Holiday Party Mix

There are only two things in this world I consider myself to be addicted to. The first is deals, I looooovee me a killer bargain. The second is this party mix. My grandma has been making party mix for the holidays since long before I existed. Every Christmas she gives each of her three boys (one being my dad) and their families a gift basket filled with all of her homemade goodies, the party mix being one of those items. I always liked it, but I fell head over heels in love when in college one of my best friends and her family introduced me to their version, only available from Thanksgiving through Christmas (don’t you love these types of traditions!?). Don’t get me wrong, grandma’s is out of this world but the thing that got me about my friend’s…no nuts! NOOO NUTS! A revelation. Leave me alone with a bowl of this stuff and it will be gone. Absolutely ZERO will power. None. Zip. In fact the batch you see in these pics was left at a friend’s house intentionally because I know myself too well to think I would be able to stop before it was gone. Good intentions but somehow I still managed to inhale 3 bowls full before we left. Oops, oh well. GO HAWKS!

I like to combine all the cereal and pretzel pieces in the serving bowl and then divide evenly onto each cookie sheet

Holiday Party Mix, recipe courtesy of the Mount Household (thanks Janeen and Megs!)

Here’s the thing I’ve learned about this recipe, you can make it as stated below or you can split the recipe onto two rimmed cookie sheets and bake for half the time. Simply bake both sheets on separate racks in the oven, one extra dish to clean but 30 minutes less baking time.

1/4 cups Butter or Margarine (1/4 cup = 4 tbsp, if splitting recipe use 2 tbsp on each cookie sheet)
1 1/4 tsp. seasoned salt, like Johnny’s
4 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 cups cherrios
2 cups rice chex
2 cups crispex
2 cups wheat chex (I switched to corn chex for less gluten)
1 cup pretzel sticks, broken up a bit by crushing once in hands as you add to the mix

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Heat butter or margarine in large shallow roasting pan until melted and remove from oven. Stir in seasoning salt, Worcestershire sauce and add all types cereal and pretzels. Mix until all are pieces are coated and heat in oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes to ensure even coating. Makes 9 cups, enjoy!