Butt Chex

It is that magical time of the year. Yes, that most wonderful time of the year when chex mix becomes a dietary staple.

I have been working to perfect my BBQ chex mix. I use "butt rub" from bbq as the chief seasoning, thus earning the name "butt chex."

I'll tell you what I'm doing -- but then give you the basic idea so you can create your own butt chex.

First - you'll need a nice large alum. roasting pan -- if you got two at thanksgiving, the one that's left over. It needs to be pretty big, 'cause you'll make a lot. I also like to line my pan with foil just to make clean up easier and allow me to reuse the pan over and over.

Second - you'll need a seasoning mix. You can use whatever seasoned salt you like. My butt rub mix comes from the Joy of Cooking. It has salt/pepper/garlic/paprika/hot pepper/brown sugar/ and other stuff, I think.

Use about 12-14 cups of any combination of munchies you like. I have used: Chex cereals, Cheerios, corn chips, pretzels, pita chips, gold fish crackers, etc. Anything bite sized and will take seasoning. Also, I throw in nuts. I like cashews and almonds. But, use what you like and can afford.

Put all your munchies in the roasting pan and mix them up.

Heat your oven to 300 degrees.

Melt on the stove top: 1 stick butter. Add in 1 generous tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (I don't measure, so it might be more), 1 1/2 tsp garlic salt, 2 tsp butt rub seasoning, several dashes of hot sauce, and about 1 tbls packed brown sugar (again, I didn't measure, so it could have been a little bit more).

Whisk it all together - and pour over the munchies. Stir carefully.

Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

When you're done baking, spread out on foil lined cookie sheets to cool. The munchies will get crunchie as they cool. Store in air tight container.

The basic seasoning is 1 stick butter, 1 tbls (more or less) Worcestershire sauce, and 3-4 tsp seasoning, and a little brown sugar. Although, if you want it less sweet, leave out the sugar - it will still be good.

The Chick says that when it's cool, she likes to add in m&ms or choco chips. YUMMY!!!