#header-inner {background-position: center !important; width: 100% !important;}

Friday, January 20, 2012

Tijuana Trash (Snack Mix)

Pin It

In another life, I would be fantastically talented in the arts, particularly singing and dancing. Alas, my cousins Ashlyn and Benjamin nabbed those genes in the family and I’ve resigned to singing showtunes while I bake and making a fool of myself at every wedding I’m invited to. I told you I was recently introduced to the Wii’s Just Dance 3 at my friend Kacey’s house. What I didn’t tell you is that I now have a borderline obsession.

Unfortunately (well, fortunately), we don’t have a Wii. I managed to borrow one “for our New Year’s Eve party” and then proceeded to spend more than six hours over the course of two days playing. SIX hours. That’s a lot of dancing. Over 100 songs, I believe. Don’t laugh, I was fulfilling a dream.
In those two days, I discovered a few things:
1.       It is possible to make dramatic dancing improvements after several hours of play.
2.       Six hours of flinging around your arms will result in sore elbows. Six hours of jumping will result in sore calves. Forget working out, I’ll just dance!
3.       That kind of continuous movement makes me hungry. 
Thankfully, I had some of this Tijuana Trash on hand. As soon as I saw it on Amanda’s blog, I bookmarked it. Having a thing for various snack mixes, I knew I’d be a fan of this one. It has all the best elements of a snack mix—crunchy, sweet, crispy, and with a bit of heat in the aftertaste. My favorite part was the tortilla chips, a new snack mix ingredient to me! This is a great make-ahead party food. Or, you know, dance fuel.

One Year Ago: Cauliflower and Chickpea Stew with Couscous
Two Years Ago: Curried Butternut Squash Soup


Tijuana Trash (Snack Mix)
from Fake Ginger

Ingredients:
-4 cups tortilla chips, broken into 1-inch pieces
-3 cups Corn Chex cereal
-3 cups Cheerios
-1 (10 oz) can of mixed nuts
-1/2 cup light corn syrup
-1 stick butter
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1 1/2 tbsp chili powder
-1/4 tsp cinnamon
-1/2-1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 250F.
2. In a large bowl, combine tortilla chips, Chex, Cheerios, and nuts.
3. In a small saucepan, mix corn syrup, butter, brown sugar, chili powder, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper. Heat to boiling.
4. Pour mixture into the bowl and stir to completely coat. Pour mixture out onto two baking sheets lined with foil. Bake uncovered for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
5. Allow to cool completely before placing in an airtight container to store.