Stove

The other day I was baking a cake and accidentally filled the pans with too much batter. They over flowed while cooking and the batter fell to the floor of the oven and started a fire! Luckily, thanks to my ex-fire-chief father, I knew exactly what to do. Instead of panicking, I removed the cakes and closed the door quickly. I turned off the oven and left it alone for about 10 minutes. This removes the air from the oven and in turn, puts out the fire.

Have you ever had a kitchen fire? How did you deal with it?

One of my biggest pet peeves in my kitchen is a dirty stovetop. If you cook regularly, it's often hard to avoid spills and stains on the shiny surface of your stove. However, if you can keep up a regular regimen of cleaning it after you cook, you can ward off deeper cleaning sessions that may take an hour or more. Check out my tips below for keeping your stovetop clean.

1. Reserve one sponge (preferably with a soft side and an abrasive side) for stove cleaning. Every time you cook, get in the habit of cleaning your stovetop with some soapy water and the sponge after you've done the dishes and cleaned the counter. This will help to prevent crud buildup.
2. Every time that you have a bubbling or dripping pot sully your burners, clean the burners immediately after they have cooled down.
3. For trays and removable burners, pop them in the dishwasher.

If your stove is already dirty, find out about my favorite way of getting it clean when you read more