For most of my childhood, my dad had a business partner who was famous for her holiday goodies. Mid-December, she's arrive at the door with a bag bursting with sugar cookies, homemade caramels and a huge zip-top bag bursting with her take on the classic Chex Party Mix. We looked forward to that Chex Mix for months before it arrived and my mom would ration it out, making sure it lasted at least a week.
Part of the appeal of Eleanor's Chex Mix was that she included Cheerios and let it toast until everything was a uniform nutty brown. It's been years since I've had it, but I can still conjure up the flavor and crunch. If you choose to give your friends and family some Chex Mix for the holidays, you can package it up in plastic bags like Eleanor always did, or you could add a festive accent with some holiday-themed tins. My favorite Chex Mix recipe, which is based on the one we used to receive, is after the jump.
3 cups square rice cereal
3 cups square corn cereal
3 cups square wheat cereal
2 cups Cheerios
1 cup pretzels (mini-twists, please)
2 cups peanuts
10 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 Tablespoons seasoning salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter together with the Worcestershire sauce, seasoning salt and garlic powder. Once the butter is melted, pour slowly over the cereal mixture, tossing with a wooden spoon as you pour. Divide the cereal mixture between two rimmed cookie sheets, so that it's spread in a single layer.
Bake for 1 hour at 250 degrees, stirring the cereal mixture and rotating the pans from top rack to bottom so that they get equal toasting. When the hour has elapsed, drain on newspaper until cool.
12-03-2008 @11:56PM Blair said... we used to double, or triple the recipe, and used one of the large disposable roasting pans to heat it in. As long as you stir often, and let it crisp up completely, it works well, and a batch might make it through the holidays!
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12-04-2008 @8:13AM LinC said... Ah, fond memories. We call these Christmas Nibbles because we only make the mix at the holidays. My recipe calls for Rice Krispies instead of the rice squares and a can of mixed nuts. We always use the skinny pretzel sticks instead of the twists. I heap the mixture in a turkey roasting pan and pull it out to stir periodically. It always takes at least two hours to dry to toasty goodness. I have a special big glass jar for storage, though the mix never lasts long enough to go bad.
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12-04-2008 @8:55AM Joe said... We always called it Party Mix, for whatever reason. Our family recipe is similar but we use a whole box each of Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Wheat Chex (although I prefer the Multi Bran Chex now), and Cheerios, a bag of pretzels, and 2-3 cans of your favorite nuts. For the seasoning, we use oil and substitute garlic salt for the garlic powder.
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12-11-2008 @7:05AM Lori said... Well, you may have fond memories, but I still carry on my Grandmother's tradition in her memory, our family calls them "Nuts and Bolts". And I, like Joe, use roasting pans that hold one large bag - I am lazy, I use Chex Mix GM brand as a base and add the xtra fancy mixed nuts from Costco. It's not cheap this way, but easier. I also put in oven for 3 hours, rotating pans and mixing every half hour. Now I not only give out to my 7 family members, but lots of other friends have joined the Nuts and Bolts fan club as well and eagerly await this time of year!
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