When I was a full-time stay at home mom I did a lot of baking. With five little kids and a husband that enjoys sweet treats I baked about 5 dozen cookies every other day or so. The cookies of choice were chocolate chip. I had a great recipe everybody loved them.
The key ingredient was the chocolate chips. Often I would take the chocolate chip container from the cupboard only to find it depleted or empty. It was frustrating. I bought chocolate chips in a two kg. bag!! We should never run out.
I knew that Wally quite regularly grabbed a handful of chocolate chips on his was through the pantry towards the cookie jar. It wasn't until I realized that the kids had picked up their dad's habit that I knew I had to take drastic measures. It was hard enough keeping them in cookies; the chocolate chips needed to be preserved at any cost.
One day while I was alone in the kitchen I took the chocolate chip container and marked it with a skull and crossbones and then in green permanent marker wrote POISON on both ends of the tupperware - "do not eat!"
Everything went according to plan for a couple of months but slowly, one by one, the kids figured out that the POISON was in fact, chocolate chips and eventually they were all dipping into the container on occasion. I let it go. The kids joked with their friends about the "poison" in the pantry and I kept chocolate chips on the grocery list right below milk, bread and apples.
ONE YEAR LATER: Wally was in the kitchen on a Saturday afternoon and the kids were getting the POISON out of the pantry. "What are you guys doing!" he exclaimed in a panic..."Can't you see you should leave that alone?"
"Seriously Dad," Diana replied in the tone reserved for teenagers who really do know everything. "Who keeps POISON in the pantry with the food? Are you kidding me? You didn't know this was Mom's lame attempt to hide the chocolate chips?"
"Of course I did. I was just playing with you. Here; gimme a handful, too."
LATER THAT NIGHT in the privacy of our bedroom Wally confronted me.
"How could you do that to me?!" he asked incredulously. "I've been looking ofr the chocolate chips for a WHOLE YEAR!"
i love how the chocolate chip container is STILL marked "poison" to this day. gets me every time!!
ReplyDeleteI NEVER ate chocolate chips from the container. I was more of a potato chip lady myself. But I was always in for a good cookie!
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