The Checkerboard Cookies

I decided to make some checkerboard cookies the other day (vanilla and chocolate doughs put together in such a way as to resemble a checkerboard). The recipe seemed easy enough, first rolling out each kind of dough, then stacking them on top of each other, cutting in half and stacking again, then cutting in half one more time. At this point, if you are still with me, what I had was two long stacks of 4 alternating layers. Still needing to get each stack looking like a checkerboard, the next step told me to cut the stacks into thirds lengthwise. What I interpreted from this instruction was "cut the length of the stack into three chunks", which is what I did.

The next step told me to flip the middle section over and then piece the stack back together. At this point I was seriously wondering how this was going to do anything other than approximately NOTHING to fix the lack of checker squares, especially when the next step told me to cut up the stack crosswise and then bake. In other words, the prep was over, and I still didn't have squares. And don't even get me started on the crosswise business, because that in itself was confusing. Crosswise? Like diagonally? I tried to envision if cutting diagonally or at an angle would somehow make squares appear, but there was no way around the fact that all I had were 4 alternating stripes. No squares.

As you've probably realized, cutting the stack into thirds lengthwise does not mean what I thought it meant, and I can now clearly see how had I actually cut the stack into thirds lengthwise, I would have indeed gotten squares. As opposed to the oodles of striped cookies I now have. Luckily last night I redeemed myself in the kitchen by making the most perfect batch of Manhattan Clam Chowder...and on my first attempt, no less. It was seriously delish, and I think it gives the New England variety a definite run for its money. Of course, my success probably stems from the chowder recipe using normal terms like chopping, dicing, and boiling as opposed to confusing ones...like lengthwise and crosswise.