I came across the recipe the other day and thought mmm – potato crisps made from potato peelings rather than the potato themselves – the skin contains loads of fibre and it’s usually the tastiest bit of the ‘tato too, so win all around.

Our potato peelings usually end up in the stock box in the freezer – although when we finally get chickens, they might end up in their treat bucket instead (there seems to be some disagreement about whether you can feed chickens raw potato – some say yes, some say no, although everyone says don’t feed them green bits).

What do you do with your potato peelings? They’re a welcome, quick-to-rot-down addition to a compost bin if nothing else. Are there any practical rather than culinary uses for them, like how banana skins can be used to polish leather? I suspect the starchy residue will get in a way for a lot of things but you never know…

So, the reason for this post and it being posted considerably later than usual is the same thing – we had a bonfire night party last night — great fun but it ended somewhat late for a school night. Prior to Wednesday, it had just been a couple of friends coming around to burn things then play Guitar Hero, then it suddenly became a whole bunch of people (including one six week old person) coming around for food and flames. I, unwisely, decided I’d be able to make two soups and two cakes in the hour-and-a-half I had between getting in from the office and people starting to arrive… Not recommended.

Anyway, alongside the soup, sausages and parkin, we cooked a load of jacket potatoes – both normal white potatoes and sweet potatoes – but not all of them were eaten: we’ve got a GIANT sweet potato left over and four medium size white potatoes.

When I’ve been in a similar situation in the past, I’ve tried reheating potatoes in the microwave but it had less than desirable results. Anyone got any techniques for a more successful reheating? Is the oven the answer?

What about other ways to use up the potatoes? If we didn’t already have two lots of leftover soup, I’d possibly use one or two in there. A mash-topped pie might work too. Any other suggestions?

• How can I reuse or recycle bonfire ashes?

I bought a big bag of “reduced for a quick sale” potatoes a few of weeks ago and despite eating a good number of the starchy tubers, there are a few left at the bottom of the bag going quite, quite green.

Potatoes are one of the few things that grow in our clay-y north-facing garden so normally I’d happy plant out old ones and wait for new potatoes to grow in their place but with the weather as it is at the moment, I don’t fancy their chances if it gets suddenly frosty – or my chances of not being blown away and/or drowned while trying to dig a hole for them.

So are there any other things I can do with them instead of planting them out/winging them into the compost bin?

(Photo by lusi)