I like having a clean kitchen.  Not only is it a good idea for safety reasons, I find that cooking is a more pleasant, less stressful ordeal if my work area is spotless and organized.  Cleaning takes time and energy, so I make it part of my daily routine.  That way, I have plenty of time to rest if I need to.

Kitchen Fires

     Kitchen fires are very common.  Even the best cooks are vulnerable to accidents, so be prepared.  Grease, including butter and olive oil, is highly flammable.  If your food catches fire, then it's probably not going to be edible anyway, so avoid the temptation to save it.  Just put the fire out.

     First and foremost, turn off the heat source.  No need to fuel the fire.

     Second, cut off the oxygen.  If the fire is in the oven or microwave, close the door and be patient.  The fire will eventually run out of air.

     The best way to smother flames on the stove is with baking soda.  Any time you are cooking, have an open box of baking soda ready and within easy reach.  Dump it generously on the fire.  It will absorb the grease and smother the flames.

     Once the fire is out, wait a while before you touch anything.  Be patient, and let the area cool down completely before you clean up.

Food care

• Package meat tightly and store in the coldest part of the refrigerator.  Try to use meat within 48 hours of when you buy it.  If you absolutely cannot eat it that soon, label it clearly and freeze it.  Labeling is very important because frozen food has a tendency to become unrecognizable after a few days.  Never reuse bags that have held raw meat.  Cut meat on plastic cutting boards only, not wood, because wood absorbs the juices and bacteria.  Anything that touches raw meat should be scalded or run through the dishwasher.
• Meat -- any meat -- should not have a strong odor.  If it smells bad, you will not have to ask someone, "Does this smell bad?"  Shellfish should have a pleasant salty-sweet smell.  It should NOT smell like dead fish.  Neither should dead fish, which should have no odor at all.
• Cooked chicken is white, not pink.  Cooked fish is white, not translucent.  Cooked beef is brown, not pink (until you know what you're doing, cook all beef "well done").  Cooked shellfish is pink, not silver.
• Always thaw meat in the refrigerator or the microwave, never on the counter.  The only food that can be thawed on the counter is bread.
• Eggs should never be used beyond their expiration date or if they're broken.  It's always a good idea to check them for freshness, regardless of what the date says.  Fill a container with cold water, deep enough to submerge the eggs by several inches.  Gently lower the eggs into the water so they don't crack.  Bad eggs will collect gas under the shells and begin to float.
• When you buy fruits and vegetables, remove them from the store bags as soon as possible, wash and dry them thoroughly, and transfer them to Ziplock bags.  These bags can be expensive, but they will save you a lot of frustration over prematurely rotten produce.  If you are really tight for cash, you can reuse the Ziplock bags.  Squirt a little lemon juice in them, fill them halfway with warm water, seal, and shake.  Allow them to completely dry before reusing, and discard them if they smell rank.
• Cheese mold will not hurt you if you eat it, but it is an acquired taste (think "bleu cheese").  Block cheese will last longer than pre-packaged shredded cheese, and you can cut off moldy parts.
• No food that belongs in the refrigerator should be left at room temperature for more than two hours.  On the flip side, no food that is not room temperature or cooler should be put in the refrigerator, or it may cause the foods around it to spoil.  Leftovers, even highly perishable ones like chicken, will be just fine until they cool, and then they need to be covered and refrigerated.
• Most foods do just fine in the freezer, but generally not dairy products.  If in doubt, put a couple spoonfuls in a little sandwich bag, label it, and freeze it.  In a couple days, take it out, thaw it, and taste.  If it tastes ok, make a note on the recipe that the food is freezable.  If not, then you only wasted a little bit.
• Throw away any cans that are dented, open, or bulging.  Canned foods are only nonperishable if the foods are not exposed to the air, and damage to the can is evidence that the food is perishing.
• If you put greasy foods, dairy products, or meat products in the trash, empty the trash as soon as possible.  These items attract all sorts of pests, including ants and flies, not to mention that they stink up your kitchen.

Sinks

     If you're lucky, you have a garbage disposal in your sink.  If so, please be sure to read the following section regarding garbage disposals.  Regardless, your sink should have a strainer and a plug, which sometimes are part of the same device.  Even though I have a garbage disposal, my strainer is invaluable when scrubbing vegetables.  When I lose my grip on a slippery potato, the strainer saves it from sliding down into the disposal and getting covered with discarded muck.  My stopper is great for when I need to soak lettuce leaves, or bleach the sink overnight.

     Speaking of bleaching, you should bleach your sink at least once a month, and once a weak if you use it to wash dishes.  Fill the sinks as high as you dare with scalding tap water, and then add about a cup or so of liquid bleach.  Do NOT use your good measuring cups to measure bleach, as it should NEVER contact food, even after the fact.  Either get a measuring cup that is just for bleach, or estimate.  Bleach will damage your clothes, so be careful when handling it.  Let it soak the sinks over night.  Drain, and rinse with very hot water.

     If the bleach missed stains, streaks, or dried-on food, wet the area with hot water, and then sprinkle generously with a bleach-based abrasive cleaner, like Comet.  Let stand for two hours, and then scrub with a sponge or scrub brush that you have set aside just for cleaning sinks.  Scrub with just a little water at a time, in a circular motion, until the stain fades.  I think you'll be pleased with the results.

