My Husband is Mr. Wizard

(credit to my dad on that titling for Dave)

So... this year was a Schwab Thanksgiving and we stayed in Chicago. I was contributing a sweet potato casserole (I needed to bake something in our new oven!) and a cranberry sauce, even though I couldn't find the much-hailed recipe I made a few years ago. Thursday morning I was running an 8K Turkey Trot, so I decided to make my sauce Wednesday night, allowing myself enough time to run, get ready, bake the casserole, and relax before dinner on Thursday. This is where my story takes a turn...

I started by putting water, orange juice and sugar in a saucepan to boil on our beautiful new stove top. Unused, as I was, to the efficiency of a new appliance, I turned away to begin prepping my other ingredients... a task that takes no time at all. Suddenly, there was a searing sound to my right, and I looked over to find my mixture not only boiling, but boiling over, and basically caramelizing onto the stove top. NOOOOOO! Obviously the appropriate response was to scream and sit on the floor crying hysterically. Without knowing it, I did exactly what I was supposed to do to attempt to clean it. This being a ceramic glass stove top, you should not use regular cleaners, or abrasive sponges. I didn't realize that, but I acted correctly anyway. I let it cool, and then put the cleaning solution it came with on the charred surface, and used both a dry paper towel, and the sponge it came with, to try to wipe it away, applying pressure to lift the burned parts. No luck. It. Was. Ruined. (So I repeated my initial reaction and cried on the floor, but also called Dave, out at a bar with friends, and cried hysterically to him about how I'd destroyed our brand new stove top on it's third use, and I'd never again cook for Thanksgiving).

Dave came home and took a look. He assured me that we'd figure it out. No one was hurt, it was under warranty, and if we couldn't fix it ourselves, we'd call the company and it would be resolved. I still felt like crap. I woke up Thursday morning and had an anxiety attack going into the kitchen. I left for my race, and little did I know... while I was running, Dave was researching and coming up with a plan. By the time I got home, he had several potential solutions for solving the problem. We left for Thanksgiving dinner (I did bake my casserole, and even finished my cranberry sauce), and when we got home, Dave got to work with Plan #1. SUCCESS!

I can now report that should you char your ceramic glass stove top with anything disgusting like burnt, boiling sugar and orange juice, all you need to do to fix it is follow these simple steps:

1. do not sob hysterically on the kitchen floor - there is a solution!
2. let the surface cool completely
3. generously pour olive oil over the entire affected area
4. and finally, using a razor blade, carefully, and very slowly, scrape the burned bits off. This will take a while, but it's like magic, so do it!

I swear, it looks like it just came out of the box. You'd never know that anything bad had ever happened, nor would you know that Dave could have his own science home-remedy show on Nickelodeon. But now you know! He's Mr. Wizard!