Snack Stuff
(To fill 2
roasting pans)
1) 2 boxes Cheerios
2) 2 boxes Wheat Chex
3) 1 box Rice Chex
4) 1 box Corn Chex
5) 1 box Kix
6) 2 bags pretzel sticks, about 30 oz. Get the thinnest
you can find that have formed ends.
7) 4 cans 16 oz. Planter’s Cocktail Peanuts, the greasy
kind (very important). Save the cans.
8) 2 cups margarine (4 sticks). Nothing fancy,
the old, cheap ones work best. Do not use butter, it will go rancid.
9) 2 cups vegetable oil. Again, nothing fancy, we
always used Wesson.
10) Liquid Smoke, hickory flavored, Wright’s if
you can find it.
11) Worcestershire sauce
12) Tabasco sauce
13) Garlic salt
(Each pan
will contain)
Pour one box
of Wheat Chex in the bottom, and spread it out. (The order of layers is not
critical except for this first one. It must be Wheat Chex. The remaining order
I have found works best for me.) Follow
that by 2 cans of peanuts, 1 bag of pretzels, ½ box of Kix, ½ box each of Rice
Chex and Corn Chex. (Alternately, you can use one box of Crispix instead of the
Chex, as I did here.) Finally cover with 1 box of Cheerios.
Preheat oven
to 300⁰. Melt the 4 sticks of margarine
in a medium saucepan. Add 2 cups oil, 3 tablespoons Liquid Smoke, 3 tablespoons
Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon Tabasco. Add garlic salt . Stir vigorously,
and continuously, as the sauces will want to separate. Using a measuring cup,
pour half the mixture per pan. Begin with a thin stream around the perimeter of
the pan, then drizzle the remainder through the center. If you have any excess,
pour it in one corner.
Place pans
in the oven, and cook for 10 minutes. Remove, stir, and cook another ten
minutes. (Stir thoroughly, you want those saturated Wheat Chex brought to the
top.) Remove, stir, and cook a final 10
minutes. At the end of 30 minutes cook time, remove, stir and let cool. I can
tell you not to bother eating any at this time, as it doesn’t taste like much,
but I know I’d be wasting my time. (I can’t resist it either.) Once cool, move
the Stuff to airtight containers, or ziplock bags. (Those empty peanut cans
make nice one-serving containers.) After several hours all the flavors will
have melded together, and be suitable for eating. After a day of ‘aging’ it
will have reached full flavor potential.
You may want
to play around with the ingredients, and go for it, I certainly have. ( I have
baked the mixture on Triscuits, cashews, and almonds.) I would, however, suggest
the first time you adhere to this ingredient list, to give you a baseline for
comparison. (And dry roasted peanuts do not work as well as the cocktail ones.)
