Happy Birthday to Me!

First off, a big THANK YOU to Uncle Kevin and Aunt Beth who both gave me Target gift cards for my birthday last month. You guys rock! With the money, I was able to buy some really cool recycling bins (see picture below).




For the last year or so, I've been using kitchen trashcans that I asked for and received off FreeCycle for my "little hobby," as Alex calls it. And while reusing and re-purposing are great, I decided to just go for the new bins--It is my birthday, after all!



I've got six bins now instead of three, so I can separate my clear glass from my brown or green glass. Also, these nifty bins stack. They're shorter so when one or more get full, I can just stash them easily in the trunk of my car and then dump them into the recycle dumpster! No more plastic trash bags to deal with--YAY!


Recycling Help

• earth911.com helps you find recyling centers in your area for everything from aluminum to paint to batteries to electronics.
• The recycling symbol doesn't always mean an item is recyclable. Find out how to tell the difference.

Pumpkin pieces and parts

Don't throw away those pumpkins just yet!

If you're like me, you may have decorated the front porch with pumpkins for the fall. Instead of letting them rot or throwing them out, use those pieces and parts to create something new (and yummy!).

When we scooped out our Halloween jack-o-lanterns two weeks ago, we saved the pumpkin seeds. There are tons of recipes online to roast them with different seasonings, whether you want hot and spicy (which was the natural choice for our "dried dragon boogers"), Italian garlic and herb, or curried seeds.

Tonight we're planning on baking some pumpkin bread using real pumpkin — none of that canned stuff for us! (NOTE: Don't use those old jack-o-lanterns for baking. Rather, you'll want to use some decorative pumpkin that you haven't cut a face into.)

You could also use real pumpkin in your Thanksgiving pies, muffins and cookies. Most recipes can be modified for using real pumpkin — you just have to boil the chunks first and mash 'em up! Mmm, nothing like the real thing, that's for sure!