We’ve had an email from Katy Duvall:

I was cleaning out my cupboards yesterday and found forgotten nearly full bottle of soy sauce. It was so forgotten about that it went out of date nearly two years ago! My boyf thinks we should just bin it but it’s such a big bottle that I’d rather not. Any ideas?

I’m always skeptical of dates on condiments – or rather I forget to check them and find we’ve been using the same jar of mustard for about three years – so if it looked ok, I’d be tempted to use it anyway – but any other suggestions?

I wonder if dark soy can be used for dyeing/staining purposes… At the moment, I can only think of using it to “antique” paper for making ye olde treasure maps but I wonder if it can be used on wood or the like too. Anyone know?

I was sorting through a kitchen cupboard the other day and found three half bottles of food colouring from the days when I used to make colourful icing for cakes (mmm, sugar and E numbers).

All three – the faux-primary colours of red, yellow and blue – have gone past the “best before” date on their lids but even not taking that into consideration, I’m unlikely to use them for their intended purpose in the near future since I’ve stopped baking that type of cake and I get my E numbers through large quantities of orange squash these days.

So what else can I use them for? I’m tempted to try them for dying fabric but suspect the colour would just run with water – is that the case? What about other use as other dyes such as in paint?

A couple of months ago, John read something about how poisonous Teflon is when it gets scratched and starts flaking – and immediately our two old frying pans were cast from the pan cupboard onto, well, the dining table where they’ve sat for the in-between weeks waiting for me to take a photo of them for use on here. I’m not the promptest girl in the world.

Researching it now, I can’t find anything to support the poisonous claim – most sources say flakes will pass through the body without being absorbed but super-heated (237°C – the sort of hot hot heat you might use to fry up a thick steak) Teflon can give off dangerous fumes (particularly for birds in the vicinity – so no more letting the budgie cook up bacon unsupervised).

Either way though, these frying pans are a pain to cook with in their current state given they’re half non-stick, half-stick. So any suggestions for bringing them back to life? (Is wire-wooling off the remain Teflon an idea?)

And failing that, reuses? recycling suggestions?

For my birthday last year, my friend Katherine bought me some little organic jams and chutneys in sample size jars. They were yummy. Even the cat agreed.

But now we’ve got the little jam jars left over. We’ve also got a couple of those hotel-breakfast-room ones lying around too.

The glass could be recycled in the usual way but I’d try to re-use them if possible. Any suggestions that could utilise their tiny proportions to full advantage? The range from being about 2cm (an inch) in height and diameter, to the hexagonal ones that Sili is sniffing (about 4cm tall by 2cm wide).

We’ve had an email from Hannah Phillips asking if anyone has any ideas on how to recycle old water filter cartridges.

Hannah started using water filters because she thought it would be less wasteful than buying bottled water – less plastic etc – but now has the cartridges to dispose of instead.

Brita brand filters (which seem to be one of the most prominent in the UK as far as I’ve seen) say all their cartridges can be recycled but what about other brands?

And how about reusing them rather than sending them in for recycling?

(Photo by jan-willem)