TEXAS TRASH - a family favorite

TEXAS Trash is one of my very favorite recipes.  I have been making it for over 30 years.  I think my original recipe came from my dear friend Emily and her mother, Jane.  

Texas Trash is a holiday tradition - I make it and give it away time after time during the holidays. It is a favorite mix just to have around during any gathering. We like it so much that I make it all year long, but for sure at Christmas.  I have made it three times this Christmas!  

Enjoy!  You will become addicted! 

TEXAS TRASH

1 box wheat Chex
1 box rice Chex
1 box corn Chex
1 box Cheeze-Its
1 bag pretzel sticks
2 cans mixed nuts or more
1 large bag of pecan halves

Divide these ingredients equally between 2 big foil roasting pans. (I was and re-use)

Mix the following ingredients in two saucepans over medium heat. After the butter is melted and the ingredients are mixed, pour the two butter mixtures over the two pans of snack mix.

6 - 8 sticks butter and/or margarine (3-4 in each pan)

10-12 Tbsp. Worcestershire (5 in each pan)

8 Tbsp. TABASCO Original Red sauce (4)

10-12 tsp. Lawry’s season salt (5)

2-3 tsp. garlic powder (1)

Toss gently. Bake one on the top rack and one on the bottom rack. Bake at 250 degrees stirring every 30 minutes for 2 ½ hours. I switch the bottom to the top and the top to the bottom after an hour or so. I cover my table in newspaper and then wax paper. Pour the mixture out to cool. Store in an airtight container and ENJOY!!! Share with friends!

Hot Swiss Cheese Dip

I have made this dip a few times for my teachers and it gets rave reviews.  It is easy, quick and yummy!  I saved this recipe off of Instagram at The Hungry Hooker.  This would be a great recipe to add to you holiday cooking. 

Hot Swiss Cheese Dip - Adapted from The Hungry Hooker

1  8 oz block of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup mayonnaise

8 oz bag grated Alpine Cheese - blend of Swiss and Gruyere (or just Swiss)

1/4 cup chopped green onions (save some of the green to top/garnish)

1/3 cup crushed Ritz crackers

1/4 - 1/3 cup bacon crumbles

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together the softened cream cheese, mayonnaise and grated cheese.  Add most of the green onions, saving some of the green parts to sprinkle on top. Stir to combine and pour in a small greased baking dish/platter. Top with crushed Ritz crackers, bacon pieces and the green parts of the chopped onion.    Bake at 350 for 20 - 25 minutes til hot and bubbly. Serve warm with Ritz crackers.

Fall Apple Cinnamon Chex Mix

 I love a good snack mix.  I make The World's Best Snack Mix, Texas Trash and Firecrackers on a regular basis.  

I love flowing Kelsey at Little Bits of Real Food.  I have followed her for years -she is a hoot!  She recently posted this Apple Cinnamon Chex Mix which is right up my ally.  I just made it a second time yesterday.  Everyone loves it!

I wanted to make it gluten free for my gluten-free friends but I couldn't find a gluten-free version of a graham flavored cereal.  I found a cinnamon toast flavor but wanted more of a graham flavor.  I just made it as is.  SO YUMMY!

Apple Cinnamon Chex Mix - adapted from Little Bits of Real Food

6 cups Rice Chex

4 cups Golden Grahams

2 cups pretzels

1 cup pecan halves

2 cups dried apple chips

2 sticks butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Spray a large foil roasting pan with cooking spray.  Add in the rice Chex, Golden Grahams, pretzels, pecan halves and apple chips.  In a sauce pan, melt the butter and brown sugar together to form a syrup.  Bring to a slight boil and then pour over the cereal mixture. Toss gently to coat.  In a small bowl, mix together the white sugar with cinnamon and nutmeg.  Sprinkle this mixture of the coated cereal mixture. Gently toss to coat. Bake at 275 for 45 minutes - stirring every 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Store in an airtight container! 

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Monster Cookies

 I love peanut butter and chocolate.  I have been making these Monster Bars for years - they are easy, one pan and everyone loves them.  I can also make them gluten-free when I need to.  

