The original recipe has been lost to all eternity. Unless someone's grandmother still has the clipping from the Chex box. However, as a connoisseur of Chex Mix, I offer you my idea of the perfect Chex Mix. If you still need a gift for some people, or a snack to have out for a party, this goes together in about an hour and is ready almost immediately.

First of all, you use butter, not margarine. Second, you make it in the oven not the microwave. Third, who ever heard of those garlic toasts in the 50s? I sincerely doubt they used them then. So, add more pretzels and nuts.

6 cups Rice Chex
6 cups Corn Chex
6 cups Wheat Chex
3 cups mini-pretzels, Snyders little squares are the best, not the low fat version
3 cups mixed, salted nuts (the kind with no peanuts)
1 cup butter (2 sticks), I use unsalted, because that is all I buy, but if you have salted it will just add more salt to this snack
1/3 cup of worcestershire sauce (I spelled that without a spell checker), Lea & Perrins, or whatever one you like
2 tablespoons seasoned salt
2 teaspoons granulated garlic

Preheat oven to 325 F. Get your big roasting pan out, and put the butter in it to melt in the oven while you gather the rest of the ingredients. When the butter is just melted, add the worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt and granulated garlic and stir it up. Dump in the cereal, pretzels and nuts and stir to coat well. Put the pan in the oven and cook for 15 minutes. Take out to stir some more and put it back in for another 15 minutes. Do this one or two more times, depending on how fast your oven is cooking. Take out of the oven and cool. Eat some of it while it is still hot and try not to burn your tongue on the nuts.

Finish eating this first pan with your family (who am I kidding? With your husband - give the children a token amount), then make another batch to give away. Feel free to eat half of that, too, if you don't have enough people to give gifts to this year.

Labels: Christmas, Church Year, Homemaking, Quick Gifts, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen