No, not the stinky 1970s aftershave but spices that have been hanging around the cupboard for a little too long.

You could say that we like spice food. You would be grossly underestimating our adoration of it though.

However, even though it’s not the correct thing to do, we have a tendency to buy spices in bulk because we’re disorganised – and even though we don’t pay that much attention to best before dates, we do notice that over time they become less potent.

So what can we do with them once they’re past their best? At the moment, we’ve got a stash of garam masala (mixed spices), turmeric and cumin (aka jeera) but any suggestions for any old herbs and spices is fine.

(Photo by LotusHead)

A suggestion from vweiss:

What can I do to reuse the little mini-wine bottles? I keep collecting them…hate to throw them even in the recycle bin as they seem practical to use for something?! They are so cute. There must be a creative use for them.

I don’t know whether vweiss means those half-wine bottles (which usually have a screw lid) – if so, that can probably be included with the previous narrow-necked bottles post – or the collectable miniatures, like the ones you get in overpriced mini-bars, but let’s presume the latter.

So any suggestions?

(Photo by wax115)

(Sorry for the missing post yesterday – our internet connection died. Boo.)

Anyway, orange peel. I know large quantities are bad for compost heaps and wormeries because the worms don’t tend to be fond of it (particularly when it’s fresh) but it’s such a shame to just throw it away.

Any suggestions for it or related peelings?

(Photo by canoncan)

Cor, it’s a bit on the warm side, isn’t it?

Aside from an excellent storm last night, it’s been silly-hot (for the UK at least) and sticky. I have very much enjoyed hiding in the house and only venturing out in the evening when it’s all a bit more civilised. My house-bound activities have been:

• peeling myself off the leather sofa (ick)
• cursing my overheating laptop
• and eating ice lollies.

Therefore I now have:

• a rug over the sofa
• a pad between my knee and the laptop
• and a big pile of ice lolly sticks.

My first thought for the sticks was keeping them for labelling up next year’s veg plot but since I have already have a stack of the plastic ones to use up, any other suggestions would be great!

It’s Friday and it’s been a busy week at Recycle This Mansions so we are, I very much suspect, going to be dialling in for food tonight.

We’re lucky that we’ve got a few good pizza places in the vicinity so will be on cheese-highs by bedtime (weee, cheese dreams!) but we’ll wake up remorseful tomorrow, after our binge tonight, because we won’t know what to do with the cardboard pizza boxes that will be covering the living room floor.

We usually just fling them in the cardboard-recycling bin but any other suggestions?