I follow Tessa at Handle the Heat on Instagram.  She is a fabulous baker.  I thought I would try her Monster Cookie and they came out perfect.  I highly recommend.  

  

I didn't change the recipe at all.  I recommend visiting Tessa at Handle the Heat.  If you like to bake, she has lots of hints on ... How to make the perfect cookie!  Enjoy!

I spied this yummy Blueberry Muffin Loaf over at Smitten Kitchen.  This bread is loaded with blueberries and I especially love the crunchy top with turbinado sugar. I noticed others talking about other sweet bread recipes that she has shared.  As I was leaving the house this morning, I noticed Chris had sliced a big piece, spread it with butter and was toasting it in the toaster oven - yum!  This is an easy, one bowl recipe.  I used fresh blueberries but you can use frozen too.  Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffin Loaf  - adapted from Smitten Kitchen

8 Tbsp butter, melted

3/4 cup granulated sugar

lemon zest from one lemon

1 cup plain unsweetened Greek-style yogurt

2 large eggs

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp kosher salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

3 Tbsp turbinado sugar 

Preheat oven to 375.  Line a large loaf pan (9 x 5) with parchment paper, pushing into the corners. Melt butter in a large bowl then whisk in granulated sugar and lemon zest.  Add yogurt, eggs and whisk to combine.  Add in baking powder, baking soda and salt whisking to combine.  Add flour and berries and fold in until all pockets of flour are incorporated. Batter will be very thick.  Spoon into prepared pan.  Drop it several times on the counter to make sure all air bubbles are out of the bottom. Sprinkle the top with all 3 Tbsp of turbinado sugar.  Bake for 60 - 70 minutes or until a toothpick comes at clean.  Use parchment handles to lift out of the pan to cook on a cooling rack. 

Honey Mustard Marinated Grilled Chicken

 I think my favorite food in the summer is done on the grill!  I have a few favorites - Lemon Caesar Grilled Chicken from my friend, Kathy and Lemon- Basil Grilled Chicken from my friend, Pat.  Kathy is a current neighbor and Pat is a former neighbor - I love good neighbors! I also highly recommend Mexican Flank Steak from my dear friend Lya!  

This past weekend, we tried a new one from Two Peas and Their Pod.  I have followed them for years on Ingram and Maria has amazing recipes.  Her Honey Mustard Chicken was fabulous.  I marinated it for several hours.  Chris grilled it.  It does have honey in it so you want to grill on a clean grill and watch for it not to get too hot and stick to the grill.  This chicken had amazing flavor... but we like mustard.  Visit Maria over at Two Peas and Their Pod for more details. 

Happy Grilling! 

Serve the Honey Mustard Chicken with fresh Corn on the Cob and this yummy Asparagus Pasta Salad!

Honey Mustard Chicken - adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Marinade - Reserve 1/4 cup for basting chicken

1/4 cup whole grain mustard

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

1/3 cup honey

2 Tbsp olive oil

juice of one lemon (I used 1 Tbsp of lemon juice from fridge)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp dried thyme

Mix all of the ingredients together in a large measuring cup.  Salt and paper the chicken and add the chicken to a large gallon ziplock bag. Pour over the marinade.  Seal the bag and marinate for at least 30 minutes or up to 8 hours.  Grill the chicken, covered for 5 - 7 minutes and then flip and baste the chicken with the reserved marinade. Girl another 5 - 9 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.  Remove from grill and let chicken rest for about 5 minutes.  

Asparagus Pasta

 Happy Summer!  Chris and I grilled out this weekend and I wanted a new summer side dish.  Love all of the recipes from Krista at Stay Fit Mom.  Her Asparagus Pasta was perfect.  I stored the extra in the fridge and we heated it up and enjoyed it for several days. Visit her fun page.  She has great meal-prep recipes, Ninja Creams Recipes, Sourdough recipes, etc. 

Cheeseburger Garbage Bread by "Brunch with Babs"

 I follow Babs on Instagram.  I love her and her husband is great too.  She has the best personality and SO much energy at 75.  She has great ideas for home, etiquette and great recipes.  You should follow Babs - any Brunch with Babs. 

