Treasured Trash

This is a page scanned directly out of Mom's black recipe binder. It is a treasure. I particularly love how a little girl carefully put a Merry Christmas stamp on it; I actually remember doing that. It wasn't because this is such a holiday dish as much as it was because that recipe was out at the same time the stamp (with which I was enamored, I mean, what little girl wouldn't be? It has sparkly stars on it.) was out, and I was desperate to try it on something.

My family has always called it "trash." Does your family have a party/Chex/what have you mix with a goofy name? Some Southerners like to coat this stuff in white chocolate and call it white trash, but I'm more of a purist.

Speaking of goofy Christmas traditions, I'd love to hear some of yours. It just doesn't feel like the holidays around here until we watch Mixed Nuts. Mom rented it for the first time more than 10 years ago. We both hated it. It was awful. Tasteless. Disgusting.

Hey, let's watch it again.

And the second time, we GOT it. And laughed ourselves silly. So many phrases around Mom's house comes from that movie, but we don't realize them until we're watching it and find ourselves ruminating, "So THAT's where that phrase comes from!"

In case you can't read the above, here's the transcription:

Nuts & Bolts

1 pound butter

2 or 4 cloves of garlic

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire (Mom can spell it, but she can't say it!)

1 teaspoon Tabasco

Salt to taste

1 box Cheerios

1 box Rice Chex

1 box Kix

1 box stick pretzels

1 pound mixed nuts (one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies)

1. Melt butter in large roaster.
2. Add everything except nuts & pretzels.
3. Toast in 250 degree oven, turning every 20-30 minutes for 2-3 hours.
4. Add nuts & pretzels the last 45 minutes.

Merry Christmas