Sweet & Salty Chex Mix

Did some more Holiday baking today. One of my favorite snacks is the Sweet & Salty Chex Mix. I saw this on the back of one of the holiday shaped chocolate chips bags many years ago and have made it part of my tradition to make for Christmas and Halloween. I adapted it to my taste adding preztles and my favorites Bugels. Bugels are tough to find sometimes, you have to really look hard in the chip section. Hope you enjoy!

Note: Change up the M&M colors to suite whatever holiday or event you are making it for.

Sweet & Salty Chex Mix

• 9 cups chex mix (your choice of flavors)
• 4 cups of popcorn (I use microwave) 1 bag is more than 4 cups
• 1 1/2 cups of dry-roasted peanuts
• 1 cup pretzle sticks
• 1 cup bugels
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 bag of your favorite colored M& M's

Preheat oven to 250,grease large cookie sheet or 2.

Mix: cereal, popcorn, peanuts, pretzles and bugels in a large bowl.

Combine: brown sugar, butter and corn syrup in a medium heavy duty sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat; stirring constantly. Boil, without stirring for 5 minutes (watching carefully). Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and baking soda. Pour over the cereal mixture and stir to coat evenly.

Bake: for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool completely in pan stirring frequently to break apart.

ADD M&M'S AFTER MIX IS COMPLETELY COOL. If not you will have a gooey mess.

Store in airtight container.

Tis the Season!

Tis the Season to make "Peanut Butter Balls". Super easy to make and so delicious. It's a tradition in our house to make these every year. I will be making these babies on Weds. night.

PEANUT BUTTER BALLS

• 1 lb powdered sugar
• 2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter; softened
• 2 cups rice krispy cereal; crushed in a ziplock bag.
• 2 (12 oz) pkgs milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips.

Combine sugar, peanut butter and butter in a bowl. Mix until smooth. Add cereal and gently stir until combined. Roll mixture into individual balls and put on a coo

kie sheet. Refridgereate for 20 minutes. Melt chocolate and dip each ball into chocolate. Keep in a cool area or in refrigerator.

Enjoy!
Kimm

Crockpot Carnitas

This is a wonderful recipe for crockpot carnitas. I make this and have tacos and any leftovers we make green enchiladas with.

I just rub this mixture all over the pork and let sit a few days before I put in crockpot.

Crockpot Carnitas

Serves 6-8

• 1 (4 lb) pork shoulder or pork butt
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
• 3 teaspoons seasoning salt 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 1/2-2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 2 onions, thinly sliced

Put meat in crockpot and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4 hours. If you have too much you can use the left overs and put BBQ sauce on it and then make BBQ beef sandwiches.

Homemade Clam Chowder

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. Things have been busy with work and keeping up with the kids. Today was a nice cool and rainy morning and I wanted to make some sort of soup. Just seemed like the perfect day. I decided on making Clam Chowder. Everyone in my house loves Clam Chowder so it was a safe call.

Here is the Simple recipe.

CLAM CHOWDER

Serves: 4-6

2 Cups Water

1 pinch of Salt

4 Cups of peeled chopped potatoes (I cube mine)

1/2 C finely chopped onion

1/4 cup butter

3 T all-purpose flour

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp celery seed

2 T dried parsley flakes (I used 1)

1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk

2 (10oz) cans baby clams (I only use 1 can as it was way too many clams for us) It's your preference.

salt and pepper to your taste

1. Cook potato in 2 cups of water with pinch of salt until tender, but DO NOT drain.
2. In a small pan, saute onion in butter until tender, add flour, cayenne, and celery seed; stir well.
3. Drain juice from clams into potatoes and reserve clams for later.
4. Add parsley and milk to potato mixture, and stir well.
5. Heat potato mixture, and add onion/flour mixture, stirring constantly until thickened slightly.
6. Stir in clams, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Cook for 5-10 minutes till heated through.

Enjoy with some nice crusty french bread.