Babs mentioned this Cheeseburger Garbage Bread recently before the Super Bowl.  I never make things like this so I decided to try.  We loved it - easy and so much flavor.  I got my pizza dough from Aldi but you could make your own, get the Pillsbury canned pizza dough or get the yummy dough from Trader Joes. Check out her video

I goofed and just put my meat in the middle of the dough instead of spreading it all out and making it spiral when rolling it up.  It was still fabulous.  I did make her yummy sauce.  I served it with a Caesar Salad and sweet potato fries. 

                                           my picture isn't great - Babs is much better :)

Cheeseburger Garbage Bread - Adapted from Brunch with Babs

1/2 lb chopped bacon (I browned the bacon in advance)

1 cup chopped onion

1 lb lean ground beef

1 Tbsp steak seasoning

1  13.8 pizza dough

1 1/2 cups grated cheddar jack cheese

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Ingredients for the dipping sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 Tbsp ketchup

2 tsp yellow mustard

1 tsp white vinegar

2 Tbsp pickle relish

1 Tbsp finely minced onion

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp onion powder

Make sauce and store in refrigerator in a covered container.  I made mine in advance. 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until nice and crispy.  Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside. Drain most of the bacon drippings.  In the same pan, cook your onions and ground beef.  Drain and add back the bacon, add the steak seasoning and cheddar jack cheese.  Stir to combine. Spread your pizza dough out to form a large 11 x 17 rectangle.  Gently spread your meat mixture over the top of the dough - leaving at least a one inch edge.  Sprinkle with the cheddar cheese.  Gently roll up starting on one large side and pinch the ends.  You can brush with egg wash (I did't) and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake seam side down and back for 20 - 25 minutes.  Allow to cool 5 - 10 mixture before serving. 

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Homemade Caramels

 I am so sorry I haven't posted in awhile.  It takes me awhile to find a new recipe I LOVE....and I LOVE this caramel recipe.  During the Christmas holidays, I came across this yummy recipe and had to try.  Jenna was home and we loved it so much, we made it a second time.  I just made them for Valentines.  They are not hard but you do have to have a candy thermometer.  I ordered this new digital thermometer off of Amazon.  I also had good parchment paper and I ordered a handy tool for cutting the caramels.  As for wrapping the caramels, I tried cute little bright foil wrappers first but those stuck to the caramels so don't get those.  I then ordered some cute wax paper wrappers from Amazon and those worked great.  I got this fabulous recipe from Krista at Stay Fit mom.  I follow Krista on instagram.  She said this was her grandma's Christmas Caramel recipe.  Krista uses a poly-lined floral foils to wrap hers.  It comes in a big roll and you have to cut it. 

This recipe isn't hard.  It just takes a little bit of time and patience.  I cut mine over two days.  I would cut, wrap, cut, wrap... rest for a bit and then cut some more.  It makes a ton of caramels.  I truly cannot tell you how yummy these are.  

I topped mine with sea salt - Krista does not.  ENJOY!!!

                                       new digital thermometer - cook on medium low to 240 degrees F

Homemade Caramels (adapted from Krista at StayFit Mom)

2 sticks butter or 16 Tablespoons

2 14 oz cans condensed milk

1 2 lb bag dark brown sugar 

2 cups light corn syrup

pinch salt

2 tsp vanilla

option - sea salt for topping

Line a large 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper.  Use clips to clip it to the side of the pan to keep it in place and so you can lift the caramels out of the pan. 

In a large, heavy duty pan (not teflon-I use my All-Clad),  start melting butter over medium heat.  Add the rest of the ingredients except the vanilla.  Stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, getting the bottom and sides of the pan, bring the mixture to a constant, gentle boil.  When mixture starts to boil, add in the candy thermometer. Continue to stir until mixture turns golden and reaches a temperature between 240 and 242 degrees.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. 

Pour the mixture into the parchment paper lined pan.  If interested, top with sea salt.  Allow mixture to cool before cutting and wrapping. 

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