Product Plug
As you’ve probably figured out, Mackie and I don’t eat at home much. When we do, it’s more often take-out than cook-in.
My opposition to cooking and take-out can be distilled to one word – cleaning.
I don’t get Mackie’s to go food fetish. You have to journey out to get it, it’s cold by the time you get it home and, worst, there are still dishes to clean. Part of Mackie’s take-out ritual requires plating the food. Translation – more dishes to clean than if we (as I’m quite content to do) ate straight out of the take-out containers whenever possible.
Of course, cooking at home creates an even bigger mess, not to mention that the degree of difficulty for scrubbing pots and pans is much higher than for dishes.
To make things worse, I was (note past tense) one of those people who insisted (again, note past tense) on washing the dishes before they went in the dishwasher. Silly, maybe, but my dishes were actually clean when they came out of the dishwasher. Unlike certain restaurants that shall remain nameless.
But, no more.
Mackie picked up a package of Cascade 2-in-1 Action Pacs (sounds like something MacGyver would carry) with the Power of Dawn (the longest name for a consumer product that I can remember seeing – ever). The package boldly declared, “Cleans so well…no need to pre-wash!” Yeah, right, but how about post-washing when the plates come out with more food stuck to them than your average Somali eats for dinner???
It sounded like a dare to me, so I took it. Take-out from Shalimar, leftovers from San Tung, reheated spaghetti from Flower Market Café. Mugs stained by evaporated coffee. Dishes used as ashtrays, ashtrays used as dishes. All from a few days before so the orts had aged to a nice crust on the ceramic surface. Dumped into the dishwasher with nary a pre-scrub.
Amazingly, the stuff with the really long product name really worked.
Now, I’m pretty fussy about my dishes being clean. The only thing that didn’t emerge from the dishwasher to my satisfaction was a pan in which I’d overwatered and overcooked rice so it stuck to the side like paste. That one needed a bit of post-wash. Everything else, squeaky clean!
Oh, in case we ever invite you over for dinner, just kidding about the ashtrays used as dishes part. Honest.
Orts! Now there's a word you don't see every day. (Except in the crossword puzzle.)
Visiting via Becks & Posh. I'm a bi-monthly (as in "every other") visitor to the Bay Area, so I'm happy to find your reviews.
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***there are still dishes to clean***
Use paper plates. Problem solved.
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I have a funny story about washing the dishes, but I'll have to tell it to you in person.
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Peter, you can't post it? Why not? Is this an X-rated dishwashing story???!!!
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