Everyone I’m related to knows of my deep, abiding love of all office supplies. Sharpies and labels and Post-its – Oh My!
But now I have discovered a whole new obsession in life – Home Depot is the New Office Depot – on steroids.
Since I have been clocking a lot of time in the kitchen for my new book The “What’s for Dinner?” Project I have found a new, invaluable tool for all things culinary – Blue Painter Tape.
While I believe in the classic uses (check out 3M’s great website for some great decorating ideas,) here are six reasons I am now an evangelist of blue tape in the art of cooking:
1. Identification We are big believers in the green bags and storage containers that keep fruit and veggies fresh longer. The only problem? You can’t see what’s in them.
So as I wash and store my fruits and veg, I label the containers with the contents so I know what’s what. I notice that I am more prone to actually cook at home if I actually know what I have lurking in the fridge.
2. Freezer Meal Labels This is also a great technique for labeling your freezer meals. For each batch, I use a different color of tape, so I can tell right away which meals to use up.
3. Use it up or die (of food poisoning) trying My whole family is obsessed with pita pizzas (see my very loose recipe on how to make them here.) They are cheap and yummy and low in fat – a win – win – win.
The only problem? We never knew the vintage of the half-opened marinara sauce containers in our fridge. Now I label anything I open with the date that it was opened (and when you ask why I don’t just write on it with a beloved Sharpie it’s because sometimes it get’s all slippy slidey).
This is not only saving us room in the fridge, I know it’s saving us money. We are not opening up new jars of sauce just because we are unable to identify the age of the three jars that are already opened.
4. Combo Packs OK – don’t laugh. I know this problem doesn’t come up very often – combining slow moving liquids.
But, when you are can’t stand the ANTICIPATION (he he) this is a great way of not having to spend your afternoon waiting for ketchup to drip.
Plus – AGAIN – saving room in the fridge is a beautiful thing. (Obviously, this is a huge issue in my life.)
5. Seal a Meal (or a packet of crispy noodles…) Sealing up opened packages. Not very fancy, but the good thing is you can open it and close it several times and it keeps resealing for a long time.
I’m sorry if it looks tacky (no pun intended) but if it keeps my Chinese noodles nice and crisp – I don’t mind it at all…
6. Posting Recipes (but not on the internet) Finally. If you are like me, one of the main ways I find new recipes is by trolling the internet. I use to stick the recipes up on my fridge with a magnet but the only problem was that the fridge in not located near where I cook. So finally I got smart and taped up the recipes on my cabinet.
I never wanted to do it with masking tape (it can leave goo behind), or packing tape (it can peel paint) but the blue tape is a lot like a Post-it – tape-style.
So – here are my questions for you:
1. Do you have any uses for the magical blue tape that I have yet to discover?
2. Do you have any weird or odd uses for other things in the kitchen when you are cooking? I would love to consider using them in the book…
Photo credit: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Kitchen_g272-Refrigerator_p91061.html
while hanging a picture with two hooks/nails….take a pice of tape, measure it against the two hooks. Then place tape on the wall. Now you’ll have perfectly measured (and straight) nail holes for your picture. I do it every time I hang a picture, shelf, etc.
Like your husband I tend to be “food-phobic” and will toss something out to be safe, rather than assume it’s still good and risk getting food poisoning. Then I got this great app called Still Tasty. Now if I want to know if a food is “still tady” I can look it up in my app and it will tell me how long the food is good for. i.e. The app will say kept refrigerated: 3-5 days; frozen 6 months. I’m learning new foods to freeze and how long I can freeze them before their quality begins to suffer. They also have a feature that alerts you when a food item has expired. It will say “Times up! ” when the item expires. Perhaps your husband may feel more at ease with an app like this when he is faced with a half-opened jar of marinara sauce in the fridge.
I never would’ve thought about using painters tape in the ktichen but these are great ideas.
I also love office supplies. For work, Post-it just sent me a press pack with ALL of their new releases… I’m talking like 15 types of post-its, 20 types of paper, tape, labels, stickers, the works. I have this HUGE box of them and I’m reveling in my newfound office preparedness like it’s Christmas.
Hey Julie –
LOVE the camping idea.
I keep marinara a week after opening (but I have a sneaking suspicion my husband who is food-phobic will throw it out after two days..)
Question: How long can you safely keep opened jars of marinara in the frig? I end up throwing a lot out too, even if it’s not growing things yet.
One other cooking tip not related to blue tape – Our family goes on several camping trips each summer. I don’t want to spend lots of time preparing meals at the campground, so I make extras of our favorite stews or casseroles ahead of time, vacuum seal it with my Foodsaver, freeze, throw in the ice chest and reheat by boiling the bag in a big pot of water. No dirty pots to clean, and we have hot water to wash the silverware with. I even seal/freeze eggs for “omelets” in the morning and boil chicken nuggets or mac-n-cheese for the kids. A little prep ahaed of time makes for a more relaxed camping experience.
I used some to keep cords together in a bundle. Also to lable zipper bags so I’m not writing with the smelly waterproof pen right on the plastic, and so I can use it again after I wash them out.
The problem I had was storing the tape so it didn’t disappear and so grimy hands didn’t transfer stuff to my kitchen use only tape. I put it in it’s own plastic zipper bag in my wrap drawer to keep it clean. It’s working for now.
Blue tape: I use it as a seam guide for sewing. It’s all over my sewing machine and table.
a binder clip with a rubber-band can hang from a cabinet know to hold a recipe,
I clothes pin all open bags in the kitchen cuz I lose the little, bitty, tiny plastic square thingies.
I use the pizza cutter, with a little coating of a pam type product, to cut way more than pizza (smores brownies in particular)
When cooking from a cookbook, I use a small child size skirt hanger to hold the book to the page I want. It holds it open without putting creases in the spine, keeps it at eye level, I hang it on the cabinet knob, and it keeps me from accidentally spilling food all over it.