Cooking Class

Mis-en-place (meez ahn plahs) is a French culinary term that means "everything in its place" or preparing tools & pre-measuring ingredients before actual cooking begins. It's a smart way of doing things...what a bummer it would be if half-way through cooking I find out that I only have 1/2 cup of milk when I need 1 cup or if the minced garlic is already browning in the pan but the other ingredients haven't been sliced yet! I can taste the bitterness of the burnt garlic already.

While I'm far from being a French chef, I like to use their kitchen tricks & techniques like the mis-en-place. I use small plastic bowls for both liquid & dry ingredients but I realized that I can use this plastic Bento Box (Japanese lunch box), too!

Once a blah, now a Tada!:

Whether for a soup or stir-fry, these veggies are ready (washed and chopped in uniform sizes) to dive into the pot.

Even if cooking won't take place until evening or later in the week, some ingredients can already be prepared beforehand, stored in the Bento Box, covered with the lid and stored in the fridge until ready to use!

May you have an exciting weekend ahead!

Potluck Pal

When a party invitation indicates "potluck", go ahead and tell your host that you're in charge of appetizers!

Re-use this plastic Bento Box (lunch box) from a recent Japanese take-out dinner, wave your magic chopsticks and say "Tada!"...

Serve a variety of nibbles like chips, nuts, pistachios, dried fruit, cookies and crackers. Add some cheese or a yummy dip to keep your fellow guests happy. The box comes with a cover, making it easy to transport to any party and easily keeps left-overs (if there are any!).

Scrapbook Central

This week we're coming up with ways to recycle a plastic Bento Box (a compartmentalized box used to serve Japanese restaurant meals). Before tossing it into the garbage bin, consider turning this blah into a Tada!:

Turn it into "scrapbook central", the hippest hang-out for all your scrapbooking (or crafting) supplies such as stamps, punches, brads, stickers, ribbon, glue, scissors, pens and glitter sticks. Take another one of these boxes to keep photos, caption sheets printed from a computer and quotes cut from a magazine so you're ready to assemble a page when you find the time. The box comes with a lid so it's easy to close, stack on top of each other and store in a drawer or cabinet.

If all your supplies are neatly organized and you can see all the tools you can work with, inspiration is never far behind!

Kiddie Crafts

Here's another idea to turn a blah plastic Bento Box (Japanese lunch box) into a Tada!:

The compartments are perfect to hold materials for kiddie crafts like these fish-shaped foam boards, smaller foam pieces to decorate the fish and wiggly eyes for a sea-themed afternoon of crafting! Replace with other shapes and materials like stickers and pompoms to occupy little hands on a play date or a rainy day. Use this box to teach them to sort colors and shapes, too.

See you tomorrow for another recycling idea!

Bento Box

If you've ever eaten at a Japanese restaurant, you'll be familiar with the BENTO BOX. It's a beautiful box made of lacquer with Japanese designs painted on it like flowers and fans. It arrives on your table sometimes with its cover on and served on a tray, giving a feeling that you've been presented with a gift. When you open it, it's your entire meal carefully and beautifully arranged!

Another characteristic of the Bento Box is its many compartments, segregating the protein form the carb, fruits, veg and dipping sauces. It has dividers so food don't touch each other. Not that it's a bad thing, but you don't want the sauce seeping into the rice now, would you?

You'll also find Bento Boxes at Japanese fast food restaurants where plastic replaces lacquer. Some of these boxes can even be microwaved for take-away orders. One day, I did just that after craving for a tasty Japanese lunch. My tummy was basking in Japanese heaven but I was left with this blah:

A plastic Bento Box that I cleaned inside & out and turned into:

Tada!...an organizer my jewelry-making hobby!

The compartments neatly hold beads & pearls grouped by type & color. It even has space for necessities like wire, a wire cutter, scissors & string. Then I put on the box cover when I'm not beading so the beads stay in place even if the box gets knocked over.

Have a good & productive week everyone!

Inspiration on a String

How did we blah to Tada! this week?

We turned plastic name tags into things that add organization into our life -- luggage tags on Monday, door signs on Tuesday, a coupon/receipt organizer on Wednesday and a bus/subway pass holder on Thursday. Today we say goodbye to the plastic sleeve and focus on the clips. A forceful tug releases the clip from the plastic sleeve. If you have lots of clips (at least 3), then you can make this:

An instant inspiration board!

It's easy to make: just sew the clips on to a long piece of ribbon &
make a loop on one end so you can hang it from any room or office wall.

Use it to display postcards or birthday cards, photos, pages torn from a magazine, favorite quotes, notes and reminders...anything that will keep you inspired and happy!

This is my final entry to this month's ReadyMade Magazine MacGyver Challenge.

I wish you all a fun-filled Tada! weekend!

A Commuter's Delight

Readymade Magazine's MacGyver section dared me to revamp this blah (plastic name tag) into a Tada!

I summoned what little fashion accessory-making skills I have & picked up some leather scraps from a fabric store.

If MacGyver fancies a Swiss Army Knife, then a glue gun is my weapon of choice. Throw in a pair of scissors and a needle & thread to complete my arsenal.

I worked my design around the "flaps" of the pre-cut leather. I attached one flap onto the other piece using my trusty glue gun.

When flipped over, it looks like a folding case!

I removed the metals clips from two plastic name tags and glued one on each piece of leather. The glue gun will come in handy again, but be very careful because the hot glue can melt the plastic. Another alternative is to use crazy glue.

Then, I inserted a pretty patterned paper on each of the plastic sleeves to hide the glue marks.

Using a template, I traced floral patterns on the remaining piece of leather & cut them out.

I glued on the different sized-flowers on the face of the case...with a glue gun, of course!

I put snap-on buttons (velcro would work well, too) so I can close it.

And look what I've made!

It's a cute case to store my bus pass...no need to take it out of my wallet. All I need is to flash the pass. Subway cards are also welcome to make this their home!