Microplane

You may know that I don't eat cheese anymore. It's a sad state of affairs, since I love some grated Parmaggiano-Regiano on just about everything, and don't even get me started on Gruyere. But, the ill side-affects keep my cheese consumption low these days.

I didn't even own a cheese grater until about two months ago. In my most recent move, I guess I discarded the box grater I had, assuming I'd never need to grate cheese again. Well, I was wrong and began using a vegetable peeler to get something resembling grated cheese for guests' meals.

All that changed when I threw down some cash and acquired my first Microplane.

I want to grate everything now. The silky, tiny specks of cheese for the fig and speck pizza, the fully-zested orange in under 2 minutes for the no-cook cranberry sauce or the fresh ginger for the pumpkin bread .

Alas, I'm in the market for all sizes now, seeing as I think you might be able to make some nice zucchini or cucumber ribbons with one of those larger ones.

Yay for Microplanes!!