Just when we’re trying to slim down to our most svelte appearance for all those holiday parties, along comes “Chocolate-Covered Anything Day,” to be celebrated on Dec. 16.

“Eat Chocolate Cake Day” on Jan. 23 pretty well destroyed my reputation as a baker of cakes. I have had wild successes in my day and those terrible flops and still haven’t figured out what determines failure or success. I do know that trying to ad lib when my baking soda somehow disappeared did not produce the chocolate chip cookies I’d have wished for.

No chocolate chip cookies this time. It’s chocolate-covered anything. (I admit to feeling quite a bit of relief to see it’s “anything,” not “everything.”)

Will one object if I eliminate ants, grasshoppers and crickets from the menu? I know they’re crunchy and, if anything, a bit salty and really unobjectionable. Finding them at this season would be difficult for starters and, come on, if we have good melted chocolate on hand can’t we spread (or pour) it on things better than bugs?

I went over to get a couple of my cookbooks to see what suggestions they had for covering what in chocolate and pulled out an old (well, for some: 1961) Warren Cook Book. (I have a much older one someplace though it wouldn’t be as much fun.) For instance, in this there’s a recipe for “Man’s Pie” which includes graham crackers, sugar, walnuts, vanilla, baking powder and three eggs, all to be baked precisely for 23 minutes. I can’t imagine the result.

I also uncovered quite a slew of recipes written in my mother’s hand (much more legible than mine). She died 45 years ago so it’s a lovely treasure though it does confirm what we all knew. For her many talents, cooking was not among them. Try this, headed only with an “H”: beat cream cheese and mayonnaise (no amount given), add catsup, pickles, onion or garlic salt and two hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine. Then what? Personally, I’d quickly toss the concoction.

Or this, so much my mother, a recipe for Swiss steak: “order two pounds (it doesn’t say what) have butcher pound cracker crumbs into meat.” Then brown in Crisco, add water and bake. That was typical of the fare on which I was raised. Fun to revisit a bit.

So back to the chocolate.

I’m all for the richest chocolate frosting one can spread on top of thick, rich gooey brownies. I also remember beating fudge wooden spoon on a marble slab (nothing else would do) until it hardened enough to pour into a pan (or was it allowed to just sit there?) until it could be devoured. Or a heavenly family recipe for chocolate sauce which required last-minute and constant stirring with no guarantee of success.

I eat very little chocolate these days. It’s another of those traps I do try to avoid. You know: can’t stop at one.

A son-in-law, apparently trying to be “good” at home, would devour bowl after bowl of M&Ms while visiting here. I can do very well with those goodies but couldn’t keep up with him. Ironically, his wife can’t tolerate chocolate at all.

And yet it was her sister under whose bed I found, more times than I could count (or would want to remember), a spoon in a box of chocolate cake mix, partially eaten with the rest hidden away for a later snack. Daughter 3, on yet another hand, probably enjoys occasional chocolate but there are many other foods that rank higher among her priorities.

I’ve meandered again but how much can one say really? about chocolate-covered anything? Yum.

With one final word to the wise. I imagine this “holiday” came on a Dave Barry calendar. The crazy ones all seem to. Another calendar I enjoy for its occasional wisdom cautions: “Let’s stop saying ‘I’ve been bad’ when all we did was eat a little chocolate. It was just chocolate; no need to judge so harshly.” I’ll second that.

Eat. Enjoy. Don’t ever fall into the trap of regretting what you truly did enjoy. Just yup, be reasonable.

And pass the chocolates . . . please.

Just this once.

Susan Crossett has lived outside Cassadaga for more than 20 years. A lifetime of writing led to these columns as well as two novels. “Her Reason for Being” was published in 2008 with “Love in Three Acts” released in 2014. Copies are available at Papaya Arts on the Boardwalk in Dunkirk and the Cassadaga ShurFine. Information on all the Musings, the books and the author can be found at Susancrossett.com