"cheez-its" news and stories

I am a game addict. Within arms reach of me right now are Connect 4, Quarto and a chess board. Cranium is tucked lovingly under our entertainment center next to our original Nintendo Entertainment System, and you don't even want to know what would happen if I opened the cabinet doors above that. Game explosion!

But my all-time favorite game is Scrabble. Anyone who's ever scratched the Scrabble surface -- either by playing competitively themselves or learning about the game through a book like Word Freak or movie like Word Wars -- knows that Scrabble players are an odd bunch who take their anagramming and Triple Word Scores dead seriously.

I am slightly less of a snack junkie, but when I do snack, I take it equally as seriously, and when it comes to snacking, nothing beats the Cheez-It. The crunchiness, the big cheese flavor, and if I happen to find a couple burnt ones in my box, I'm in snack food heaven.

So imagine my excitement when my mother called to tip me off to her discovery of Cheez-It Scrabble Junior crackers in a grocery store near Seattle. This product hasn't hit any shelves near me in Brooklyn yet; if it had, you can guarantee I'd already have a box. According to Kelloggs, the new snack crackers were introduced on January 1st, so hopefully it won't be long before I find them.

From what I can surmise, they're basically regular Cheez-Its with different letters stamped into them, kind of like a cracker version of Alpha-Bits (which alarmingly, I just discovered, appear to be R.I.P.). Since Scrabble is an adult game, I'm not sure what is so "Junior" about this particular product, except maybe the notion that adults grow out of eating cheesy snack crackers. Or the childish feeling I'm getting of looking forward to playing with my food.

Has anyone had these yet? Do I need to grow up?!

When snacking, the tendency is to automatically reach for whatever tortilla or potato chip is within reach. Pity, since there is a whole scrumptious world of other options. So, just in time to have everyone over to watch the big game, here are a few ideas to put something else in the basket on the coffee table and also a few suggestions about dips they might pair with.

1. Lime Tortilla Chips - Light-years ahead of the plain kind. Tostitos makes the tastiest ones. There go very well with fruit salsa, usually mango or peach.
2. Sweet Potato Chips - Everyone from Pringles to Terra manufactures these, though I would swing toward the latter, since the Pringles also have cinnamon. They match nicely with corn salsa or bean dip.
3. Banana or Plantain Chips - Yes, I know they're not the same thing, but close enough for my purposes. Another standout with fruit salsa, though I also like them with guacamole.
4. Pretzel Chips - A nice combo of two great salty snacks, the chips and the pretzel. Try with spinach or onion dip.
5. Tabasco Cheez-Its - Don't put anything on these. You'll wind up devouring much of the box and you don't want anything to get in your way.