Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

[accentphoto]

This one is about should I tell her or just let it go :facepalm:.

My wife is an avid germ freak and if something got dirty with something it was not intended to touch ... pitch it.

Now my dilemma ...

I was cleaning three carbs with carb cleaner on a Mercury restoration project and I noticed that my ten year old needed to be needed to be picked up from school so instead of leaving the carbs in the cleaner too long I decided that I should remove them and rinse them off (or should I say boil them off).

Now my wife has no idea how much a carb cost to replace and even if she did she would not get how harmless what I did was but here we go.

How I like to cook my carbs:

In that rush I mentioned, I decided the fastest thing to do was to grab the closest deep pot (for those of you who cook it was my deep pasta cooking Caphalon pot (estimated value $60.00), add 2/3rds of hot sink water, crank the burner on high and wait a few minutes for it to start boiling.

Then (like boiling crabs) quickly immerse the carbs in the boiling water (burner off at this point) and move them around with some good tongs for a couple of minutes.

Once the desired rinsing of the carb cleaner is obtained (I noticed a color change on the carbs) I pull the carbs out and sit them on a heat safe spot.

Dry them off, try not to burn yourself and admire your wonderful work while you can as the happiness will soon leave.

Promptly wash out the fine cookware as fast as you can using a strong dish detergent thats made to remove olive oils, steak fats, cooking grease and carb dip cleaner. I prefer Dawn and Ajax for my weapons of choice. Wash, rinse, wash again, look for signs of dirty finger prints from pulling the lower unit, sniff the pot, sniff again and finally put it back where you found it.

Now this has been a few days in passing, I have not told my wife and I am awaiting for her fine senses to ask me "why does the pasta taste funny?". So I am not sure if I should tell her ... just say "huh? ... tell her its her imagination and immediately excuse myself to go out to my dog house .

Any good excuses out there? Advice? I really love her but I also love the pan. Yes, I realize I should have made a different choice but at the time it was about the 10 year old or the carbs. I chose the 10 year old. Maybe on my death bed my last words will be ... "remember your favorite pasta pot ..." and then I fade away before the final last words ...

 

[HollaGeo]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

Take your wife to a psychologist.

 

[Don S]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

To be quite honest, you went off the deep end.
Remove carbs from cleaner. but in any old bucket of cold water. Pickup son from school. Come back and resume project when you have time to do it.
And what is with boiling the carbs ???? What was you planning on doing if you didn't have to pick him up from school?????
The normal method of carb cleaning is soak in carb cleaner, rinse in water, and blow out with compressed air.
What's with the sudden urge to boil the carbs. That is just a figure of speech you know.

Sorry HollaGeo, I think you picked the wrong one.

 

[Randy J]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

beginning ta think the boy's whipped??lolo

 

[DECK SWABBER 58]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

To be quite honest, you went off the deep end.
Remove carbs from cleaner. but in any old bucket of cold water. Pickup son from school. Come back and resume project when you have time to do it.
And what is with boiling the carbs ???? What was you planning on doing if you didn't have to pick him up from school?????
The normal method of carb cleaning is soak in carb cleaner, rinse in water, and blow out with compressed air.
What's with the sudden urge to boil the carbs. That is just a figure of speech you know.

Sorry HollaGeo, I think you picked the wrong one.

My thoughts exactly.

It won't work. When I was in high school I changed the oil in Mom's car with her turkey roasting pan, (that dark blue stuff with the little white dots for you old farts). I scrubbed the heck out of it and put it back in the closet. The next holiday was not pleasant for me at all. :facepalm: Two years ago my brother and I we're cleaning out the house after she passed away and came across that old turkey roaster and had a good laugh.

Of course what you did is a little different than motor oil. Cross your fingers and toe's.
Does she have a sense of humor?

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

If it was/is a straight steel or stainless steel pot, I'm sure it's OK. If it's aluminum or teflon coated, it's now garage material for you to use only. The softer porous metals absorb the contaminants of the carbs and carb cleaner and I'm pretty sure there is a message on the label somewhere that says it's not supposed to be mistaken as food. I wouldn't risk my family's health after that. Aluminum or teflon coated? Tell her how much you love her and you bought her new cookware to prove it.

 

[accentphoto]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

Well, yes I am whipped and proud of it but I do wear the pants around the house. I think I have a duplicate looking pot in the attic. Probably going to get it down tomorrow but normally I do not worry about contaminating things to the point of health issues. Normally, if it cleans up well and I can burn it off before the next use I am doing okay. As far as boiling the carbs, thats what we always did when we hot vatted carbs. The carbs used to have a weathered look but now they look really nice. Thanks for going along with a sense of humor Deck Swabber as this was supposed to be an entertaining story. I am sure to get flamed now but for whats its worth the pot looks normal, smells normal and was used to boil water to clean it and I also did a dry heat (but not to warp) and I will eat out of it any day with no worries. I have worked in the photo industry for years and believe me when the customers were yelling for their prints and your processor ate some paper that the tongs wouldn't reach you would just reach into the chemicals to get the job done. Yes I did that one too many times but I grew up in a time when things seemed more innocent and then you find out in the later years its not good for you ... like accidentally getting some mercury in your mouth (no I didn't swallow it and I'm still alive). As far as my wife goes ... she's a hottie to me and I do my best to keep her happy (sorry no photos are going to be posted ).

 

[accentphoto]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

Oops ... I almost forgot ... Don S, the son at school was supposed to be picked up by the 19yo son but he backed out at the last minute and put me on the spot. I wanted to clean it MY way as I did. Call me anal but I like to clean things to their fullest. If my ultrasonic vibratory cleaner were only a little deeper then they would have gone in it. One day I will get a bigger ultrasonic unit. Those things really do the job well. Carb passages can be a real bear. Especially on the parts that you can't see, feel or really check to see if its open or not. Thinking about taking the pot back to the gun range and putting a .308 thru it to make everyone happy ... or maybe I will just keep it for a dedicated carb cleaner for the future ... only time will tell.

