Bake Now, Pay Later

Frosted sugar cookies and the Nuts and Bolts are two things that everyone agrees must be made at Christmastime!

This mixture is hazardous to your willpower. Some call it Chex Mix, some call it Nuts and Bolts, and in this house we kind of like hardware terms. (My husband and son both run hardware stores). Contained within this mixture is a delicious elixir for a salt-lover: a blend of butter, worcestershire, seasoned salt, garlic and onion powder! You can make it go KAPOW if you want to and add a bit of bacon grease (I don't do that, it's evil enough already!)

Your crunch needs will be satisfied with all three types of Chex, Cheezits, oyster crackers, whole almonds, pecan halves, cashew halves. It's taken me years to get it down to what will NOT be in the NUTS AND BOLTS because of what I see get left in the bowls when people are done snacking, I did away with pretzels of any kind. I like Cheerios in it, but the kids aren't so crazy about those. Next batch might be MY batch with Cheerios!

CHEX MIX RECIPE

Tweak to your taste! This can be doubled!

Preheat oven 250 degrees

Use 12 c. total of your cereals, nuts, crackers, etc. I use about 2 c. each of the corn, rice, and wheat Chex.

I use all 3 kinds of Chex, Cheerios, Cheezits, Almond halves, Pecan halves, Cashew halves, you can use any of the following, also: mixed nuts, bagel chips, pretzels, etc.

In your big roaster melt 6 T. butter or maragine and then stir into the pan:

2 T. Worcestershire sauce

1-1/2 teaspoon Lawrey' seasoned salt

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Stir well.

Gradually stir cereal into margarine and seasonings and worcestershire, until coated with the margarine mixture.

Bake for one hour, stirring thoroughly with a wooden spoon every fifteen minutes.

Makes 12 c. of YUMMY snack! Store in a tin to keep dry and fresh.

OFFICIAL FARMHOUSE FOOD!

Little E and Duke beg for a frosted sugar cookie. They shared a small one. Little E has a way of making you want to share, he can stand on his hind legs like this forEVER.

All done! It was a long day!

Today after church, we stopped off at an Italian restaurant for lunch, Lem and I shared a stromboli and a good salad, Luke had his usual full order of popcorn chicken. We enjoyed a nice long visit and ate, and as we left, a city police officer that was eating lunch there with his partner stopped us and told us where we lived and where Luke went to school. What?? We don't live within the city! Luke doesn't go to school there, either.

By way of explanation, he said he lives just down the road from us and saw us drop Luke off every day last year at school, his daughter goes to the same school; and he knows where we live and he hunts in some of the surrounding farmland here. He and Lem visited a while about hunting. I had noticed this guy watching us as we ate and talked, but then we were about the only other people in that part of the dining room. You never know who is watching you and what they know about you. That was so odd.

We came home and got busy. Lem mixed up the sugar cookie dough to spare me the trouble (he knows how much I detest doing the whole thing from start to finish!) and then he and Mark got ready to go hunting. As they were out in the blinds, Luke and I rolled out dough (seemed like it took FORever!) and cut out a triple batch! They saw 17 deer between them (didn't get a shot, they were too far out even for muzzle loaders). Luke and I saw three deer from the house. We should have counted cookies! I bet there was at least 120.

It took around three hours to get them all rolled out and cut and baked. Then I made a huge batch of frosting and used every bit of powdered sugar I had in the house! We frosted, all three of us, for about an hour or so. I just now finished packing the last of these into tins. WHEW! It was 11:oo by the time the dishes were finished and the lights turned out. My only "To Do" as far as baking goes is I still have to do the chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles. Those will have to wait for another day.

Saturday night, I had made four batches of Chex mix. I hope it lasts, but there's more Chex in the pantry JUST IN CASE....

How's your Christmas baking going? Do you dread how your jeans will fit in January?