I bought some chips today.

I check the price per ounce. Doesn't everyone?

I saw those very chips today. I studied them for a moment, then continued on.

Oh, tortilla chips. When I saw your headline, Dys, I thought you'd gone to Nevada. Or the Inn of the Mountain Gods on the Mecsalero Reservation in your own state.

I love that place. Outstanding golf course.

Of course it's the Mescalero Apaches, Merry A. (How you doin', BTW?)

Ruidoso/Cloudcroft are about as fine as fine gets.

Hi, PD. Doin' fine, thanx for asking. How're you? And Sue? And you and Sue? Last time I was in Ruidoso, summer of '04, my wife lost about 10 bucks on the poker machines. But I won about fifteen, so it evened out. One of these years I'll get to Cloudcroft in the winter and see if its skiiable.

I'm well, she's well, we're well.

There's a great little place in Cloudcroft you should stay called The Lodge:

http://www.thelodgeresort.com/

It's a step back in time. I have no idea about the skiing in that area, though; presumably that's all done in Ruidoso (which I'm guessing you've done before).

Dys, I go both ways. When it comes to food shopping that is. Sometimes I check the weight and sometimes I just pick out a size, small, medium or large depending on what it is.

Most of the time though, I do exactly as Roger does and go by the cost per ounce. Often times a larger of an exact product carries a lower cost per ounce. I never realized how often I shopped like that until one day I noticed when my daughter was shopping with me, she was bent down low looking at something on the lowest shelf. I giggled and asked her what the heck she was doing and she told me she was comparing the cost per ounce. I was quite impressed.

The larger items are not necessarily cheaper--the manufacturers depend upon your assumption of that and if you do the math, they are frequently more expensive per ounce. I see that all the time with a comparison of ten pound bags of sugar to four pound bags. (That's another dodge, selling sugar in four pound bags rather than five pound bags--they have hoped you won't notice that four pound bags are no cheaper than the old five pound bags were.) The large "economy" size very often is not cheaper per ounce.

Yikes. I should have clarified that I never buy the mega economy size of anything, so you are probably very correct there, sir. I just have my daughter living with me now so we rarely have any need for anything that comes in economy sizes. It appears to me when I do do the math that the sizes we buy (small to medium) usually come out cheaper by buying the medium size instead of the small. Example from just the other day at the store: 4oz tomato sauce was $.43 each. One 16oz tomato sauce was $1.19. I needed 16oz for a recipe anyway, so it made sense to buy the 16oz size.

I know exactly what you mean about the sugar thing though! It irritates the hell out of me. Same old price. Smaller size. They're doing it with everything now it seems. 16oz of fruit cocktail is now 15oz, 32oz of rice is now 28oz, 16oz of mustard is now 14oz. You know how it goes....

But dang, that mega one gallon can of jalapenos at Costco sure tempts me at times.

You know one of the worst examples of that is coffee--i think they were the first to do it. A "one pound" can now has eleven and a half ounces. The "three pound" can has thirty-three and a fraction of an ounce, which is barely over two pounds. I've been comparison shopping all my life, and at times, i just can't believe what they do to squeeze a few more pennies out of us.

Chips are actually bigger versions of what you call French fries...kinda halfway in size between your average French fries and potato wedges.
That's what chips are.
And they come wrapped in the"Daily Mail" or the "News of the World", to be authentic.

These corn whatsits...what are they chipped from?
See? Illogical.

I would be a very unhappy camper without my morning java, so I suck up and take it to boot.

Those few more pennies are adding up to millions of dollars on someones bottom line.

Have you ever been so poor that at the beginning of the month you had to decide between real food or rent? Let's see....food? Rent? Food? Rent? Rent always won out and I settled for 10 cent Ramen noodles for two weeks. And our government is still paying farmers tons of money to NOT grow crops this year because it will screw up their supply vs. demand ratios.

We don't usually tell outsiders about corn logs. Corn logs are approximately 12 inches in diameter(that's the equivalent of 12 English inches or, to convert to Metric, use this formulae XI= ai(sub)~0/.1) ) by about sixteen foot long. You can buy the three foot long ones but they are sometimes not as fresh.

Preparation: Sharpen a double bladed axe and, while keeping one foot on top of your log, chip off enough corn chunks to fill a two peck basket. Place the chunks in boiling oil after removing the flavor stones. When the chunks sink scoop them out with your right hand (go quickly) while holding the chip tray in your left. This is true even if you are supposedly right handed which no one really is, it's just something your mother told you.

I hope this helps you understand why we call them chips.

It's always what we mean when we say you can trust a particular person "when the chips are down" meaning sunk to the bottom of your boiling oil cauldron.

Oh, don't forget, the next time you are in the States, to call the front desk at your hotel and demand that they put a cauldron in your room in case you get hungry during the night.

Tasty and hot.

Joe(happy to help)Nation

Point well taken, McTag! We speak the same language but our word meanings can be so different.

My dearest Joe(happy to help)Nation,

You are such a little brat sometimes. And I mean that in the kindest of ways.

Sincerely,

Lady(giggling at 5am)J

I still say chips are what you buy at the casino, then give them all back to the establishment while muttering dire imprecations about Lady Luck.

On a side note, I just purchased some cheddar goldfish crackers. I am enjoying them this instant.

Why is everything made by Pepperridge Farm so delicious?

Got some chili (no beans), Texas Pete hot sauce and 8 oz package of cream cheese. I'm gonna stir it together, heat it up in the microwave and reach across for some of them chips.

Excuse me. Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to bump ya, Joe.

Super Speed Nachos

one big bowl
one bag restaurant style Corn Chips
Two cans refried beans
two big jars of some kind of hot Salsa
one jar sliced jalapeno peppers
One pound hot pepper jack cheese shredded

Put all the chips in the bowl (yes, all of them)
Shmooie the beans around on top of them
Spread some cheese on
Put the peppers on the cheese
Put more cheese on

Put in microwave on high for about two minutes

Look through the window. When the cheese is boiling and bubbling

dinner's done.

Put on the salsa.....

Oh, you didn't put the salsa on before you mic -ed did you?? that makes em soggy...

eat them and then start over.

Oh Kaye

One bag of chips,,,,,,,



j