Weekend Cooking: Sweet & Spicy Snack Mix

It's a holiday weekend here in America and I've had a crazy week of appointments, deadlines, and general busyness. Thus, I have a short and savory Weekend Cooking post today.

A few days ago I was going over my Memorial Day menu and came up with all the usual suspects: hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, fruit salad, a baked something or other. Wine and beer.

Then I started to think about what I wanted for snacking with drinks before and after dinner. Two things hit me: I didn't want to fuss and I didn't want to dump a bag of tortilla chips in a bowl and call it a day. What to do?

As I was musing out loud, Mr. BFR said, "You know what I have a craving for? That Chex party mix stuff." Hummm. Okay. Buuuuut, I don't make it anymore because I have developed a mild peanut allergy.

Still, I kind of liked the idea too. A little internet searching later, and I found a sweet and spicy mix with peanut-free ingredients (as long as I subbed cashews for the peanuts). Thank you, Real Simple magazine.

I was able to find peanut free everything and mixed up a batch of completely addictive Honey Mustard Snack Mix. This is so good that I almost had to hide it from Mr. BFR so we'd have some left for our cookout!

Here's the recipe from the Real Simple site, where you'll find the nutritional informational and tips on storage and recrisping. My changes are in red (and the photo is my own).

Honey Mustard Snack Mix
Makes 10 cups

• 3 cups crisp wheat cereal squares (such as Wheat Chex)
• 2 cups crisp corn snacks (such as Bugles)
• 2 cups mini pretzels
• 2 cups bagel chips, lightly crushed
• 2 cups honey-roasted peanuts [I used cashews]
• 2 cups wasabi peas [I forgot to buy these]
• 10 tablespoons (5 oz.) unsalted butter
• ⅓ cup honey
• 3 tablespoons dry mustard
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• ½ teaspoons kosher salt [I omitted]
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) [I used this]

Preheat oven to 300°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place cereal squares, corn snacks, pretzels, bagel chips, peanuts, and peas in a large bowl.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium. Remove from heat, then whisk in honey, dry mustard, Dijon mustard, chili powder, onion powder, salt, and cayenne, if using, until combined.

Drizzle butter mixture over cereal mixture; gently stir together until well combined, then spread onto prepared baking pans. Bake, stirring every 10 minutes, until fragrant and lightly toasted, about 30 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving. Snack mix keeps, in airtight containers at room temperature, for up to 2 weeks. Recrisp if necessary.

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Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

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