Gluten-Free Holiday Goodies (city-style)!

Even though I live in downtown Rochester now, I used to live in a townhouse in the suburbs.  I was usually there by myself, so there was tons of elbow room.  My kitchen wasn't huge, but it was big enough to leave the kitchen aid on the counter, roll out sugar cookies at Christmas time, and experiment with new recipes and treats to feed my predominately gluten-free family.  One of my favorite treats was the year me and my mom made lemon mousse-filled meringue cups.  They were really good, but you had to eat them quick because after about a day the meringue got soft from the mousse (not that I would complain about having to eat more than one of those in quick succession).  Random recipes aside, two staples I always make are cookie-cutter sugar cookies, and chex mix (both gluten free, of course!)
In my city apartment, I don't think I have the mixer or the counter space for sugar cookies, so sadly those will not come to fruition this year.  I will say though that the Bette Hagman Revised Sugar Cookie Recipe is the best I've tried though, very close to the Joy of Cooking recipe my grandma used to make.  As far as the Chex mix, man I was making that stuff before Chex decided to be cool and go GF! I used to use "Rice Munch'ems" or some random GF cereal knockoff.  Because Chex are more gluten free than ever, my GF recipe revision is now better than ever and I challenge you to eat it without sneaking handfulls of mix each time you go to stir ;)

Secrets to my holiday Chex Mix! By Maddy Varno.

Secret #1! Buy a box of corn chex! Apparently, the recipe is on the side.  This is helpful, as I had to scramble to find the recipe back when I used Rice Munch'ems.  I also discovered the recipe for Chex Mix on a package of butter once (?), which I thought was pleasantly surprising.  I actually think I have that butter container in a recipe binder somewhere.

Secret #2! There are several ingredients you should not put in your chex mix! These include wheat chex (durrr) and bagel chips.  I have yet to come across GF bagel chips, so I make my own.  I take two Glutino plain bagels and slice them into skinny little slices and toast them on a pan in the toaster oven.  This has worked very well for me, however I suffer extreme distractability and usually forget I put them in the toaster about 10 seconds after I've turned the knob to toast.  I make more than I know I'll need because I always get casualties and burn victims.  Also, I don't add peanuts just because I've never liked them in my Chex Mix.  As a young (un-diagnosed Celiac) child, the peanuts always got thrown out with the empty bag.  I think I'd suck the seasoning off them and spit them out, lol.

 More secrets and details on my recipe after the jump!


Secret #3: Do not be alarmed when you are instructed to microwave your cereal.  I, too, felt this went against my every instinct to, y'know, not stick a 10-cup bowl of chex into the microwave.  For years I resisted and used the oven.  Then on a whim I tried the microwave, and was like "Oh, I see.  This no longer takes an hour."

I figured I'd post my amended recipe here, for those who want the Maddy experience in their GF holiday chex mix.

Ingredients
4 cups Rice Chex
4 cups Corn Chex
1 1/2 cups homemade bagel chips
1 cup Snyders GF pretzels
6 TBS melted butter (Mmmm resist urge to drink it*)
2 TBS worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp seasoning salt
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder

First, prepare your homemade bagel chips by slicing two plain glutino bagels into skinny little slices (think quarter sized, but a little thicker.  Easiest with the bagel at room temp) and toasting them on a pan until they're really lightly toasted on both sides.  Keep an eye on them to make sure they don't burn.  I almost always burn mine.

Shovel your chex, bagel chips, and pretzels into a really big microwavable bowl.  Get your hands all up in its business and stir so everything's mixed even.

In a glass Pyrex measuring cup or something similar, melt down your glorious butter.  I find it melts a lot faster if you hack the stick into smaller pieces.  The chex box told me it would melt in 40 seconds, but the chex box lied unless your butter is at room temperature or something.  From the fridge cut into little pieces, it was melted after two rounds of 30-second nuking.

Combine the worcestershire sauce and seasonings into the butter and stir it all up.  It should look weird but smell delicious.  Pour this mixture lovingly over your dry mix, then mix it around to try and get an even distribution.  I use a spatula and my hand to make sure nothing spills out of the bowl, because the bowl is pretty full to begin with.

Set the microwave for 6 minutes, and stop to stir every 2 minutes.  Tada! After, spread it out on paper towels to cool, then shovel into your face and enjoy.