Party Snack

At our house you know we are getting serious about celebrating the holidays when the boxes of Chex cereal come home from the grocery store! Party snack, as my family has called it since before I was born, is definitely one of my favorite treats to have around this time of year and I love sharing it with friends. A friend of mine has a slightly different version that her family has always called Buttons and Bows which I think is a delightful name for it!

My grandmother was the master Party Snack maker in our family and for as long as I can remember would spend a day in early December making a huge batch. She would store it on top of one of her many deep freezers in the basement along with stacks of Tupperware containers filled with holiday cookies and candies. Looking back, I have no idea how she managed to get everything made. I just know that it was important to her that she always had these things to share with the numerous friends and family members who stopped by during the holidays. We all made many, many trips to the basement to retrieve the goodies!

The Christmas after my grandmother died, I decided I would try making Party Snack. When I started asking for the recipe, though, no one in my family could find it. I was devastated to think that one of her treasured recipes was gone. I thought, however, that I could surely find her version online since there was no way it could be that different. I searched on the internet for quite awhile but to no avail. Sure, I found plenty of recipes for Chex Mix, but none of them seemed to have the right ingredients. Almost all of them called for butter which I really don't care for in this recipe. Just as I was about to give up, I looked in my own recipe box and discovered that years ago I must have copied my grandmother's recipe! I was so excited to find it and have made it every year since. Hopefully by putting it on my blog, I won't lose it again!

The only change I made to my grandmother's technique was to use the blender to combine the oil mixture. I feel like this helps distribute the seasonings better and that you get an overall better flavor. I also make a little more of the seasoned oil mixture than her recipe calls for, but I am pretty sure she might have done that, too.

While the recipe is in no way complicated, do make sure you allow for the full 2 hours it needs to bake and be sure you have lots of containers ready for storage as it makes a huge quantity! I always line my dining room table with newspapers and cover them with paper towels so that I can spread it out to cool. This helps keep the mix from getting soggy.

Party Snack (click for printable link)

12 oz. can of mixed nuts
12 oz. can of salted peanuts
1 box Cheerios
1 box Rice Chex
1 box Corn Chex
1 box Wheat Chex
1 pkg. small pretzel sticks

Seasoning:
2 1/2 cups of vegetable oil (original recipe calls for Wesson so that is what I use)
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 teaspoons garlic salt
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

Evenly distribute the nuts, cereals, and pretzels between two large roasting pans. Toss gently to combine.

Blend or stir by hand the seasoning ingredients. Pour evenly over the cereal and stir to thoroughly coat.

Bake uncovered for 2 hours, stirring gently every 15 minutes. Be sure to stir from the bottom to evenly coat all pieces.

Spread out on paper towels to cool completely.