La Tartine Gourmande is my newest blog obsession. I'd been following her flickr for a couple of months and just recently (as in maybe a couple of weeks ago) started to read her website. Her post about râpés had me drooling so I decided to shrink them down into finger food for new year's eve/day. Unfortunately, they didn't turn out as crispy as I'd hoped (apparently I hadn't drained enough water from the grated veggies) and I kind of over nutmeg'd the whole thing (whoops). Still, topped with crème fraiche, green onions and either some bacon or a slice of smoked salmon they were reasonably edible. I'm going to give it another shot someday, and I promise they'll be better!

You can see how crazily scarred my cutting board is. Eek!

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I seriously, seriously wish I had dinnerware that is just plain white. No textures, no designs, just smooth, bright white. I never understood the appeal of fancy china patterns or any of that. I feel like it just distracts from the food.