How to shine your silver without silver polish

I'm not a huge jewelry person. Most of the jewelry I own was gifted to me. I'm a pretty low maintenance person in general, so I don't really think about what kind of jewelry I should wear too often. If I wear jewelry, I'll usually keep wearing the same piece for a while. Since it's summer, I have toe rings that I'll wear most days (usually don't take them off unless I have to put on shoes that render wearing toe rings uncomfortable, including my rock climbing shoes). I have a couple of rings that I'll wear consistently too, although recently I haven't been wearing them as much because I'll take them off to go rock climbing (I don't like the way my skin gets pinched by the rings) and forget to put them back on. I also own a few nice earrings given to me by friends and my mom (although I tend to lose one pretty easily), but if I do wear earrings, I'll usually wear cheap ones I get at Forever21/St. Mark's/H&M because then if I lose them, I don't feel so bad.

Anyway, one piece of jewelry that I have on almost all the time is my Tiffany's Elsa Peretti cross. Two of my friends gave it to me for my 16th birthday, and I like it not only for its religious symbolism (I'm Christian) but also because it's a simple, elegant design. I just checked the price -- it's now $150. I'm pretty sure when I received it (over 12 years ago), it was half that price. Oh, inflation and luxury goods companies artificially inflating the price of their goods...

It's silver, so it tarnishes. One thing that stuck with me from my fourth grade teacher, Mr. Black, was the lesson that you can use toothpaste to polish silver. Amazing, right?

OK, maybe not, but if you don't feel like going to the store to buy silver polish, you can just take some toothpaste, smear a lot of it on the silver, rub it around, and rinse it off. I took an old toothbrush and scrubbed at it, which is probably NOT good for the silver, but definitely got the job done quickly. I took the above photo with my iPhone camera, using the ToyCamera app on the High Contrast B/W setting to get the above effect. Now my necklace is nice and shiny!

Korean BBQ recipe

one thing that i've learned to cook from a korean food cookbook called "A Korean Mother's Cooking Notes" is korean bbq. the recipe is specifically for bulgogi but you can use the same sauce for kalbi. it seems to have almost universal appeal -- my friends are always asking me to make it for them. therefore, i've decided to post the recipe. it's very easy to make, you just have to taste the marinade before you put the meat in it and make sure the flavor is right.

for 1 lb sliced meat

3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp wine
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp chopped green onions
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp sesame salt (i never use this)

combine ingredients above in a bowl -- this is the marinade. not sure if you prefer bulgogi (thin sliced meat) or kalbi (ribs) but the sauce is the same. cut the meat into small pieces and put it in the marinade and smoosh it around so the sauce soaks into the meat. you can leave it in as long as overnight or you can cook it pretty much right away, but obviously the longer you leave the marinade in the more flavor you'll get.

grill or broil. i like to cook my meat with mushrooms to add a vegetable component -- it's a nice complement.

enjoy!