The real true taste of New Year's Snackin' Eve

This is not Pinterest and I am not Martha Stewart.  Now that we have that cleared up, I want to say that every year at this time I think about what New Year's Eve meant to me when I was but a barefoot boy with cheek of tan. I used to enjoy staying up late to watch the ball drop in Times Square, and I enjoyed changing the calendars around the house, all the while shaking my head over the fact that the Tonight Show came on in one year and went off in a whole 'nother one.

It didn't take much to amuse me.  Still doesn't.

But one thing I always loved about NYE was whipping up a mess of Chex Mix.  I thought I would share the recipe - the original recipe from way back when we shunned margarine and chemical-tasting "spreads" and used a real oven to cook, rather than a Radarange.

To be quite honest...the original printed recipe from the good people at Ralston-Purina only called for Chex as cereal, but if you add the pretzel sticks and Cheerios, then you get to call this "Nuts and Bolts" as we used to.

Ingredients for real Chex Mix: 

1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
6 cups Wheat, Rice or Corn Chex, or any combination
1/4 teaspoon salty seasoning (like Jane's Krazy Mixed-Up Salt)
2 cups peanuts
2 cups of thin pretzel sticks, optional
I cup of regular Cheerios

Instructions

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Melt the butter in a shallow baking pan. Stir the Worcestershire sauce and salty seasoning into the butter. Add the cereal, nuts and pretzel sticks; mix well. Bake at 275 degrees F for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Let cool.

You can also add Cheez-Its, and, of course, as with any recipe that calls for Worcestershire sauce, when they say "1 teaspoon" of the wonderful stuff from Lea & Perrins, they really mean like "3 tablespoons." 

A bowlful of this to share with people you love, maybe a can of Boh, and 2016 will be easier to welcome and 2015 easier to forget.