Tips to Take Care of Your Jewellery

If you are trying hard to keep your family jewellery and other special precious beautiful items safe, this post is aimed at helping you to do it better and smarter this year. Even if you have your grandmother's ring or your precious gemmstones you wanna give to your children one day, or only some tableware which you are using every day, I am happy to share some of my family tips or the results of some month-long research about this topic.

- Insure your Jewellery

You may live in the safest country in the world and have the high-tech home security system at home, but it is never 100% sure that you will never ever be the victim of a burglary. The more impressive your jewellery collection is the more pressing the need to insure your precious goods because all can just go in a minute...

- Ask an Expert

It is always very important that you have your own expert - or two - which are always there for you to help you fix some complicated issues regarding your jewellery or gemstones. The more diverse the portfolio the more relevant the need to have a regular contact with such a specialist that can guide you not only when there is a serious damage or reparation need, but also for the regular maintenance of your treasure.

- Mind the Special Storage Requirements

Until you find the expert, you may need to know that each special meal and gemstone require special storage conditions. For instance, pearls and diamonds need some moist temperature. Silver, in order to be have a minimal contact with air, should be kept in an aluminium cover. Also, each metal and gemstone should stay together in special containers and boxes - the fact that a ring is delivered in a small box is not only for aesthetic reasons...

- Clean Regularly

Being the owner of precious stones and jewellery means that you need to put aside some additional time to deal with the regular maintenance of your treasure. Some of them - silver tableware and Judaica - need to be polished at least every month. In my family, the popular wisdom which actually worked very well was to use for cleaning the silver either toothpaste or some cigarettes ashes. The results were always perfect, but nowadays there are so many smart solutions that you can use...

Many gemstones need to be cleaned with warm water and a special brush - by default, you can use a soft tooth brush as well.

Use a clean cloth for shining your gold or silver at least every couple of weeks. 

- Avoid Contact with Chemicals

The role of the expert is also to recommend what are the best solutions for cleaning your specific piece of jewellery. In any case, there are a couple of chemical substances - like hair care, nail polish, paints - which are death enemies to your jewellery. Therefore, the need to always keep your jewellery in a space where the contact with such substance is avoided. 

- Take them Off when in the Kitchen or at Sports

Besides the fact that you can easily lose them when in the middle of various adrenaline-boosting activities, the sweat is also an enemy of some metals. When in the kitchen, you should avoid the contact with various liquids - vinegar can be the good friend for some, but the enemy for the others. When you know that you are supposed to get involved in such activities, you better keep your jewellery in their safe while enjoying your hobbys. 

What about you? What are your best tips for high maintenance of your jewellery? Can't wait to read them...

How to choose and take care of your knives

Photo taken at the KaDeWe store in Berlin

When I attended my first cooking class, two of the participants come with their own knives, carefully packed in elegant etuis. They explained that they can only cut the vegetables for preparing the dishes required for the class with their own knives as they are not only used with, but they are high-quality expensive items that are used to and need for outperforming the recipes. 

Later on, I faced myself the need of better knives, when had to cut veggies or meat in specific ways, particularly when it comes to small amounts for salads. 

Buying a knife or specific knives for specific kitchen chores as I would find out later as my kitchen experience advanced. 

Altough I accumulated a lot of knowledge about the choices, I am still far away from acquiring that dexterity of cutting at high speed and with special movements of the wrist. As for now, I am ready to share some of my knife tips for a better cook and awesome recipes:

- The knife should always be very sharp, thus, you need to sharpen it regularly. In order to evaluate the sharpness, you need to try slicing through a sheet of paper.

- One needs to clean the knife immediately after using. The rests of foods left on the metal can create corrosion which destroys it. It is also recommended to keep them in the special knifeblock, where the blade is fully protected.

- No compromise should be done regarding the quality. As in the case of everything, the cheaper you buy the lower the quality and, therefore, the results. 

- For every special kind of cooking, there are special knives - for vegetables, fish, meat etc. You may need a separate knife for slicing, dicing, chopping, mincing, bread, or for preparing your favourite sushi or sashimi. There are also special knives to slice squash, carve a melon, dice an onion or garlic or mince parsley. Thus, when you are looking for one, keep in mind to specify what is the destination of it. Used wrong, it can either destroy the knive or your recipe. Or both.

