I have some new dishes

I know . . . stop the presses. But really, it's sort of a big deal for me. My current black dishes (yes, black—I love them) have been slowly showing signs of wear. Black dishes are sort of like red nail polish: They look great until they start to chip a little.

The last time I saw dishes I liked I dithered and when I returned to buy them, they were gone.

This time I acted and bought.

They're a touch on the kitschy side, but I like that they remind me of Inspector Clouseau—in the kitchen. This picture shows the pasta bowl on one of my black plates, which I think is a nice combination. And the colors go nicely with my kitchen, which you surely remember from the world-famous kitchen tour over at userealbutter.com, right?

But don't worry. There are limits with where I will go with this collection.

I would die before serving chips in this.

For Sunday dinner we had Daube Provencal, egg noodles, and green beans in browned butter, followed by a green salad and then individual molten chocolate cakes with sweetened whipped cream for dessert. Is it any wonder we don't all weigh a total of several tons?? Stay tuned for an explanation of why we don't (yet).