This last Saturday evening Mr. C. and I helped our dear friend Christine celebrate her 60th birthday. And since she was born in the 50s, she wanted to throw a 50s style cocktail party for her family and closest friends. So several of us helped her celebrate by preparing a few favorites from that decade. It was really a fun evening and the food was sensational. We had fruit boats, deviled eggs, BBQ’d smoked pork with homemade mustard and toasted sesame seeds, marinated grilled prawns, killer brownies, and an incredible chocolate peanut butter birthday cake, to mention a few of the items.
While I was researching party food from the 50s, I found that Chex Party Mix was invariably listed. But in all my years of preparing party food, I had never thought to include party mix as one of my offerings. All I could remember from having tried it at a few parties was that it was just way too salty for my taste, and frankly a little boring. But party mix just kept screaming at me to be noticed. (I hate it when food screams at me!) So I went to my favorite cooking resource, the internet, and found an abundance of recipes from which to choose.
None of the recipes I found in their entirety sounded just right to me. So I took bits and pieces from several recipes and came up with this version. And lo and behold, it was good. No, not just good, it was really good! The fresh garlic and hot sauce were just perfect together. And, it was not too salty. And to my amazement, the cereal part of the mix was what everyone (and especially my new friend Spiro) liked the best in the mix. It wasn’t the expensive nuts or the pretzel sticks which I assumed everyone would pick out from between all those ever so plebian little squares of rice, corn, and wheat. Who’d of guessed? But when you think about it, cereal is absorbent. (Think what milk can do to it in just a matter of minutes!) So all that lovely buttery goodness stuck to those little squares of grain like water adheres to sponges. So of course everyone liked the cereal best! Duh!
I used 2 cups of pretzels last Saturday, but after talking with some of the guests, I decided to reduce the amount to one cup and add another cup of the Wheat Chex. But pretty much, if you stick to a combination of 14 cups of cereal, nuts, and pretzels, the butter mixture provided in the recipe below should be just about right. So next time you are feeling “retro”, make a big old batch of party mix. You know, the 50s generation left us a legacy of some pretty great party food. Of course, they also left us clam dip, but no generation is perfect! So I’m going to focus on martinis and party mix and try to push any remembrances of clam dip to the far recesses of my brain. At the rate I am forgetting things anyway these days, I figure I won’t think about clam dip again until I’m around 95. By then, someone may have created a clam dip that is palatable. We can only hope!
Note: If you happen to have a clam dip recipe that is out of this world, please pass it along. I can’t promise that I will post the recipe, because I truly have developed a strong prejudice against clams, cream cheese, and Worcestershire sauce in combination. But I would love to know that somewhere out there, a perfect clam dip is just waiting to shatter my illusions!
- 3 c. Corn Chex® cereal
- 3 c. Rice Chex® cereal
- 4 c. Wheat Chex® cereal
- 1 ½ c. mixed nuts
- 1 ½ c. cashews
- 1 c. thin pretzel sticks
- 10 T. butter
- 3 T. Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ tsp. hot sauce (recommend Frank’s Red Hot)
- 1/2 tsp. onion powder
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 tsp. seasoned salt
In a very large bowl, combine the Chex (any combination of corn, rice, and wheat* is perfect), nuts, and pretzel sticks. Melt the butter in a saucepan; stir in the Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and onion powder. Remove from heat. Place garlic on a cutting board. Lay the side of the blade of a chef´s knife on each clove of garlic and smash down with the heel of your palm. Sprinkle the garlic with seasoned salt and chop coarsely. Pile the chopped garlic all together. Tilt the knife at a 30-degree angle to the board and drag it over the garlic, scraping it across the surface of the board. Pile up the garlic and scrape again. Repeat until the garlic is a fairly smooth paste. Add the mashed garlic and seasoned salt to the butter. Gently stir the buttery mixture into the cereal mix until the dry mix is evenly coated. Spread on baking sheets and bake for 1 hour in a pre-heated 250 degree oven, turning every 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Store mix in an airtight container.
*To make gluten free party mix, don’t use the Wheat Chex. Substitute with additional Rice Chex, Corn Chex, or nuts. Leave the package of pretzel sticks at the grocery store