Rant and rave
RANT: It’s no fun to share news of bad dinners, but I don’t want this to happen to anybody else. I bought some mussels at Taylor Shellfish this morning with broiled mussels in mind. For the recipe, I turned to James Peterson’s Glorious French Food. There are plenty of good recipes in this book—the oxtail stew is wonderful, and the basic moules marinières recipe is hard to argue with. But beware the broiled mussels with garlic and parsley butter. The recipe says to stir the breadcrumbs into the compound butter. I have no idea why he recommends this, and I have no idea why I went stupidly along, but the result was that the butterfat separated and left behind a chalky green lump. Now I’m not sure whether to make broiled mussels again soon to avenge myself, or never again.
RAVE: Iris noted that we’ve had crayon on the wall next to her little table for months. I wonder how that got there. I tried scrubbing it with a sponge and my usual Orange Plus surface cleaner. No dice. So I Googled. Lots of people recommended Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. I went to the drugstore and found the store brand of this product on sale, two packs for $2. What rock have I been living under? The crayon came right off, and I used another one in the kitchen for the cupboard doors that I’d thought were permanently stained. I assume these work by being extremely abrasive, which is why there’s a warning not to rub them on skin (it’s oddly tempting), and eventually if I keep at it I’ll need to repaint, but I can live with that.
Comment by Dana McCauley
Hey Matthew!
I finally made it over here to check out your blog. Sorry it took me so long! Nice work, dude.
Also sorry to hear your dinner was ruined. Did the recipe call for fresh or dry breadcrumbs? I can see that method working with fairly coarse fresh crumbs which would absorb the butter fat well.
Glad to hear you discovered the wonder of magic erasers. A package really should be sent to every family the day their first child turns a year old.
Drop my blog sometime and say ‘hi’.
Posted on February 2, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Comment by mamster
Thanks, Dana! Great to see you, virtually speaking..
For anyone who doesn’t know, Dana is the author of many cookbooks, my favorite of which is Noodles Express.
Posted on February 2, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Comment by John Eddy
“I assume these work by being extremely abrasive”
Funny enough that reminds me of half my coworkers….. bah-dum-ching
Posted on February 2, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Comment by Kathleen
I can’t get Magic Erasers to work on ball-point pen marks for some reason.
Goo-gone is another wonderful product — takes off crayon marks and old tape and sticker goo.
Posted on February 2, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Comment by Neil
You can get even cheaper “Magic Eraser” sponges at Daiso, that Japanese store in the basement of Westlake Center. They come in many different sizes and shapes with multipacks going for $1.50 (like everything else in the store). Plus the packages have all the cool, incomprehensible Japanese graphics and writing.
Posted on February 3, 2008 at 12:47 am
Comment by heather
i love mister clean magic erasers!!! do you have, say, corningware with baked-on brown dribble marks that have been there since moses was a boy? the magic erasers (plus plenty of elbow grease) totally gets corningware (or pyrex) bakeware looking new!!
the caveat being that once you use a (brand new) magic eraser on things that might touch food, you need to keep it separate and just for food…so you don’t then clean your boat with it, and then back to the corningware…
Posted on February 3, 2008 at 10:22 am
Comment by Lisa
My 4 year old spilled bright green nail polish on our hard wood floor. After wondering what to do for a week, I tried the magic eraser — and it WORKED! The nail polish came off, but the varnish stayed on the wood. I was truly amazed.
Posted on February 3, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Comment by mamster
heather, I got my caked-up vent hood clean with one! Hmm, I guess “caked-up” isn’t really a word, but it should be.
Neil, I am always in favor of more trips to Daiso.
Kathleen, for stains resistant to the charm of magic erasers, my dad recommended Clorox spray bleach. I haven’t tried it yet, though.
Posted on February 3, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Comment by Maggi
Oh, I am a big fan of the Magic Erasers. My little genius decided to scribble his masterpiece ala Sharpie Marker all over my dining room wall. You guessed it, the Magic Eraser took it off. Left the paint. I think i read somewhere they’re made of finely ground melamine(?) Non-toxic nonetheless. I’ll have to try toe Corningware trick. I wonder who it will do on a seriously neglected aluminum baking sheet?
I’m such a geek, I’ve even given them as part of a baby shower gift before…
Posted on February 4, 2008 at 8:33 am
Comment by Lauren
I must have used the wrong paint - I bought some specifically to clean off the wall some black smudge from a candle. Yes, it took off the black but it also took off the paint………
Posted on February 5, 2008 at 9:46 am
Comment by Kat
Another trick for waxy messes (I spattered candle wax all over my wall) seemed obvious once I heard it - place an iron on low heat over several layers of paper towel on the waxy spot. It melts the wax, the towels soak it up - it seems like it should work with crayons, though I don’t know about the color stains…
Posted on February 7, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Comment by matt wright
If you do broiled mussels again, I wouldn’t follow that recipe :D I was the same way with gnochi - followed a recipe to the T a few years back, and they turned out like little bullets. I did get back on the wagon though, and since then my gnochi skills have improved somewhat :D
For a really decent cleaner for kitchens, bathrooms, and kids messes (most likely not crayon though..) you can do the following:
mix 2 tablespoons baking soda, 2 tablespoons white vinegar, 1 teaspoon of tea tree oil together. Put this into a large spray bottle, and fill the rest up with water.
A really great cleaner that has no harmful ingredients in! yay!!!
Posted on February 8, 2008 at 7:54 am
Comment by Scott
I had deemed the magic eraser another piece of junk my wife wasted money on because she is a little to much like her mother in that regard. They really do work, though. Go figure.
Posted on February 8, 2008 at 1:40 pm