Sometimes in the hustle of the day-care day, Jodi lets the older kids help out by making their own lunches. So a few weeks back, she told Gabe he could make a sandwich, and he did.

After he cleared his dishes, she asked how the sandwich was. “Pretty good,” he said, “except for one thing. I’m not sure if it was the grape jelly, the mustard, or the Cheezits.”

My money was on the jelly, but the more culinarily adventurous among my co-workers said they could imagine jelly and mustard being complementary. I asked Gabe what he thought, and his best guess was the Cheezits. I asked what else was on it: turkey, spinach, and colby-jack cheese.

The Cheezits, I gathered, were for texture …