Chipping Away, September 13th

Merriam-Webster gives several definitions for the word chip. 1) Bits of wood or stone that are cut, struck, or flaked off. 2) Small cards displaying a paint color or range of colors. 3) One of the counters used as a token for poker. 4) There is also the obvious nod to a small, thin, crisp usually salty piece of food typically prepared by frying, baking, or drying. 5) Then there is a small often cone-shaped bit of food used for baking. 6) A sixth, very disturbing definition describes something small, worthless, or trivial. Oh no! Clearly Merriam has no sixth sense about chips at all! To think of them as worthless or trivial? I think not. I’m sure Intel would disagree as well.

Throwing the lid off door number four, let’s zoom into Merriam’s definition. Picture this… an hour into a good movie, you might find that your semi-unconscious hand to mouth shuffle has helped you chip away at a family size bag of a great snack. And you never even realized between big gulps of a delicious bubbly soda that you had done some serious damage to the contents of the bag. You’ve just been chippin away! It’s just too easy to keep popping those addictive snacks into your salt craving mouth, isn’t it? Yep, I know. Like you, I’m a chipster too. In London, my pal Nick would most certainly call them crisps, as do most Brits. (Their chips are our french fries.) And like me, Nick is a chipster as well. I’m sure we’re in good company.

I’m the same with chocolate chip cookies, especially when they are homemade. Maybe it’s the pure joy of each satisfying mouthful that I love. But part of it is knowing that there is another on deck bite with my name on it that is guaranteed to be as good as the chew I’m enjoying at present. How great is that?!

One turns into two which turns into a cold glass of milk would really go great with these warm cookies, and then all bets are off once the dunking is involved. I remember dating a guy in my 20s who would eat an entire sleeve of Chips Ahoy! in a sitting. Yikes. I never attempted that. I could not out chip him.