I’m not sure if you saw this spring when Little Debbie’s Nutty Buddy Cereal came onto the shelves at Wal-Mart. With lovers of peanut butter and chocolate at our house, I’m pretty consistently willing to check out any recipe that incorporates these two ingredients and while this snack mix from the Linn County Fair Cookbook doesn’t have chocolate in it, in future versions, I would not hesitate to stir in some chocolate chips or m&ms part way through baking or after the mix cools.
Sometimes I find myself making variations on one recipe after another. Lately, it’s been various forms of party mix. Partially because we are closer to family and it’s an easy snack food for when folks come over and partially because I know Joe enjoys it (although I couldn’t match his mom’s), snack mix has been a go-to. So, when Minnesota was bombarded with one snowstorm after another and I had a couple of neighbors with snowblowers more powerful than mine help me with cleaning the end of my driveway, I knew I wanted to make them some snack mix. I had this recipe from Home is Where the Eggs Are on my list and had all of the ingredients on hand, so I mixed it together and baked it one chilly afternoon to drop off as a thank you!
Earlier this fall we had a meeting that left me feeling a little salty. Knowing a couple of colleagues were feeling the same way, I looked through some cookbooks to find something I might bring in as a snack and this bar that incorporated potato chips and pretzels, from Asian-American, Dale Talde’s cookbook, seemed to be perfect. The bars were a nice salty bar, but I think I was not quite patient enough with the ganache (or I just wasn’t sure what to expect from a caramel chocolate ganache).
We had a family birthday a few weeks ago, and it was a bit of a milestone, so there was a band and a food truck and lots of celebrations all around. I’d been making some salty and sweet party mixes and I was asked to make some party mix for the celebration. I went looking for a little bit of a saltier party mix and went to look at the Pit, to see if my cooking friends had any suggestions there, which included mixing up some premade chex mix versions. I also had leftovers from previous chex mixes that I threw in to amp it up a bit.
Chex Mix from the Pit
White Cheddar Chex Mix
Regular Chex Mix
Bold Chex Mix
Cheddar Chex Mix
Bugles
Everything Pretzel Crisps
Jalapeno Cheddar Wicked Minis
1/2 box Corn Chex
1/2 box Rice Chex
1/2 box cheez-its
Beer Nuts Peanuts
1/2 bag Parmesan Whisps
Roasted and Salted Almonds
2 sticks melted butter
Worcestershire sauce
hot sauce
garlic powder
cheese seasoning (from Trader Joe’s)
onion powder
Mix all dry ingredients together. Melt butter and add in 2-3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce and 1-2 tsp hot sauce. Pour over the dry ingredients and sprinkle with garlic powder, cheese seasoning, and onion powder. Stir to coat and bake for 1 hour at 250 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes. Let sit overnight before eating.
With the start of the school year, I wanted to drop off cookies for the nieces and nephew in town. So, in looking at random ingredients we had waiting to use up in the cupboard, I found this great, I mean good, cookie recipe from Mount Olive Women (Mount Olive Lutheran church). The recipe provided a strong base and while it was originally more of a ranger cookie recipe, I added a variety of things (cornflake mixture, pretzels, chocolate chips) and took out the nuts the recipe originally called for.
We’ve been to our share of football games this fall, which included a stop at a former institution where I used to work. A mentor of mine has recently become president there, and that led to us connecting with him and his wife while we were visiting. As they kicked off the start of the academic year, President Bruess opened up the year with a plane metaphor — “I just received a message from air traffic control. They’ve cleared us for take-off. Let the journey begin.” So, for a travel-friendly snack option, I brought them some fall snack mix, aka their in-flight snack option.
One of our nieces has been playing t-ball this summer. But if you ask her, she’s not playing sports. And she’s doing phenomenally. So, when I had some leftover rice krispies, it seemed like I should make her some rice krispie treats to celebrate her success. I found this recipe from One Tin Bakes and it seemed like it might have some fun additions to a standard rice krispie bar recipe. The browned butter was a nice addition and all kinds of surprises in the bars was pretty splendid.
For the second batch of ice cream on my list, I made this seaport salty swirl ice cream. We were getting together with a few folks for an ocean-themed gathering and I was in charge of desserts. This seaport salty swirl ice cream, also from the Scoop Adventures cookbook, was a yummy version to make. You might recall that a few years ago I made salty caramel ice cream, brown sugar ice cream, and buckeye ice creams, each of which has some similarities. Both of these were great — this one added a bit more complexity with some peanut butter, caramel, and chocolate covered pretzels. What could be better? I’ve really appreciated these recipes also don’t use egg yolks in them, as I’ve always leaned away from those recipes.
With the various mixes I’ve been making as of late, this one for a sweet and spicy nut mix that had a little kick to it seemed to be appropriate. Another Cooking Light recipe from the 2012 cookbook, this mix meets all of the different palate needs — sweet, salty, spicy, and perhaps a little bit savory.
It went great with a few beers with some friends and then having around the office to munch on in between meetings and such. It’ll definitely be on my list for when a snack is needed.
From Cooking Light 2012
Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine brown sugar, 1 teaspoon thyme, salt, cinnamon, and red pepper in a small bowl.
Combine pecans and almonds on a jelly-roll pan. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until the nuts begin to brown. Combine the pecan mixture and butter in a medium bowl, stirring until butter melts. Gently stir in pretzels, cereal, and syrup. Sprinkle the sugar mixture evenly over pretzel mixture; toss gently to coat. Spread pretzel mixture in a single layer on jelly-roll pan. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes, stirring once. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 teaspoon thyme. Cool completely.
Last summer I was in Minnesota for the weekend and visited one of my favorite stores in the Twin Cities — Patina. While I was there, I came across this awesome puzzle, which excited me the most because my hometown was a featured location, along with the Jolly Green Giant:
But, I also came across a cookbook called Twin Cities Chef’s Table. I keep paging through the cookbook, looking for the perfect recipe to make. When I came across the recipe for Crusher Cookies, from Sun Street Breads, I was intrigued by a recipe that would feature sugar cones as a key ingredient. How could I not make them?
So, after a week of excitement on-campus, I was ready to spend part of a Sunday morning baking. And, I was delighted by these cookies. I wasn’t expecting something this delightful to enter my mouth. Obviously, I need to make a trip to Sun Street Breads when I’m in Minneapolis next.
I will make crafts and cook better 