Kitchen Tip Tuesday

My kitchen tip today is about microwave cleaning.

The microwave used to be my only kitchen tool. Now, its mostly used for melting and rewarming. Sometime, leftovers will get too warm and they'll pop all over the place or even explode. Plus, microwaves can get a funky smell in them. Heres what I do:

I take a damp cloth, dab a little lemon juice on it, and cook it for 3 minutes. The cloth will be really HOT, so use a tongs or something to remove it. Shut the door so all the steam stays in, and let the cloth cool on the counter enough so you can use it. The steam from the warm wet rag loosens all the dried crud from the microwave and the lemon juice makes it smell clean. Wipe out the microwave with the same rag.

Also I'll share something I learned the hard way. DO NOT spray the rag with cleaner and get it hot. Most cleaners will say on the bottle not to heat it up. When heated, a cleaner will turn into fumes. I'm sure it could even catch on fire. Thankfully, my husband was there.