Spicy Nuts and Bolts

I love crunchy, savory things - and Nuts and Bolts (also called Chex Mix) has been apart of my life forever. I make it quite a bit during the year but I always make a bunch over the Holidays. This is my tweaking of the recipe - I always goes over big at parties.

Ingredients -

1 Box Corn Chex
(I only like the corn so I only use corn Chex)
If you like a mix of the cereals you will need about 12 or so cups of cereal.
1 C Mixed Nuts
1 C or A big handful of pretzel sticks
3 Tlbs Worcester Sauce
1 Tlbs Hot Sauce
1 Stick Sweet Butter
2 Heaping Teas Season Salt
1 Heaping Teas Garlic Salt (you can substitute garlic powder)

1 - In a large Roasting pan put the butter, then put the pan in a 325 oven. Melt the butter, but do not brown.
2 - In a large pot mix together the Chex, Nuts and pretzels.


3 - In a small bowl mix together the Worcester Sauce, Hot Sauce, season salt and garlic salt. Stir.

4 - When the butter is fully melted and before it browns take the pan out of the oven and mix in the liquids. Stir to fully mix all the sauce.

Take the Chex stuff and pour into the pan. Fully mix and coat the cereal mix with the sauce.
5 - Place the pan back in the oven and every 15 or so mins take it out and stir all the cereal mix


so that it does not stick and burn. After an hour or so it should be brown and toasty. Take it out of the oven and let it cool completely before putting the mix into and airtight container. The recipe doubles up very easily and will keep a week or so if not gobbled up. :)

Molasses Sugar Cookies

I love molasses on and in stuff and just love cookies.... and these spicy, chewy dark cookies fill the bill. This is a recipe from AllRecipes and posted by Karin C. I have been making a version of these for years, but this is probably the best recipe I have found to date.

Ingredients -

1 1/2 C Shortening
2 C White sugar
1/2 C Molasses
2 Eggs
4 C AP Flour
4 Teas Baking soda (yes 4)
2 teas Ground Cinnamon
1 Teas Ground Clove
1 Teas Ground Ginger
1 Teas Salt

Directions -

1 - Melt shortening - let cool

2 - In a mixing bowl put the sugar, eggs and molasses, beat very well. Add cooled melted shortening.

3 - In a separate bowl sift the dry ingredients together. Add the dry mixture a little at a time to the wet - mix well - this will be a bit on the stiff side after all the dry is incorporated.

4 - Chill the dough for a t least 3 or 4 hours, better if chilled overnight in the refrigerator.

5 - Take chilled dough and form into walnut sized balls( I used a small scoop to keep them uniform in size), roll in granulated sugar

(I rolled mine twice, Once through then went back and rolled them a second time - it makes the cookies a bit more sparkly) Place on a greased cookie sheet (I did not grease the pan, I used parchment paper - I like it better than greasing a pan).


6 - Bake at about 375 degrees for 8 to 10 mins, do not over bake or they will not be chewy.

7 - Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container to keep from getting overly crisp. If they do loose their softness, an easy way to restore it is to place a slice of fresh bread in the container with the cookies for a couple of hours or overnight and they will get soft again.

Dinner Roll Dough

Ingredients -

1/2 C Warm water (110 degrees)
1/2 C Warm Milk
1 Egg
1/3 C Soft Butter
1/3 C White Sugar
1 teas salt
3 3/4 AP Flour
1 (.25 oz) Pkg Active dry Yeast
1/4 C Soft Butter

Directions -

1 - Place water, milk, egg, 1/3 c butter, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.


Select Dough/Knead and First Rise Cycle, press start.

2 - When cycle finishes,


turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.


Divide in half. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle, spread the 1/4 cup of soft butter over entire round. Cut each buttered circle into wedges....


Starting at wide end; roll gently, but tightly. Place point down on an ungreased pan.


Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise another hour in a warm place. Meanwhile preheat oven to 400 degrees.

3 - Bake in preheated oven for about 12 mins, until golden.

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For the Cina-buns you do all the above - except you roll the dough into a rectangle..... and the filling I made up was a cup of soft butter, a big handful of brown sugar, 2 or 3 teas of Cinnamon, a teas of nutmeg, a shake or two of clove and allspice - mix together and spread over the rectangle. Then sprinkle over buttered dough a big handful of pecans and a half handful of raisins (or not, whatever you want). Roll this into a log shape.

Any of the filling that came out I just pushed back in. Cut this into 8 or so slices and put into an ungreased pan. Cover and let rise for an hour and then bake in a preheated oven until golden brown.

Let coll in pan. Turn out onto a plate and ice with a cream cheese frosting. These will keep and reheat for a couple of days.

Cherry Cocnut Pound Cake

Ingredients for Cake -

2 c AP Flour
3 teas Baking Powder
1/2 teas Salt
3/4 c Butter (soft)
1/4 c Oil
1 (8oz) Pkg Cream Cheese - soft
1 1/2 c white sugar
4 eggs - room temp
1 teas Vanilla Ext
1 teas Almond Ext
1 c Coconut
2 c Maraschino Cherries, halved - drained, save juice
1/4 c AP Flour

Directions -

1 - Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan. Mix and sift together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.

2 - In a large bowl cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar until very light and fluffy (about 5 mins). Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in the oil, and extracts. Stir in the coconut (or this can be left out) Beat in flour mixture until just incorporated. Dredge cherries in the 1/4 flour, then fold into the batter. Spread into the prepared pan.

3 - Bake in the preheated oven for about 60 or so mins - or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for at least 10 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

4 - After the cake is cooled you can dust with icing sugar or glaze it. I glazed mine making a glaze out of 2 Tlb of soft butter, 3 or so cups of icing sugar mixed together - the add by the teaspoon the reserved cherry juice until it gets to the consistency you desire. I added almost 6 or so teaspoons of juice. Glaze the cake.

This is a very soft cake and not as dense as many pound cakes. To make the cake pink just add some of the juice to the batter.

Fall Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This is a really easy and tasty cake to make. I like it because everything you need to make it can be found in your cabinets - or at least in my cabinets. :) Enjoy!!

Ingredients for the cake

2 2/3 c AP Flour
2 1/2 teas Baking Powder
1/2 teas salt
2 1/2 teas Cinnamon
1 1/2 teas Ginger
1 teas Nutmeg
1/2 teas Ground Clove
1 c Whole Milk
1 teas Vanilla
2 sticks (16 Tlbs) Unsalted Butter, softened
3/4 c White Sugar
3/4 c Dark Brown Sugar
5 Large Eggs, room temp

Directions -

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in the middle. Butter a 13x9 inch metal baking pan, then line with parchment paper and butter the paper. (It made getting the cake out so very easy!!)

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and spices (although there are measurements for the spices - I upped ever single one of them as I like a spicy cake) in a large bowl. In another smaller bowl stir together milk and vanilla.

Beat butter and sugars in an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy - at least 3 to 5 mins. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. At a low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with milk mixture. (Begin and end with the flour mixture) and mix until just combined.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing top, then rap the pan on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake until pale golden brown and wooden pick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 30 to 35 mins. Cool the cake completely in the pan set on a rack.


Ingredients for the Frosting -

1 pound Icing Sugar (about 3 3/4 cups
8 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
1 stick (8 Tlbs) unsalted butter, softened
2 teas vanilla
Pinch of salt

Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl. In a mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy, then beat in vanilla and a pinch pf salt. Beat in icing sugar a little at a time, and beat frosting until smooth. Spread over top and sides of cooled cake. Cut into squares and serve.

I found this recipe on line but did not write down the name of the originator.