Cook without washing up

The other day I discovered a bottle of teriyaki marinade at the back of the fridge. It was a month past the best before date. I gave the contents a sniff and contemplated chucking it out. Then I checked the ingredients. The first two were sherry and sugar I think. "Alcohol and sugar doesn't go off," I reasoned. So I used the marinade on a piece of chicken drumstick fillet (cheaper than thigh fillet!).

After I left it to marinate overnight, I had to cook it. I didn't want to cook it in the contact grill (sandwich press type thing). I didn't want to heat up the whole oven just to cook a little chicken fillet. I wasn't keen on cooking it on the stovetop because I'd have to use a lot of oil to keep the sugar from burning and sticking to the pan (which would be so much fun to wash up!).

And then I thought of this:

I tore a little piece of baking paper, and heated up my saucepan. When it was hot enough to cook, I carefully placed the baking paper onto the saucepan (without burning myself) and cooked my chicken on top of it.

Minimal mess, minimal fuss! All I did was give the saucepan a wipe afterwards. Perfect for when you really don't feel like washing up. And you save on using fat here to cook, so you can enjoy your fat elsewhere (e.g. peanut butter ice-cream!!).