenya AA fresh ground beans in my Bialetti, with hot cream and vanilla sugar which I stirred with a cinnamon stick, and a piece of a Vosges' Fire Bar. Then I had thick, greasy, garlicy, greasy cheese toast, on big fat soft but perfectly toasted Italian bread. Now I'm contemplating some latkes.

Wouldn't San Francisco be fun?

Packed tomatoes have to be Parmalat or Pomi. Single origin olive oil...Italian or French. None of this "shipped all over the world for months until we got a vatful and blended it up." I can make do with domestic champagne if necessary.

You know, it's easier to pick which child I like better. Naan bread, because it can do so many things and cooked right it has all kind of textures. NB. In self defense, my 16 yo daughter is currently an alien.

I melt good sweetened chocolate in milk/half and half to cover. Nuke on half power till melted. If you're going to use sugar, put it in now so it melts too. Stir once or twice to make sure big globs of chocolate aren't sticking to the glass. Add a pinch of salt, a pinch or two of cinnamon, and then the sweetener of your choice (if you haven't used sugar). For my diabetic Dad, that's the same kind of sugar free syrup you get in coffee shops. I've used Baker's, and I've used Valhrona, and the quality of the chocolate makes a real difference.

Well, I have to say the CheetItz panade really did it for me, I don't usually mess too much with a good hamburger but since it was total pms-ville I was including minced caramelized onions and chopped cooked bacon. And since I was going to Juicy Lucy kind of thing, I felt like I need help keeping it all together. Why is it the PMS makes me throw all my food ethos right out the door? I was craving ridged potato chips, and onion soup sour cream dip. I finally bowed to pressure, and thought I could make up for it by making something really good. So I made a really yummy caramelized onion cream cheese dip I found on the Web, and bought the Organic Sea Salt and Pepper Waffle Kettle Chips. They were ok. My family liked them. I was just kind of "meh". I got in the car, drove the mile, and bought cheap ass Ruffles (with rrrridges!) and onion soup mix. And sour cream. And ate and ate and ate. And in the absence of my fav cheap Trader Joe's Sea Salt Caramels but seem only to be found here in the the flash stores, I actually dipped a Reisen in the salt cellar. Unrepentantly.

I have this one Roald Dahl's Really Revolting Recipes. It's meant for kids so it has some interesting finger foods.

Food from fiction that you'd like to sample: Faire tea and Templeton's the Rat's List of what he ate at the State Fair, only, not from the ground. A fictional meal you would like to have attended: Oh, there is a haunting scene in Isabella Allende's Like Water for Chocolate in which she cooks a feast which makes everyone happy and loving. I'l love to have been there. The Mad Tea Party A memorable work of fiction set in a restaurant or a café: Fried Green Tomatoes Food you've tried that didn't live up to the expectations raised by a fictional account: Pickled Limes and Blanc Mange, from Little Women. Food from fiction that you couldn't help but want to try even though you knew you would hate it: Raw whale blubber from one of my kid's books, which name I can't remember. An unappetizing food description from fiction: Anything served to sailors in the 18th century. And the whale blubber. A recipe you've tried or a meal you've recreated from fiction: Four Hundred Year old eggs from Harold MaGee's Science book. Food you associate with reading: Chocolates Your favourite food-focussed book/writer: Wendell Berry

Oh man. I just made the best bacon cheeseburger of my life. I'll give you one secret. I made the panade with White Cheddar Cheez Itz. Just shoot me now. And deep, quick fried waffle fries. You know how for when you're ~so~ hungry for something you're drooling when you're cooking it? I was that. And now for the vat of Ben and Jerry's in the freezer...

I thought it would be easy to do letters and shapes for the kids. That didn't work out so great either. The stuff was too thin. ← FWIW, I just make regular shaped pancakes and use cookie cutters on them. I didn't want to scratch up my pans with metal cookie cutters, pressing down hard enough to hold the batter in to hold the shape. My kid doesn't seem to notice or care. Her favourite is still silver dollar faces with berries for eyes, etc, though.

If you are gentle and the butter is soft, you can butter and jam then and then dip them in cream.

They are not unlike Post Shredded Wheat.

The stencil is a great idea, you could also stencil a piece of pie dough and lay it over the top, instead of a lattice.

The Oxo measuring cups disappointed me in the long run because the dots wore off, as did the size indications. I don't buy measuring cups or spoons now except metal with inscribed or raised indicators. I have so many Pyrex 2 cup measuring cups they have their own shelf.

My husband will devour and compliment just about anything I make, provided there is no visible onion or pieces. As long as I hide it, it's all good. But he misses out on some fantastic Onion Soup, I have to say. More for me. *tummy rubbing*

I found Obama Foodarama a little while and am enjoying it a lot. Edited to make it easier to see the link.

I really liked Carla's comment at the end, "When I came here, I wanted to show people a different way of competing, competing with love, so I did one of the things I wanted to do here."