 

[fireman57]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

Wow! I wish I had those problems, a clean pot to eat out of, a trophy wife, clean carbs, and a .308. I have three grain trucks of logs that need to be cut and split into firewood for this winter, a 35hp evin that needs a water pump replaced, my shop has to get cleaned out because I can't move in it, and I only have TWO cold 30 packs of beer to do it with.

 

[roscoe]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

My wife is an avid germ freak and if something got dirty with something it was not intended to touch ... pitch it.



There's no germs in carb cleaner or boiling water, so whats the problem?

Keep your mouth shut.

 

[accentphoto]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

Well talk about shops full of unorganized crap ... you should see my 24x60 that only has a narrow three foot pass to walk thru. If I could only afford the darn spray foam insulation I could get the two pallets of sheetrock up and finally start putting things in its "rest of MY life" place. I poured the concrete almost 12 years ago and just put up the building two years ago. Funny how quickly if filled up. Love my .308 ... mint M1 Garand from WW2 / Korea which was US Army arsenal refinished back to new. My lower unit is still out and awaiting its rebuild. Currently only have a 24 pack of HOT beer (sad sad sad) as my brother the 35 year alcoholic has been living in my garage for the past couple of months (only been sober 6 months in all of those years). Trying to get the boat going to help reunite our brotherhood as I have only seen him twice and each time was twelve years apart. Just got him to a clinic and he has some pills to try to get over the alcohol (probably get addicted to that). By the way ... my beer is safe as he HATES beer. Its not as fulfilling as his 1.5 gallons of Rum a week.

hey Roscoe ... keeping my mouth shut. Now I hope she doesn't Google something and find this forum ... hahaha ... lol ... really ... it happens.

 

[accentphoto]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

roscoe you got me thinking ... today my son started a clearing of his throat at around 4pm. My wife got home by 4:30 and heard it. Now he "has an allergy", "the house needs to be cleaned"(just did that three days ago) and now he's on rounds of "antihistamine syrup". Normally I would put my foot waaaaaayyy down but this the second marriage and I got three more with this one (got two with the first one). I keep telling her she's ruining them by not making them men. Let them grow up, learn from their mistakes and make them GET OUTSIDE!

 

[Triton II]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

Now I hope she doesn't Google something and find this forum ... hahaha ... lol ... really ... it happens.

Fingers and toes crossed for you mate!

TII

 

[accentphoto]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

Cheers TII ... appreciate the support from "the land down under". You gotta love the internet. I ordered my 1979 Fiat non-US dual carbs and intake from a Aussie parts dealer. Shipping time was great!

 

[Cofe]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

You could turn this thing around and make your wife proud of you. Here's how....
Open the dishwasher, load it with pans, especially your duel duty carb pan....(By the way, doesn't pasta contain carbs anyhow?.....) anywho add some Clorox to the dishwasher, to help sanitize the utensils. Your wife will see and smell the now sanitized situation, and admire you for your war on germs.......Good Luck

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

If you don't tell your wife what you did and she finds out, your dead meat. If you do tell her, she'll never touch that pot again.

Solution: Go buy a brand new pot just like the one that has just become your permanent carb boiling pot. Present the new one to her, with your explanation. She's still going to be ticked off, but she just might forgive you in a week or two.


BTW, do you use crab boil on your carbs? If so, hopefully it Zaitairan's!

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

my opinion...

Don't tell her. She'll freak out even though it's not a big deal.. My wife is now used to me using the dishes for cars.

She asked me one where her glass casserole baking pan was.. I said filled with transmission fluid now.... She just rolls her eyes at me now. Clean it out and she'll never know. If she does find out tell her the "I thought I told you bit".

In a case like this, it's better to ask for forgiveness then for permission.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

today my son started a clearing of his throat at around 4pm. My wife got home by 4:30 and heard it. Now he "has an allergy", "the house needs to be cleaned"(just did that three days ago) and now he's on rounds of "antihistamine syrup".

Unfortunately it was right here where this thread went from amusing to sad. Your wife has a behavioral health issue and now it's negatively affecting your son.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

Unfortunately it was right here where this thread went from amusing to sad. Your wife has a behavioral health issue and now it's negatively affecting your son.

+1. Therapy is in order. Now, to the question you actually asked; rotate the pot out of the kitchen and into your shop and replace it with an identical one sans toxic chemicals that have become imbedded in the pores of the coating and will leech into your pasta over time. As Cofe said, the Vermicelli has enough carbs already.

 

[accentphoto]

Re: Marriage advice needed for my recipe for disaster

Well she did mention a marriage counselor once ... I told her to go ahead as it would be good for her but I don't think she got it :facepalm:

Yep, I am old school. Get outside, get your hands dirty and try to fix things yourself if you have the basics of good common sense (mechanically speaking too).

I got lucky today ... in many ways ... I was going to go to an mini-storage auction but it turned out to be complete units only so instead of turning the trailer around I decided to go to the scrap yard first, habitat for humanity next and then a couple of Goodwill or GCF type of stores in my area. Here is the order of a good day for me:

1. Bought a 4'x8'x1/16" new sheet of aluminum for $18.00
2. Bought 10yo a electronic lab kit and he actually turned off the TV to READ and do it!
3. Besides getting my other sons license plate and inspection done it was a good day!
4. I forgot to mention the 10 letters from the state tax office :facepalm: (could have been worse ... it could have been 11)

At the scrap yard I eyed a many tall pots there ... stainless and aluminum but the next one will be stainless. They sell me that stuff for a buck a pound. Not bad.