Please Pass the Ketchup

Today has been one of those days where multi-tasking has not worked to my advantage. I usually get a lot done by multi-tasking. I start one thing, make a mental note of when I need to return to it, complete several other tasks, and come back just in time to finish up the first one. But today the process did not run as smoothly. I returned home after running a few errands and put some green beans on the stove to cook. Matthew doesn't do so well with things like lettuce, so I keep an assortment of tender cooked veggies in the freezer for the times when we eat what he can't chew yet. That is why I was cooking green beans at 10:30 in the morning. Anyway, I brought them to a boil, turned the stove down, and then walked away, promptly forgetting all about them. Are you seeing the breakdown in my normal process? I continued to the next task, and the next, until all of a sudden I began to smell an absolutely appalling stench. Now you're thinking that this is the point when I'll remember about the beans. Nope. I proceeded to walk around the house trying to figure out where the stink was coming from. I walked through every room, spotting nothing suspicious. I even wandered through the kitchen, looked at the pot ("Oh, yeah. I'm cooking beans.") and continued on my rounds because there was no smoke coming from it. Finally I decided to head outside and see if it was odiferous out there as well. I glanced at the pot and (here is where I finally clue in) wondered if by any chance I had burned my beans. I lifted the lid and whaalaa! Super stink!

After the discovery came the clean up. I dumped the beans, took out the garbage to get the source of the smell out of the house, started de-stinkifying the air with vinegar, cloves, air freshener, etc. As I stood at the sink pondering the possible demise of my most conveniently sized pot, I suddenly remembered that my mother in law uses ketchup to clean the copper bottoms of her pots. I had never personally tried it, but I figured it couldn't hurt. So I scrubbed the crud off the inside of the pot (you can only see a faint outline of where each bean was lying), dried it off and slathered on the ketchup. I let it sit for a few minutes (not as long as I would have if I hadn't just had a very sad experience with multi-tasking) and wiped it off. I was completely astounded. Here is the before and after for those of you who doubt.


I did have to use an SOS pad on the one edge that was completely black (even that was significantly softened), but the rest was all ketchup, no elbow grease required. So for any of you who are considering crispy frying your RevereWare, you might want to keep the ketchup handy.