A Greasy Day

Gosh!  It has been a week since I chatted with you!  And a very busy week at that.   The big event was the installation of our new Archbishop!  A signal event in the life of St. James, the life of Seattle, and the life of me.  My other busyness was less monumental.  Mostly working on Christmas presents.

I took a break from all this hurry and scurry for a movie evening with Ana, and we made a delicious risotto using most of the rogue vegetables in the refrigerator, including butternut squash and beet greens – an unusual, but successful combination.  As I said, it was delightful to eat, but for the second time in my cooking risotto in the pressure cooker career, the bottom of it burned.  Fortunately, both times, we were able to serve it very cautiously, taking care not to scrape any of the burnt bits off the bottom of the pan.  The first time it happened, the pan would not come to pressure, and so was on the stove too long.  I can’t imagine what went wrong this time.  Everything seemed to go normally, and I was shocked when I opened the cooker.  The bottom was hard and black!  The risotto itself was wonderful, and we had a movie to watch – Pillow Talk with Doris and Rock – a very fun movie, so I just slipped into denial, poured some water into the pan, and left it to soak till the next day.  When I attacked it the next morning, the scorched rice was hard as a rock and was immune to any efforts I made.  I knew that Rebecca had conquered this problem in the past, but she was not available for advice just then.  I found some internet advice, which was helpful, but not completely efficacious.  No problem, the article had untruthfully said. Baking soda soaks would soften the impervious mess up, and it could be wiped off.  Hah!  It was a little better, but not a lot.  So I decided to soak it another day, using a higher concentration of baking powder.   On day three, I was balefully looking at my dear pan, when my dear girl showed up.  “No problem,” she truthfully said.  “Elbow grease is the only answer.”  And she went to work.  She used baking soda, a bit of vinegar, some Barkeeper’s Friend, and a lot of elbow grease.   Within minutes she had it sparkling – relatively sparkling at any rate.   Once again, I felt so thankful for having such a great daughter.

Here is a mystic photo of the pan and the cleaning aids.  This illustrates the mystic powers of Rebecca.