Chex Mix

I love Chex Mix.

When I was little, I used to spend a lot of time at my next door neighbor's house. She was a third grade teacher, and her husband worked for the airline so he was very often out of town. I called her Mrs. Ruth. She was very crafty - she cooked and baked and sewed and made dolls. She taught me how to make ice cream in an old crank ice cream machine with rock salt. She tried to teach me how to sew but I was hopeless. We used to paint and work in her garden. I always thought we were playing, but thinking about it now she got some cheap help out of me. I remember once she had me lifting up her patio bricks while she sprayed underneath them for ants. I also used to like to clean her birdbath because I got to use the pressure hose, which was fun. I used to bring my dolls over there and she'd make clothes for them. When I was 9, Mrs. Ruth took me and my brother along with her third grade class to go see the Bozo Show. Bucket #1 in the Grand Prize Game always included a prize for everyone in the audience, and I *always* wondered what it was. Turns out - it was Toblerone. Do kids like Toblerone?

She used to make her own Chex Mix and kept it in a big jar in her basement. She called it "Munchies." I ate a lot of it. I couldn't get enough. My mom always knew when I'd spent the day at Mrs. Ruth's house because I'd come home with garlic breath. (Side note: my mom loved me spending so much time over there - free babysitting and unbeknownst to me, whenever I went over there, Mrs. Ruth would turn on her back porch light so my mom knew I was there so she never had to look for me.)

I always associate Chex Mix with Mrs. Ruth. In my mind, proper Chex Mix contains two kinds of Chex (the crispy yellow ones and the crunchier brown ones) pretzel twists, and peanuts. That's IT. For a while, the store bought Chex Mix was a reasonable substitute for Munchies.

In college, my roommate and I were having a late night craving so we went to the store and bought Chex Mix. Imagine my utter horror and disappointment when I found that they'd changed the recipe. The peanuts were GONE. There were a bunch of other little pieces of crap in there: breadsticks, bagel chips, some kind of square pretzels. Bad. Mad! I actually called the 800-number on the bag and complained. They sent me two coupons for free bags of Chex Mix. Considering that I was angry at Chex Mix, I never used them. (normally I do like bagel chips and breadsticks, but not in my Munchies.)

Every once in a while now, I buy a bag of Chex Mix and get mad at it all over again. I think it's time to make my own.

In case you were wondering, Mrs. Ruth eventually retired and moved to Arizona. She lives there now, close to her daughter and granddaughters. When Lauren was born, she sent a really beautiful hand-made quilt that she made especially for Lauren. It was very sweet and touching, and it's a true sentimental treasure.

Of course, I had secretly hoped that she'd send Munchies.