Garbage disposals

     Hopefully, you have a garbage disposal in your sink.  This will save you some hair-pulling if your sink ever gets clogged.  If you don't have one, ALL food scraps, vegetable peelings, and grease should be scraped into the garbage, not the sink.  If you do have one, always remember to run the faucet with it, to keep the food going down.  Otherwise, you'll make a huge mess and probably have to paint the kitchen.

     As a general rule, anything that is tough for you to chew, is also tough for your garbage disposal.  These items, along with anything else that raises doubts, should just go in your garbage.  Here are a few things that should NEVER go down the disposal:

• Large amounts of grease, particularly if you have been frying meat in it.  Animal fat is a solid (think "lard"), and regardless of how liquidy it becomes when you heat it, it will return to a solid when it cools.  You do not want it to turn solid inside your disposal, or it will gunk up the gears.  Save grease in a sealed, non-glass container in the freezer (empty hot cocoa or coffee cans work great), and throw it out every few weeks with your garbage.
• Potato or apple peelings.  Potatoes and apples are a pain to peel, and an even greater pain for your disposal to chew.
• Banana peels.  Bananas are a lot easier to peel than potatoes and apples, but your disposal doesn't see the difference.
• Celery.  The fibers get wound around in there and bind the gears and teeth together.
• Large seeds.  This includes cherry pits, olive pits, popcorn kernels, apple cores, peach pits . . . you get the idea.
• Anything that isn't food.  I know the term "garbage disposal" is pretty general, but this is not the place to dispose of plastic wrappers, toothpicks, paper labels, or twisty-ties.

     Suppose something bad sneaks by you, and your disposal grinds to a halt.  Here's what you do.  First, giving it more time will only increase your bill when it breaks, so shut it off.  Now, take a rubber or plastic utensil, like a spatula, and gently feel around in the disposal, scooping out debris.  Do NOT use your fingers or a metal utensil.  If the clogging culprit suddenly pops loose, you could be seriously injured if your fingers are in the way or the fork you were using snaps out of your hand and flies across the room.  Periodically pull your utensil out and flush the drain with water.  Gently pulse the disposal.  Continue scooping and rinsing until you dislodge the culprit and your disposal sounds normal.

Dishes

     Before I begin cooking, I empty the dishwasher so that I can put cooking utensils in it as I use them.  Sometimes, there are dirty dishes left over from the previous day that didn't make it into that load, and so I need to run another one.

     I'm lucky enough to have a dishwasher now, and if you have the means, I highly recommend it.  However, I managed just fine for two years without one.  Either way, it's a good idea to immediately rinse any dishes you use with very hot water and remove dried or burned food.  Neither dishwashers nor scrub brushes respond well to this stuff, and the longer you wait, the tougher it will be to remove.

     Regardless of your dishwashing method, I recommend having both dishwasher powder and liquid dish soap on hand.  A generous sprinkle of dishwasher powder on your sponge will help remove stubborn grease from skillets, oven or grill racks, or the inside of microwaves.  Liquid dish soap is mild enough for delicate china, wood counters and floors, and removing butter or Crisco from your fingers.

     For stubborn burned-on food, like the kind that accumulates inside casserole dishes, fill the dish with hot water and float a dryer sheet in it for a few hours.  You'll be amazed at how easily the burned food will simply wash right off.  Be careful when handling the dish, though, because it will be very slippery.  Rinse well with lots of soap, if you wash your dishes by hand.

     If you do not have a dishwasher, and you cannot stand at the sink long enough to scrub dishes, no problem.  Get yourself a big plastic tub and put it on a table or counter, out of the way of your cooking and dining, and low enough for you to see into it while sitting.  Fill it with hot, soapy water, a bucket at a time for easy hauling.  As you cook, place your dishes in the tub to soak.  Then you can sit beside it and take all the time you need to scrub.  That way, will only need to stand at the very end, when you rinse the dishes in the sink.  Send the dirty water down the drain a bucket at a time, to ease clogging.

Refrigerators

     Before you go to the grocery store, clean old food out of your refrigerator.  Throw away expired dairy and meat products, even if it still looks ok.  It doesn't take much bacteria to make you sick.  Obviously, anything that has bad odors or mold should be discarded (except slightly moldy cheese).

     Every two months, take everything out of your refrigerator and clean the shelves, trays, and walls with warm water and liquid dish soap.  Avoid the temptation to use cleaners with bleach or alcohol, as these should never come in contact with food.  For stubborn stains, you can use a little white vinegar.  Place an open box of baking soda in the back of the refrigerator to absorb odors, and change the box when you clean.  Dump the old baking soda down your sink drain and leave it there overnight to absorb nasty odors.

     The refrigerator is a huge job to clean, so plan to do it in stages.  It's ok to spread the cleaning over a couple days, if you need to.  Just be sure to remember where you left off, and don't leave food on the counter for more than two hours.

General Cleanliness

     Before cooking, make sure your work surfaces are clean.  Wipe down your counters and your tables with a moist sponge and a little liquid dish soap.  I also make a habit of wiping down the counters after I have loaded the dishwasher, but you'll have to gauge how much energy you have,  The important thing is to prepare food in a clean area.

     Wash your hands frequently, especially before and after handling meat or dairy products.  When you switch jobs from cleaning to cooking, wash your hands.

     If you have long hair like mine, tie it back while cooking.  It will save you some frustration, and your recipes do not need added fiber.

     Avoid cooking in droopy clothes, like your bathrobe.  You're just asking to be dipped in batter or set on fire.

     Use common sense.  Do what you can to make your kitchen comfortable and accessible, and the things you need to do to take care of it and keep it clean will fall into place.

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