sink searching

 

welcome to the dishwasher for dummies class.  no, no, don't get comfortable; we are moving right into the lab portion of the class.  no need for silly books, when this whole thing is literally hands-on. i want you to get the most out of your class this evening.

 

gather 'round.  this rectangle here, this is the sink.  i know most of you have never seen one before because it is usually stacked up with smelly things called "dishes."  the dishes are smelly because they have old food on them.  when you eat food on dishes and plates, but you don't eat all of it, and there are pieces of food and sauces left behind, they rot.  the icky smell is what happens when food rots.  you really want to wash the dishes off before the food rots.  it is healthier for you in the long run and your house will smell nicer.  yes, i promise that will help.

 

now, i have some examples of dirty dishes here, and we are each going to practice different techniques of not only rinsing the food off the dishes, but actually putting the dishes in this magic little box called a dishwasher.  a dishwasher is a machine with special racks to hold dishes that mixes soap and hot water together and throws that soapy water all over the dirty dishes to make them clean and fresh.  no, dear, you can't put the paper ones inside - the dishwasher is for dishes that you *don't* throw away.

 

this is a glass of milk from an hour ago.  this is a glass of milk from three days ago.  see the difference?  let's try to just rinse the glass out.... this one from an hour ago is all rinsed.  now we put it into the dishwasher upside down - i know!  funny, right?  tsk, tsk.  look at this glass of milk from three days ago... ew. nasty smell, and oh, no.  we can't get all the milk out, and oooh, nasty little chunkies are sitting in the sink now.  how did that happen?  the answer is science.  because we let the milk "age," it wanted to become cheese.  we don't want it to become cheese, because none of us are trained cheesemakers and we would make ourselves sick on rotten cheese.  anyway, so this icky milk stuff won't come out.  here we have a special tool.   i want you to think of this tool as your friend.  it is a scrub brush.  these long pointy things will lean on the glass and the milk chunks and when you add some warm water (oooh, more stinky, yes!!)  and a dab of soap, that glass is rinsed out.  now, just because you rubbed some soap and warm water on it, doesn't make it clean yet.  this water isn't nearly hot enough to kill the germs that grew in the milk to make it chunky, so it still has to go in the dishwasher - yay!  upside down! - just like the other one.

 

next we have a bowl of cereal.  or what's left of a bowl of cereal.  we can pour out that milk and oops, a few pieces of cereal are stuck to the side.  here.  you try.  sure, you can use your fingernails.  what else...?  yes!  the scrub brush!  here's an easy one, a plate with sandwich crumbs, just whoosh under the water and it's done.  fabulous.  lastly, i would like to try out this lasagne pan; it doesn't look very nice, does it?  hm.  how exactly do we get this rinsed?  you - the scrub brush!  give it a try.  oh.  hm.  what's that?  it isn't getting clean?  this is baked-on grime and this calls for a little bit of effort.  now we break out the scouring pads or steel wool.  this bad boy will shave the skin from your bones if you aren't careful, so use this sparingly.  see how it takes off the blackened sauce?  well, yes, your fingers are bleeding, but man up please.  if you had washed the dish right away, it wouldn't be this difficult.

 

now, i would like you to take note that we are putting the dishes right into the dishwasher and not stacking them on the counter or leaving them in the sink.  everyone see that?  should your dishwasher fill up, THEN you can temporarily stack some dishes up on the counter, but it should only be until the clean dishes are put away.  they should not linger for days. 

 

now, here is a very important point: once the dishwasher is full, put some special soap - Dishwasher detergent, NOT dish soap!! - in this little cup in the door.  when you put the soap in here and close the lid, it will pop open in the middle of the cycle just exactly at the right time.  so, we have dishes loaded, we have dishwasher detergent, now we have to close the door and... don't forget to TURN ON the dishwasher.  it will make funny slosh sounds while it cleans the dishes.  that is okay.  noise is a good thing.  no noise means you didn't turn it on.

 

it will take about an hour, sometimes more, to wash and steam the dishes.  then you have to take those clean dishes out of the magic dishwasher box and put them away.  not on the counter!!  they go in the cupboards.  it's like a matching game.  find other dishes that look similar and put them on the same shelf.  yay!!  then if you still had dishes stacked on the counter - you betcha! - put them right into the dishwasher when it is empty. 

 

our test will be a practical exam, so come right into the kitchen please...