- When buying a knife, it is important to have the opportunity to see it and eventually, do some little exercises with it. Thus, it is not recommended to buy it online, as in this case you don't have the occasion to fully experience the handle and the object as such. You shall have the opportunity to weights it in your hands, balance it in the palm

- When you choose a knife, you need to find the right for you. The chef's knife should be like a dance partner, the natural extension of the hand, coordinating the movements and together following the recipe directions. 

- The normal size is of 8' inch. The 10-inch size can cute more volume but may look a bit intimidating. The weight of the knife depends of the user, as it should allow the hand to freely move and has the full ability to move and perform the kitchen duties.

- All the elements of the knife should be considered when shopping for one. For instance, the bolster - the meeting point between the blade and the handle. It is an element of stability and strength to the knife. The models with partial and no-bolster can sharpen the full length of the items. The heel is the broadest and thickest part of the edge, whose performance has effect on the level of precision. It helps, for example, to cut throughout the winter squash or the poultry. 

- One of the most famous trademarks of knives are the Japanese ones - particularly recommended for the fish, sushi or sashimi preparation and the German ones (Messermeister, Trizor and Wüsthof being one of the most appreciated brands).

What about you, what are your best tips for the perfect knife?

Efficient ways to fight the fruit flies

Source: Google www.domyownpestcontrol.com
No, you don't want this at home!

Fruit flies! Who doesn't know them? The little disgusting winged rascals that are infesting your kitchen and made you cry of shame when they appear in the soup of your special guest during what would have been a very romantic lunch...

The main issue with them is that they appear when you expect less and don't want to leave you any time soon. With a high rate of reproduction - 500 eggs at a time - get ready for the fight as soon as possible. Thus, the sooner you fight them, the better for your home sanity.

As usual, preventive steps can help a lot and here are some hints about what you can do before your private space is invaded by little nasty black flies:

- Check your fruit counters as often as possible. Avocados, onions and potatoes are the main source of flies. In general, any fruits or vegetables left outside the fridge for a long time might create flies so keep checking their counter as often as possible.

- Keep your house clean. It might be difficult if you have a steady job and a family and you also want some days out. But, try also to have at least 10 minutes the day for a basic cleaning of the kitchen especially. We are living in the modern world and everything can be done fast, thanks to advanced mops and cleaning substances. If you have a regular cleaning lady, things are getting much simpler. 

- Damp and unclean sinks also encourage the multiplication of flies. 

The flies are in! Many of them! What to do?

Here are a couple of ideas about what to do - except to leave your house for a long time - when you are about to cope with many many flies around your home - and especially food:

- If you haven't done yet, do a radical cleaning of the house: those lost dirty corners, the spots of juice, the old bottles and glasses of red sweet wine, the mountains of laundry that you simply forgot about to get rid of weeks ago. Clean the recycle bins, sinks and rooms of the children. Check the bags and get rid of the old bottles. You might need some extra hours of work, but this is the price to pay when you don't do too much prevention work in the kitchen...I went through that too...

- Keep all the fruits and vegetables - and food in general - covered and preferably in the fridge. Don't leave any juice and glasses with liquids unattended, especially during the night.~

- Wash all the dishes immediately. The more you leave them in the sink, the more the flies will be delighted. And you don't want to please them, isn't it?

- Take your trash daily.

- Change the mops, dishrags and sponges. The dirt accumulated is a medium of multiplication for the little beasts. 

-  There are a lot of products on the market that can help you to kill them in numbers, and each country do have its own. Peppermint extract and aerosol insecticides are the most frequent. Ask your local drugstore specialist about the best ones.

- You can also produce your own lemon grass spray, based on lemon grass essential oil and hot water, by using spray bottle to dispense it.

- The most frequent remedy mentioned is the vinegar trap: Add at cup of vinegar apple - preferably heated - in a bowl. They will not resist the call and it is the end of them. Some also add a ripped fruit in a jar, covered by a paper cone through which the flies will hurry up to go one by one to their death. 

- Another trap recipe might include: sugar, honey syrup and a rotting fruit. It seems it will attract them similarly with the other traps. 

Now, time to get back in the kitchen and fight the flies for good! Good luck with that!