Cheril's Mom's Addictive Party Mix

This is also known as: "OMG! What is this stuff?!"

The recipe comes from my friend Cheril. Or, more precisely, Cheril's mom. I met Cheril when I was doing my undergrad and she was on exchange from Hawaii. Her mom would send the most amazing care packages and they would invariably include this crack party mix. I have never met Cheril's mom but I think I love her. Here's her recipe - it's a bit tweaked, but basically true to the source.

It comes with a warning though: put it out in quite a few bowls because some people at my parties have been known to cradle a bowl of it in their laps and hoard it.

You will need:

• 2 boxes of Crispix cereal (or Chex if in the US) - the regular, not ginormo size.
• a big bag of straight Pretzels, low salt if possible
• some almonds if you wish. I don't usually do it because of those nut allergy people
• 1.5-2 cups of sugar
• 5 (yes you heard me, 5!) sticks of butter (1.25lbs!)
• a good slug of Worcestershire sauce - about 4-5 Tbs?

Can I digress here? In Australia, our sticks of butter are 250g, and when I first made this recipe I used 5 Aussie sticks - that's 2.5lbs of butter. It was quite rich, LOL.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F and melt the butter, sugar, and sauce together. Dump your cereal, buts and pretzels into 2 or 3 large baking dishes and pour the sauce evenly over the mix, tossing to coat evenly. Then stick it in your oven, checking and tossing it every 10 mins. It will take about 40 mins in my experience, but be careful, because it burns easily and fast! You want it golden brown. Let is cool and then pack it away until your party. Don't make it too far in advance because you'll eat it all and have to make some more.

Here is a close up:

 

 See how some of the bits are really, really encrusted with that sugary, buttery stuff? Those are the pieces you want to make sure you get!

And if you ever go to Hawaii, see if you can make a date to meet Cheril's mom and thank her for me!