MAMAIN'S CHEX MIX

Every Thanksgiving I make a double batch of Chex mix to give with Christmas gifts to my big family. The original recipe came for a friends mother who made us a large zip lock bag to eat on our ten hours drive ten years ago to our present home in Aiken SC. I never really wrote my version down. I would just call Nancy every year to ask for her version. Her dear mother "Mamain" died last year and I always think of her this time of year. We miss you Mamain fondly named by her grandchildren because she was the Main Mama. Here is her version with my kid friendly one below because we have several kids in the family with peanut allergies.

Mamain’s Trash                                                                   Nancy Zwiers
Garlicky, crunchy and yummy.  Trash will keep for weeks if you can get your kids and spouse to always put the lid back on tight.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large bag of stick pretzels (1 lb bag)
• 1/2 box Cheerios
• 1/2 box Kix cereal
• 1/2 box Corn Chex
• 1/2 box Rice Chex
• 1 lg can of mixed nuts & amp; 1 qt. of pecan halves (Walmart currently sells a large 36 oz clear plastic jug of mixed nuts under the Great Value brand – I use that if I’m short on pecans )
• 5 sticks of unsalted margarine (you can use salted, your trash will just be a little saltier)
• 3 – 4 TBLSP of garlic powder ( I use 4)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
2. Dump first 5 ingredients into a very large roasting or broiling pan.  (The pan I use is approximately 17” x 12” x 5” and this recipe fills that pan to the top.  If you don’t have a roasting pan that large, you’ll need to reduce your proportions on the ingredients accordingly.)
3. Pour nuts on top of the cereal spreading evenly across the top.
4. Melt the margarine in a small saucepan and then stir in garlic.  (The garlic will not dissolve but you need to stir it in well right up until you pour it over the cereal.  Otherwise, you’ll be left with a clump of garlic in the bottom of your saucepan…and that’s hard to distribute evenly over the cereal.)
5. Pour the melted garlic butter across the top of your trash.  Then use a wooden spoon to quickly and carefully turn the cereal, pretzels and nuts to coat everything in the pan with the garlic butter.  (Note:  Always stir carefully because the Chex cereal crumbles very easily.  Also, it’s inevitable that some pieces of cereal – usually the Chex – are going to end up saturated with the garlic butter.  These pieces will dry while the trash is cooking and it is only a problem for those who don’t love garlic.  But you shouldn’t let “those” people have any of your trash anyway.)
6. Bake in preheated oven for 4 hours….turning the trash with a wooden spoon every hour or so to re-coat cereal and keep whatever is on top from burning.
7. Remove from oven, cool and store in air-tight container(s). 
8. Enjoy! 

Frances' Chex Mix




INGREDIENTS

• 1 large box of stick pretzels
• 1 box Cheerios
• 1 box Kix cereal
• 1 box Corn Chex
• 1 box Rice Chex
• 4 sticks of  margarine
• 4 TBLSP of garlic powder

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
2. Dump first 5 ingredients into a very large aluminum roasting.
3. Melt the margarine in a small saucepan and then stir in garlic.  (The garlic will not dissolve but you need to stir it in well right up until you pour it over the cereal.  Otherwise, you’ll be left with a clump of garlic in the bottom of your saucepan…and that’s hard to distribute evenly over the cereal.)
4. Pour the melted garlic butter across the top of your trash.  Then use a wooden spoon to quickly and carefully turn the cereal, pretzels to coat everything in the pan with the garlic butter.  (Note:  Always stir carefully because the Chex cereal crumbles very easily.  Also, it’s inevitable that some pieces of cereal – usually the Chex – are going to end up saturated with the garlic butter.  These pieces will dry while the trash is cooking and it is only a problem for those who don’t love garlic.  But you shouldn’t let “those” people have any of your trash anyway.)
5. Bake in preheated oven for 2 hours….turning the trash with a wooden spoon every 30 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, cool and store in air-tight container(s). 
7. Enjoy!