I have always expressed love through the sharing of food. And Christmas is a time where this takes on a special significance. Every year I am blessed to coordinate a turkey dinner with all the fixings for the folks at Harvest Manitoba. I started in 1994 and this was my final year. While it’s exhausting, I’ll miss it.

This year I also got to pack hampers at the Christmas Cheer Board-a wonderful way to bless people during the holidays. 

The older my friends and I get, the less we need gifts for Christmas. Most of us are blessed to have everything we need and are focused on downsizing, not accumulating more.  So, many of us have started buying each other consumables; nice lotions, bath products, candles and the like. My favourite consumable gifts have always been food related.

For many years I organized a cooking exchange where about 8 of us would get together and bring seven dozen cookies to swap with each other. It really cut down on the work of Christmas baking because you only had to make lots of one thing but would go home at the end of the evening with a wide variety of baking. Then I would pull together plates of cookies for work colleagues, my hair salon, vets office, etc.

I no longer do the cookie exchange because for the past number of years a dear friend of mine has gifted me with a basket full of Christmas treats, to augment my baking, that I can share with my family. She also includes her homemade granola, salsa, cranberry sauce, mango jalapeño jelly and turmeric pickle. All yummy concoctions. 

I used to make this particular friend a Bûche de Noël for her to serve for Christmas dessert, but recently I’ve switched to a more practical gift of casseroles to be delivered to her family a couple times in January. This year is turkey tetrazzini and lasagna roll ups. 

I’m trying to make life more simple, so for the past few years, I have been gifting boxes of homemade nuts and bolts. Here’s the base recipe I use, but I change it up every year as it’s not always easy to find this variety of Chex cereal. I’ll substitute with bugles or cheese bits. 

“ONCE UPON A CHEF” HOMEMADE CHEX MIX

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE SNACK MIX

4 cups Corn Chex

4 cups Wheat Chex

3 cups Rice Chex

2 cups Cheerios

3 cups skinny bite-sized pretzels

1½ cups salted nuts

FOR THE BUTTER SEASONING

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 

3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 heaping teaspoons seasoned salt

1¼ teaspoons garlic powder

¾ teaspoon onion powder

¾ teaspoon dried thyme

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 250°F and set an oven rack in the middle position.

Combine the Corn Chex, Wheat Chex, Rice Chex, Cheerios, pretzels, and nuts in a large disposable aluminum pan or roasting pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter, Worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and thyme. Pour slowly over the snack mix, stirring as you go, to coat evenly. Continue stirring until snack mix is well coated with the seasoning. Bake for 1½ hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Let cool, then serve or store in an airtight container.

Note: You can omit any of the snack mix ingredients as long as you substitute something else. The idea is to keep the ratio of snack mix to butter seasoning the same. Also, be sure your oven is fully preheated before you put the snack mix in. The initial surge of heat to preheat the oven will burn the snack mix in a heartbeat.

Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The snack mix can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Cool completely before freezing.

Kath;s quote: ‘Food is symbolic of love, when words are inadequate“. -Allan Woodfelt

Love never fails.

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