Waste Not

I just found an article about clever uses for food scraps. My favorite suggestion was saving bits and pieces of things for making stock. Have a bag or three in your freezer dedicated to these pieces. When you collect enough, make stock. I think using animal bones for stock is common, but the ideas that caught my attention were making vegetable stock out of the ends of carrots, celery leaves, parsley stems, etc and making seafood stock out of vegetable bits and discarded shrimp tails, mussel shells and the like.

I also really liked the idea of freezing citrus rinds so that when you need some zest, you don’t have to mess up the whole fruit!

To-Go Ware

I recently had the idea that I should put some cutlery in my car or bag to use on the rare occasion that I have take-out…or on the much more frequent occasion that I buy delicious yogurt grocery shopping and can’t wait until I get home. This is a good solution for my lifestyle, but if you don’t want silverware weighing down your bag or picnic basket, check out these bamboo sets from To-Go Ware. Here are some of my favorite excerpts from the FAQ:

“Bamboo is extremely durable and can withstand a great deal of use without damage. It’s stronger even than oak, and when laminated, bamboo is nearly as strong as soft steel.”

“Bamboo is not a tree — it’s a grass, and it grows like one. Many species of bamboo can grow two feet or more a day. When it’s harvested, it need not be replanted, because it will grow a new shoot from its extensive root system. So bamboo renews itself readily, unlike hardwood trees, which, once cut, are gone forever. Bamboo is an endlessly renewable resource.”