It's Wednesday: time to splurge on a little something for you.

Grow Your Own Mushroom Garden, $19.95. Cut an opening in the box, mist the soil--made from recycled coffee grounds--twice daily, and within two weeks, you’ll have a pound and a half of oyster mushrooms, ready for stir-frying.

Mattese Elite Happy Hour Nail Polish Collection, $5.99 each. It's cocktail time--for your nails. Paint all 10 with a bright shade that smells like your favorite summer drink. The best part: No hangover.

Tatcha Blotting Papers, $12 for 15 papers. Soak up excess oil with these handmade Japanese blotting papers flecked with gold. Bonus: One sheet is big enough to de-shine your entire face.

TOMS Sunglasses, $135. TOMS shoes now has a sunglasses line as part of their One for One campaign. They donate a pair of eyeglasses for every pair of sunglasses purchased. (We personally love the stripes.)

Although Kung Pao Chicken is known foremost for its spice, it has a vinegary edge too, thanks to the inclusion of something called "zhenjiang xiang cu." I'd love to try making it—if only I knew how to ask for this important ingredient at the Asian grocery store.

Coming to my rescue is the Asian Market Shopper app I just loaded onto my iPhone. The new $3.99 app, created by Asian culinary expert and cookbook author Andrea Nguyen, categorizes 100 of the most commonly used ingredients, from miso to curry pastes to dried kelp, by region: Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. Although many Asian ingredients are available in regular supermarkets these days, Asian markets still carry a wider variety of produce, grains, spices, noodles and condiments—and they're a fun place to explore (where else would you find chestnut rice cake mochi balls?).

Each ingredient in the Asian Market Shopper app, from annatto (the heart-shaped seeds of the evergreen annatto tree, used in Filipino and Vietnamese cooking) to yellow split peas, has a photo, its English name and its Asian name—and with the tap of an icon, Nguyen speaks the ingredient's name in both languages.

You can "favorite" certain ingredients, email them to yourself or a friend, even post them to Facebook or Twitter. The app has 25 recipes (and as you'd expect, any Asian ingredients have links to their specific pages on the app). There are instructional videos too, covering how to rig a steamer, how to clean and break down a crab and other tasks that are easier to grasp when demonstrated.

And zhenjiang xiang cu, in case you're wondering, is an inky, smoky, slightly bitter vinegar made mostly of sticky rice and malt. Besides kung pao dishes, it's also used for dipping northern Chinese dumplings. Thanks to my app, I know that Golden Plum brand is the standard bearer—and I even know to watch out for imposters.

Photo: Thinkstock

Well...not just yet. But in their new study, scientists at New York University's Langone Medical Center discovered how hair goes gray. They found that Wnt signaling (a network of proteins known to control many biological processes in the body) between hair follicles and melanocyte stem cells (color producing cells) can dictate hair pigmentation. A depletion of Wnt signaling in hair follicle stem cells prohibits hair re-growth and prevents the production of hair color--essentially turning it gray.

So what does this mean exactly for the salt and pepper popping up on your head? In an interview with BodyOdd.com, the study's lead researcher, Mayumi Ito, PhD, assistant professor in the Ronald O. Pereleman Department of Dermatology at NYU Langone, said that their findings could help "provide a new target for designing therapies for color loss and restoration." In other words: They could stop your gray hair in its tracks.

While you wait for these therapies and new technology to be developed, however, here are seven makeovers-in-gray to inspire you--plus a few ways to amp up the white and silver hair you've got.

Rather add some color? Try these tricks from our beauty director, Valerie Monroe, for covering up grays (even those stubborn, wiry ones).

Are you jumping for joy at the prospect of stopping grays before they start? Or do you think you look sexiest in silver? Let us know!

Photo: Thinkstock

It's hard to top the drama of a flaming dessert. But an elegant flambé can quickly turn into a fiery blaze. It happened at a Florida restaurant a week ago, when an accident involving bananas Foster injured four people, including a woman whose dress caught fire and resulted in first- and second-degree burns. Home cooks shouldn't shy away from setting food on fire, though—so long as they understand what they're doing. I talked to Sabrina Sexton, a chef instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York, to find out how to safely add a little excitement to fajitas or plum pudding.

Pay attention to what kind of alcohol you use. It should be 80 proof (things below that won't usually ignite).
Most brandy, cognac and rum fit the bill, but not Bacardi 151.

Don't heat the alcohol first. Doing so could make the liquid burst into flames before you want it to. Stick to room temperature.

Next: The importance of using a measuring cup

Every week, we'll be letting you know about new releases the editors at O and Oprah.com couldn't stop reading. On sale today...


Untold Story
By Monica Ali

The question: What if Princess Diana were alive and well and living in small-town America?

Who it's for: Anyone who craves lyrical, lovely fiction with a side of gossip magazine.

Perfect timing: One giant, lavish media event/wedding wasn't enough royal intrigue for the year.

Keep Reading

• The complete review of Untold Story
• 32 books to bring to the beach
• 20 romantic reads to relax with
  

The longest day of the year is, not surprisingly, National Daylight Appreciation Day. You could take the easy way out and simply turn your face toward the sun (after coating it in sunscreen, of course). Or you could challenge the sun to a game of hide-and-seek, with glorious potential rewards. Here are 10 sometimes-underappreciated ways to see the light:

1. Position petals to act like a kaleidoscope 
2. Use the sun's rays as X-rays to peek underwater 
3. Illuminate the intricate details on a butterfly's wing 
   
4. Spot an upside-down sunbeam that spotlights the heavens
   
5. Catch the light sneaking through a bamboo forest 
   
6. Boost the golden intensity of a field of sunflowers 
   
7. Reveal the secrets of a hardworking mother wren 
   
8. Transform sand dunes into abstract art 
   
9. Filter the afternoon rays through your water bottle  
   
10. Romanticize the domestic in your home 
    

Photo: Thinkstock

Stanley Lobel, president of the legendary New York City butcher shop M. Lobel & Sons, describes the most delicious steak this way: "After you eat it, you say, 'Oh my God—I gotta have another one of those!' It's like seeing a great show. You want to see it again." In his more than 50 years in business, Lobel has figured out how to make the steak that keeps people coming back for more.

Yes, buying a quality cut of meat is critical, as is letting it come to room temperature before cooking. Aside from the usual recommendations, though, Lobel has one more crucial step for cooking a juicy, tender steak with an outside that's crusty and crackling, and an inside that melts in your mouth. Most cookbooks and grilling experts suggest rubbing both sides of the steak with kosher salt and pepper, and then searing it over high heat for about three minutes on each side. Lobel concurs, with one important addition.

[Next, the key to steak nirvana]

As of today, I'm no longer going to try to be a better person. For the next decade or two or three, I'm going to work on a life of minor crime. I'll shoplift candy, park in handicapped spaces and sneeze deeply on the salad bar at my local deli. I may even dress up like an exterminator and inform certain, select neighbors that they have bedbugs when they do not actually have them.