We’ve had an email from Riann:

I’ve seen you’ve got suggestions for ham bones but what about lamb ones? I can’t think of anything I’d use a lamb stock for! Could I give them to my friend’s dog?

Our dog Lily got rather poorly sick from eating a raw lamb bone last December – but other people seem to feed their dogs all sorts of raw bones without any problems — your friend will probably know how their dog reacts to raw bones. Most people say not to give dogs (or cats) cooked bones though, as they are more likely to splinter.

Lamb stock isn’t as commonly called for as chicken or beef stock as it has such a striking flavour but you could use it in Shepherd’s pies or lamb stews/casseroles or tagines, or to make a gravy for with your next roast lamb joint/chops. (Don’t forget you can freeze stock – condense it first so it doesn’t take up as much space.)

Anyone else got any other suggestions for things to do with lamb stock? Or any other reuses for lamb bones?

We’ve had an email from Simone:

My hubby and I have been homebrewing for a couple of years but our last batch was not nice at all! We’ve got 40 bottles of it but don’t want to drink it ourselves and don’t think it would be fair to force it on others either! Is there anything to be done with it other than pouring it away?

Since I’m obsessed with gardening these days, the first idea that springs to mind is slug traps – they’re not fussy about the quality or taste of the beer. (We’ve not had to use slug traps this year because it’s been too hot and dry for the critters but I’ve used some five years out of date four-for-80p lager for my beer traps in the past and they’ve dived in as if it’s the finest ale of the gods.)

Other ideas may depend on why it’s “not nice at all”. If it’s a problem with the mouthfeel or strength of flavour, you might be able to reuse it for making something like beer bread or in pies/stews.

And if there is a possibility it’s just a matter of taste, perhaps you should try it on some less discerning friends — or if it’s really vile, use it to teach kids not to drink (“this is what all beer tastes like, you should stick to lemonade” “yes mum, it’s horrible” – perhaps an unwise idea from the “smoke a whole box of cigars” school of parenting ;) )

Anyone else got any other ideas?

From one coffee-related post to another. We’ve had an email from Rose about “K-cups”:

I love drinking the various flavors of Keurig coffee, but hate wasting the cups since they can’t be recycled I need suggestions on what to do. Kids crafts would be great since I have 2 little ones.

I hadn’t heard of “K cups” or “Keurig coffee” before but Wikipedia tells me they’re a bit like a Nespresso machine – single use pods of coffee. As with the Nespresso ones, there are a few how-tos out there on refilling the cups to reuse them again.

As far as I can see (someone please correct me if I’m wrong), the bottom of the cup is pierced during the coffee making process so that might get in the way of some reuses. From pictures on Google (btw, don’t Google Image search “k cup” unless you like pictures of boobies), I think they’re about 4-5cm in diameter and about the same tall.

I’ve got a bit of a one track mind at the moment so can’t think of anything else other than using them for growing seedlings.

Anyone else got any better suggestions? Especially kid-craft ones as Rose requested?

I had one of those “it’s amazing how things mount up” moments the other day when I opened our tea & coffee cupboard and was confronted with this:

They’re all empty, flattened out version of these:

John likes his coffee.

To be fair, he does prefer quality rather than quantity and these represents many many months of coffee consumption but still, it’s a lot of plastic.

Some details of the bags. They’ve got a zip lock closing at the top – but also a “breathing” pore so aren’t actually water or air tight. They’ve got a gusset bottom (as you can see from the second picture). They’re about 20cm/8ins square. They smell very strongly of coffee. They’re very, very red.

One idea I had was to make a shopping bag along the lines of this one (which uses cat food pouches). Or using the same patchwork principle to make a storage box for all John’s coffee paraphernalia.

(I’m also going to contact the coffee company to see if they have any recycling advice.)

Any other suggestions for reusing or upcycling them?

We’ve had an email from Aimee:

Do you know if there is any use for out of date chocolate?

I guess it depends quite how out of date it is. Chocolate tends to have a “best before” date (rather than a “use by”) and it is often fine to eat for a good while after that. In my experience, cheap chocolate goes off – tastes funny and gets white spots – far quicker than better quality stuff, so if it was nice chocolate to start with, I would definitely try eating it.

If it is past the enjoyably-edible stage though, I’m not sure what I’d do with it. Chocolate-scented soaps or candles aren’t usually made with chocolate – they either use cocoa butter or a chocolate fragrance – so that’s not an option.

I personally wouldn’t want to compost it – it would compost but I’d worry about it attracting undesirable vermin to the heap in the meantime or would be snaffled by our dog who likes routing around in there (and smells delightful after doing so). Other people may compost it though – especially people with sealed bins and less greedy/nosey dogs.

Can you think of any reuses?