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!