Big Weather's Big Recipe: Grandma's Chex Mix

It's getting to be the time of year where we start to make all those great holiday goodies, and in our house one of those seasonal faves is Chex Mix.

I'm going to sound like an old guy here, but years ago, you couldn't just buy Chex Mix in a store, you had to make it. And I KNOW there are a ton of recipes for it out there (including a great one from my mother-in-law for Sweet Chex Mix here), but this one comes from my wife's grandma in the heart of Wisconsin.

I'll give some variations at the end, but for now, let's get to it!

Ingredients

1 box Crispix

1 box Rice Chex

1 Box of Corn Chex

1 Box of Cheerios

Bag of Stick Pretzels

1 can of Cocktail Peanuts

2 sticks of Grassland Butter (or whatever kind you want to use)

stick of Margarine

Cup of Worcestershire

1 tsp of Garlic Salt

1 tsp of Celery Salt

Preparation

1. Place all of the cereals, the peanuts, and the pretzels in two large baking pans

2. Place the butter, margarine, Worcestershire, and both salts in a pan on the stove over medium low heat.

3. Stir until melted.

4. Pour liquid over the cereal mixture.

5. Bake in oven at 225 for 75 minutes.

6. Stir mix every 15 minutes.

7. Spread mix out on counter to cool. You can put on parchment, or foil. I used foil.

8. Bag mix in Ziploc bags and store in your freezer.

One thing I thought of this time I'm going to try next time is to sub out the pretzel sticks for bite size pretzels. They'd be easier to eat in the handfuls! ;) And this is not the recipe you find on the chex box (though that's a good one too), or anywhere else, this is just what my wife's family did. We actually make it with Crispix instead of the Original Wheat Chex because those just aren't my favorite. And the Crispix give it a little sweetness. Plus, this recipe is a lighter flavor, so you really can taste the different cereals as well as the spices. My father in law tweaked his because he thought this was a little too bland.

If you want, sub out the salts for different spices or other types of salt, or add a couple of teaspoons of hot sauce to the butter to spice it up a little. That's the great thing about this recipe, you can tailor it to whatever you want. Grandma's Winter Chex Mix. Enjoy!