These are a slightly tart change from the usual super sweet cookies at Christmas time. They taste best with fresh lemon, you can get lemon zest by scraping the yellow part of the rind off the lemon - try not to get the white part, that’s bitter. Or you can cheat and buy it in the spices section. I have a nifty lemon zester from pampered chef.

Lemon Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

granulated sugar for decoration

Directions:
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. Beat in the eggs until the mixture is light and fluffy. Slow mix in lemon juice, flour, zest, baking powder, and salt. Cover and refrigerate until firm.

Roll out the dough and cut out with cookie cutters. I use christmas shapes. Transfer to ungreased cookie sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Cook 8-10 minutes in 350 degree F oven (that’s 175 degrees C). They are brown around the edges when done.

You need to chill the dough a lot because it will be sticky. Figure at least two hours, or overnight (make sure you cover it). Also using a bit of flour when rolling out the dough helps the stickiness factor, as does dipping any cutouts in flour. You do need to be careful because these crumble easily. Enjoy!

P.S. Thanks for the conversion Derick

This is a very unusual chex mix variant, both savory and sweet. I make it to “use up” the leftover cereal after making the other varieties.

Moroccan Crunch

Ingredients:

8 cups various chex mix
1 cup pecans or almonds
1 tbsp. sesame seeds
1/2 cup each raisins, golden raisins, and dried currants

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground mint
3 tbsp fresh ginger or crystallized ginger, or 1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp seasoned salt

Directions:
Mix cereal, nuts, and fruit in roasting pan. Melt butter in saucepan and add the other ingredients. Stir well and dump over cereal. Stir well. Bake at 250 degrees F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool on paper towels.

This is a sweet version of this mix, I prefer the dried fruits roasted with the cereal.

This was actually going to be made before my adventures in chex mix, but my son broke my candy thermometer and I had to wait until I had time to buy a new one.

Peanut Brittle

Ingredients:
2 cups white sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water

2 cups raw peanuts

4 tbsp butter
2 teaspoons baking soda

Directions:
Stir water, sugar, corn syrup, and salt in large saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Stir in peanuts and stick in candy thermometer. Unlike most candy, this needs to be stirred often or the peanuts will burn. Also make sure you use raw peanuts, not roasted, or the peanuts will burn. Take off heat when temperature reached 300 degrees F. Stir in the butter and baking soda. The candy should foam and turn lighter in color. As soon as the butter is melted pour gently onto a buttered metal pan. Spread gently, spreading too much will pop the bubbles. Allow to cool, and drop on floor to break into pieces.

The first time I ever made peanut brittle I used regular peanuts…burned and yucky…

This is also known as “Muddy Buddies” or “Puppy Food” but we’ve always called it dog chow. I only make this with Crispix cereal, Chex mix just doesn’t seem right (and doesn’t have as “dog food” of a shape)

Puppy Chow

Ingredients:
8 cups Crispix Cereal
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cups peanut butter
1 cup butter or margarine

1 bag (approx 4 cups) powdered sugar

Directions:
Mix chocolate chips, butter, and peanut butter in large saucepan, stir continuously so the chocolate doesn’t burn. When the chips have melted, remove from heat and gently stir in cereal until well coated with the chocolate mixture. Put into a bag with powdered sugar and shake to coat. Store in fridge or freezer.

This is an easy and yummy treat that kids love.

The age old stuff that your mom always made and is still great to munch on - keep out of reach of children, it won’t last long.

Chex Mix

Ingredients:
4 cups corn chex
4 cups rice chex
2 cups wheat chex
2 cups cheerios
2 cups pretzels
2 cups melba toast pieces

2 sticks butter
6 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
4 tsp seasoned salt
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder

Directions:
Mix cereal in large roasting pan. Melt butter, mix in seasonings, and pour it over cereal. Bake in 250 degree F oven for one hour stirring every 15 minutes. Cool on paper towels.

The classics live on…