Nuts and Bolts

[bakechef]

my mom always made her chex mix in her turkey roaster, she would make a couple batches every christmas. Last year I bought all the stuff for her to make it when she came to visit, she had a couple glasses of wine first and ended up using the TABLESPOON measure instead of the teaspoon, and kept shoveling in the season salt, That was some salty stuff!

I think I'll try your recipe this year.

 

[CWS4322]

Because I'm such an idiot, I didn't have the seasonings. I added corn chips and pop corn. I used Planters Party mix peanuts and cashews. My seasonings are chilpolte chili, cumin, parsley,onion powder, dried Meyer lemon peel (ground to a powder) and a few dashes of hot sauce. Everything is in the roaster...we'll see.

This is what it looked like when I was done. I have to stop eating it so I can send some to my folks with the cookies. My mom also used to do seasoned oyster crackers....

 

[pacanis]

OK Dina...here it is.

Fill a roaster with, chex, crispix, shreddies, pretzels, nuts of any type you like, cheerios, bugles...whatever turns your crank.

1/4 cup oil
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce (BIG tbsp!)

Melt these together, being careful not to over heat!

1 tbsp each:

seasoning salt
garlic powder
onion powder
celery salt

Pour oil mixture over your nuts and bolts, stirring with your hands. When all are well coated sprinkle sesoning mixture over all. Keep stirring! Bake at 250 for 2 hours or so. Stir every 15 minutes.

If your CI DO is the same size as mine, you will get 1 1/2 batches out of that seasoning mix.

So how big is your roaster? You fill it to the top? (probably not or they would spill out when you stir them)
I just went out to the kitchen to make these and realized you don't have a quantity. How much "nuts and bolts" can I expect your recipe to coat, so I'm not saturating too little a quantity or don't run short on too big a quantity?

 

[Alix]

Um...do you know I've never measured my roaster? Its the one I do turkeys in. It holds a 15lb bird nicely, a 20lber is squished into it. Does that help? It holds two full boxes of cereal, several cups of nuts and several handfuls of pretzels. Sorry pacanis, I'm not very specific.

 

[pacanis]

Nooo, that doesn't help. I've never roasted or boughten a turkey and I don't own a roaster!


How many gallon bags do you think you could fill up?
Should the mixture look wet with the oil/butter/wooster sauce?
If it's still wet after a couple hours roasting, can I roast it longer to dry it out or will it burn?

Maybe I can find a recipe online that tells me how much of the dry ingredients to put in. Hopefully in cups, since cereal comes in different size boxes.

 

[Dawgluver]

Nooo, that doesn't help. I've never roasted or boughten a turkey and I don't own a roaster!


How many gallon bags do you think you could fill up?
Should the mixture look wet with the oil/butter/wooster sauce?
If it's still wet after a couple hours roasting, can I roast it longer to dry it out or will it burn?

Maybe I can find a recipe online that tells me how much of the dry ingredients to put in. Hopefully in cups, since cereal comes in different size boxes.

Would a big rectangular cake pan work? Maybe 2?

When I've done chex mix, it's not wet. Oh, Pac, Chex has a lot of great recipes, as does Crispix. Check out their websites.

 

[pacanis]

When I go to make it, Dawg, (too late now) I will check out some recipes and try to correlate them to Alix's liquids. Once I've made it once I'll know what to look for in the dry/wet ratio, but for the first time I don't want to screw it up.
Now I wish I had bought a bag while I was standing at Walmart's checkout, but I thought I'd be making some today.

 

[Dawgluver]

When I go to make it, Dawg, (too late now) I will check out some recipes and try to correlate them to Alix's liquids. Once I've made it once I'll know what to look for in the dry/wet ratio, but for the first time I don't want to screw it up.
Now I wish I had bought a bag while I was standing at Walmart's checkout, but I thought I'd be making some today.

When you finish with nuts 'n bolts, you need to try Puppy Chow. Chocolate chips, peanut butter and oil, nuke, shake in a ziplock with powdered sugar. I think it's on the Crispex site, or maybe Chex. Google "puppy chow."

 

[pacanis]

Wow. That's got everything good in it!

 

[Dawgluver]

Wow. That's got everything good in it!

What's nice is you can do it in small batches. Any cereal will work, and if I can do it, it's basically idiot proof!

 

[CWS4322]

According to the box, the "recipe" consists of 9 cups of cereal, 1 c nuts, 1 c pretzels, 1 c other (bugels,) so a total of 12 cups. You can nuke for 5 - 6 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes.

 

[pacanis]

Thanks CW. That sounds about right.
I was reading through some of their recipes on their website.
I need to make another trip to the store, too. I remembered I like those little melba toast things in my part mix.

 

[Dawgluver]

The melba toast things are my favorite part!

 

[bakechef]

I love wheat chex in mine, they soak up the butter/spice mixture and are soooo good!

 

[pacanis]

I love wheat chex in mine, they soak up the butter/spice mixture and are soooo good!

Are those the dark ones? I love the dark chex.

In order not to have a bunch of cereal laying around, besides the Cheerios, I bought a Chex mix. One box, two or three different kinds in it.

 

[bakechef]

Are those the dark ones? I love the dark chex.

In order not to have a bunch of cereal laying around, besides the Cheerios, I bought a Chex mix. One box, two or three different kinds in it.

Yup, those are the dark ones. I usually buy one box of those and one box of crispix, I like how the original chex mix wants you to buy a box of each cereal, that's pretty great marketing!

 

[CWS4322]

Okay, I made another batch of Nuts and Bolts--traditional seasoning except I used Fritos instead of bugles or melba toast bits, didn't have any Cheerios. I also didn't have seasoned salt, so I used Mrs. Dash, added smoked paprika. Oh, I also added 1/2 c pumpkin seeds. When it was done, I drizzled with some sesame oil and sprinkled with "4-cheese blend" dry cheese. A friend is giving me homemade curry powder next week--thinking rice chex, pretzels, peanuts, cashews, puffed rice, and the curry powder for seasonings would be the start of a nice mix...

 

[Efrain]

I have never heard of Nuts & Bolts, but this sounds like it would make a tasty alternative to my typical granola for when I go hiking. Being new to DC myself it is great to see how friendly the community seems. I cannot wait to read more of the amazing recipes and topics you all discuss!

 

[Addie]

I have never heard of Nuts & Bolts, but this sounds like it would make a tasty alternative to my typical granola for when I go hiking. Being new to DC myself it is great to see how friendly the community seems. I cannot wait to read more of the amazing recipes and topics you all discuss!

Were happy to have you stick around. Lots and lots of great recipes here for you to try. And all of the folks are very friendly and helpful. This is a perfect example of how all forums should be.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

When you finish with nuts 'n bolts, you need to try Puppy Chow. Chocolate chips, peanut butter and oil, nuke, shake in a ziplock with powdered sugar. I think it's on the Crispex site, or maybe Chex. Google "puppy chow."

They're also called Muddy Buddies, and a friend of mine would always bring them to any of our group gatherings. I'm not much of a snacker, but I definitely could do some serious calorie damage whenever these were around. And now I have a taste for them...

Chex® Muddy Buddies® recipe from Betty Crocker