I have finished the cabinet and will have to take a new photo. Some paper goods went down to easily accessed storage, but not my prime kitchen space. Some went out to our camper...maybe i will use it when we are not 'hooked-up' ; but to be honest, I usually have enough reusable dishware to just use it while we are on the road and stack it in the dish pan until we get to water--and if I know we are having several meals, a couple of gallons of water will wash the dishes--there is just plain no excuse for me to waste trees and energy! And that is why I ended up with thousands of disposables.
I have also just put away my first ever bacon 'drippings.' With dreams of seriously reducing our waste, this was an effort. Before we had kids i had one small grocery bag every 2 weeks or so...
My husband was very skeptical when told that soap could be made from it, not sure he wanted to smell like bacon. I saw this idea on Zero Waste Home http://thezerowastehome.com/ a very inspiring site I came across a few days ago and spent last night reading. Sorry that is not a direct link to the bacon comment--although it was really just mentioned that the grease was saved for soap, rather than thrown in the trash. The recipe is rather simple and like the soap-making at Old Sturbridge Village where the fat is mixed with a lye and water mixture.
After a quick search on bacon grease while it was cooling, an amazing number of uses for bacon were revealed--such as pie crust. This site convinced him it was worthwhile http://www.thingsyourgrandmotherknew.com/2008/11/thirteen-uses-for-bacon-grease.html
He was onboard, as we have been talking about simplifying our foods by reducing the amount of processed foods we eat, especially the scary stuff like "shortening," preservatives, and L-cysteine (human hair found in bread--seen yesterday in a Yahoo article-don't have that link handy).
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| bacon drippings |
It is not much bacon grease, and we don't eat too much of it, so one cooking foray should use it up. Should i amass enough to actually make soap, I will be sure to post both the adventure and the outcome here. If this is something you have experience with, please comment, I'd love to hear.
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