The Joy of Washing Dishes

Call me weird, but I’ve come to enjoy washing dishes by hand. There is something about it that is calming, soothing. Of course, this is only as long as I do them daily. If I take a couple days off and have a horrendous pile of unorganized, dried on food-gunked dishes, pans, silverware laced with egg yolk from 2 mornings ago and glasses that have the distinct white spotty bottoms of unrinsed milk, the calming aspect is replaced by dread.

I attribute the fact that some of the joy of doing the dishes comes from the window above the sink that looks out onto the backyard. During the spring and summer, and even most of the fall, there are a plethora of flowers in bloom, bringing out even more varieties of birds than the finches, swallows and robins that call our backyard home all year. And of course, the girls are usually free-ranging during the day. The girls would be our chickens, as I refer to them most of the time, even though our other two pets are also girls, they really aren’t the outdoorsy types.

I try to keep the dishes somewhat organized after using them too, but when you do them daily, it isn’t too difficult to begin the separation process right before washing. Of course, the first thing I do is put away the clean, dry dishes from the rack and two cooling racks I use for drying. So, while the water is running to get as hot as it will go, I stack the plates, stack the bowls, cluster the glasses and mugs, stack the pans on the stove (I don’t have a whole lotta room to work with, so that is usually where they end up), and either put the silverware in a mixing bowl or colander if I used one, or just pile them on the counter next to the plates. I plunge the stopper into the right side of our double sink, put the stack of plates in, and squeeze some dish soap onto them, allowing the water to begin turning the soap to foam until there is about 2 inches of water in the sink. The higher the soap to water ratio is, the easier it is to clean the dishes.

Now, we have a double sink, nice and deep and perfect for hand washing dishes as each are the same size and depth. So after washing the plates using my trusty bar mop dish rags, I restack them into the left sink basin. When the plates are done, I put the glasses and mugs in the soapy sink, rinse the plates and put them in the rack to dry. After the glasses are washed and rinsed, I put them on one of the cooling racks (you know, the things that normal people use to cool cookies on) to dry. Next are bowls, going into the rack, silverware going into the rack in the specialized draining cup, and pans, either in the rack for sauté and fry pans, or on the cooling rack for soup and stock pots if they won’t fit in the dish rack.

Of course, there are always some exceptions. Cast iron skillets are only rinsed in water when needed, as soap will wash away the seasoning that coats the pan. I rarely rinse mine any more, and have found that if there is any food stuck on them, I just use a few tablespoons of coarse kosher salt and a paper towel to pry the food particles off, making sure to rub a little more vegetable oil all over the pan before putting it away. Stoneware, such as that from Pampered Chef, is another rinse only. Getting soap onto stoneware will cause it to give off a foul odor when cooked that will leach into the food, as the soap works its way into the porous material and is impossible to completely rinse out. I’ve never had a problem with any of my stoneware not coming clean with just a little water, and my pizza stone is so seasoned, I just use a little plastic scraper to take off any stray cheese that may have fallen onto it while baking. Of course, I leave mine on the bottom rack of the oven at all times unless I’m broiling something, in which case I remove it to prevent it from cracking under the intense heat. Pampered Chef tells you not to do this, but I’ve had ours in the oven for years, and I honestly think it helps to regulate the heat, resulting in better baked goods. Just saying, this is my opinion. Also, I usually don’t air dry my stoneware, but turn the oven on to 350ºF before doing the dishes to allow it to preheat, and put them in, turn the heat off, and leave them in for 10-20 minutes before taking them out to cool and put away.

I have found that daily routines make things go by faster, and some days, I completely forget that I’ve even done the dishes at all. Now, if only I could routinely vacuum the floors…