Munchy Monday: Chex Mix!

 Many years ago whenever we went to my inlaws for Thanksgiving or Christmas my mother-in-law made Chex Mix.  Our family loved it. A week ago Dear One asked me if I was going to make Chex Mix this year.  Well, I had not thought of doing that.  I decided to begin thinking about it.  I looked for a recipe for Chex Mix.  The cereal boxes had recipes.

The recipe rang a bell so I made it.  The cereal box chex mix recipe did not give instructions, only the ingredients.  SO...I made the mix then cooked the recipe at 300 degrees F.  This was obviously too high a temperature.

When I was bemoaning the less than optimal  results of my first effort, our daughter said she had her grandmother's recipe. She sent it to me and I made Mother C's recipe.

Above is the Chex Mix made at the proper oven temperature.

This was Mother C's Recipe:

Chex Mix

9 cup Chex: Rice and corn mixed
1.5 cup peanuts
1.5 cup pretzel sticks broken in half
6 Tbl butter melted
2 Tbl Worcestershire sauce
1-1/2 tsp season salt
1 tsp garlic powder 
1/2 tsp onion powder 

200 for 1 hour. Stir every 20 minutes

Put all the chexs, peanuts, and pretzels/Cheezits in a large roasting pan. Melt the butter and add the seasonings.  Whisk well then pour the mixture over the chex mix.   As far as the butter, I did not want 2 Tablespoons leftover so I used the whole 8 Tablespoons of butter.  Dear One does not like pretzels so I used Cheezits Crackers in place of pretzels.  

The oven at 300 degrees was too hot for the mix so I followed her 200 degree F oven heat.

In the picture on the left below is the Mother C's Chex Mix recipe.  On the right is the Chex Mix from the cereal boxes but cooked at 100 degrees too hot.  Also that mix has Wheat Chex which burned and gave the mix a rather unpleasant taste.  Still...it was not so bad but what some people in our house were able to choke down a good bit of it...!

If you want to make it, you will find it a nice crunchy treat and possibly better for you than the store bought chex mix.

Munchy Monday: Instant Pot Corn Pudding

 
Last week Child Number Four came for a very short but oh so wonderful visit.  We had a great time together and got lots of projects done even though he worked at his job during the day.  I wanted to make all kinds of good food for him, but he really only wanted to eat the leftovers in our refrigerator. I get that!  I LOVE to open my sister's refrigerator and eat her leftovers.  She always has such interesting scraps in there; things we never eat here.

The one thing I did make fresh for us was Instant Pot Corn Pudding.  Dear One really got into it.  He might possibly have eaten half the bowl...!  That made me so happy.  Child Number Four seemed to like it, too.  I am thinking of adding that to our regular food rotation.

Here is what I did:

Instant Pot Corn Casserole/Pudding

1 egg
1 box Jiffy Cornmeal Muffin Mix

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 can creamed corn
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 teaspoon dried minced onions
1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped fine
1 cup sour cream
2 cups water for the Instant Pot liner
1/4  cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Beat the egg in a medium-sized glass bowl then mix in the cornmeal muffin mix, the melted butter, both cans of corn, the onions and the jalapeno pepper dice.  Stir in the sour cream and mix well.

Put the trivet in an 8-quart Instant Pot liner bowl and pour in the 2 cups of water. It works most easily if you are using the trivet which has handles on it so you can easily lift out the bowl when done.  There are other ways to do it, though.

Put the bowl of corn pudding mix which you have covered with parchment paper then aluminum foil on top of the trivet.  Attach the cover and make sure the Instant Pot is in the Sealing mode.  Pressure cook for 45 minutes.  When it is done, let the pressure reduce naturally then when the pin drops, carefully lift the bowl out.  It would be good to have mitts or pot holders on your hands.  Be careful not to let the glass bowl slide off the trivet, drop to the floor, smash, and ruin your wonderful pudding. No, I did not do that but I was nervous as a cat that I would.  Next time I am likely to use the liner for the 3 Quart Instant Pot instead of the glass bowl for the cooking unit.  I thought the bowl would be more attractive on the table.

When I took the Instant Pot
cover off I spread the shredded cheese on top the put the cover back on for a few minutes while I set the table.  It melted down beautifully and, Mister, that was one delicious meal.  Yes, it was almost the whole meal that night.  I can tell you that I wanted more.  And more!  But somehow managed to hold off...