Today's cleaning tip

Is your stove top a mess? Can you instantly recall every meal you've cooked in the last few weeks because bits of them all are stuck in the greasy mess? Want to clean it up in an instant with little elbow grease and no harsh chemicals?

Well, look no further than your pantry and that blessed little orange box of baking soda.

Seriously, here's all you have to do (I did it on Sunday, and if I'd known it was going to work so well, I would have taken a picture to prove it). First, take out your burner elements and pans (assuming you have an electric stove. If you have gas, take off whatever parts come off). Set the elements aside, and put the burner pans in a sink full of hot water with a squirt of dish soap and a couple of tablespoons of baking soda. Let them soak while you clean the rest.

Next, wipe the stove top down with a damp sponge to get all the loose stuff off. Then, sprinkle it heavily with baking soda. Get your sponge fairly wet - you don't want a sloppy mess but you want it to be wet enough to create a paste as you scrub. Working from the inside out, rub in a circular motion to scrub the gunk right off, rinsing out your sponge as needed. This should be very quick - you should be able to get the whole top clean in a matter of minutes. Finally, give your sponge a good rinse and wipe it down well to get all the residual soda off.

Next, go back to your burner pans soaking in the sink. If you're like me, stuff boils over all the time and these are a big mess. By now, they've been soaking long enough that everything has started to lift off. They should clean up fairly easily, but you may need to use a steel wool pad to get some of the really tough stuff off.

Once those are clean, put it all back together and, voila! A bright, shining stove top just waiting for the next meal.

Happy Cleaning!