Eat Some Trash!

My Roasting Pan and All the Trash

It would be a CRIME if we didn’t have trash to eat this time of year! So now we do! What? Trash? Eating Trash you say? Yes, I know, most people call it chex mix or what have you, but in our family, we call it Texas Trash. I have a recipe card in the book I got from my mom, for my wedding, that has my grandmother’s recipe in it. For as far back as I can remember, my mom (and both sets of grandparents) would make Texas Trash sometime around mid October and we’d be munching on it till Thanksgiving! How’s it last so long when it’s so tasty? Because we make a crap-load of it! In fact, I couldn’t even fit it all into my roasting pan, I had to split it into two batches and use the lid of the roasting pan as a second pan! I just had to cover them with foil instead. 

The Recipe:

In your largest roasting pan, combine:

• 1 box of cheerios
• 1 box of corn chex
• 1 box of wheat chex
• 1 box of rice chex
• 1 1lb bag of pretzels
• 1 regular size can/jar of salted peanuts
• (and pecans if you like them, but I don’t)

The in a glass measuring cup, combine:

• 3 sticks of melted margarine (just think of the volume of cereal it’s covering! )
• 1/4 cup of worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp of celery salt
• 1 tbsp of garlic salt
• 1 tbsp of onion salt

Drizzle over contents of roasting pan, stirring to coat evenly.
Cover and bake at 200 degrees for 1 hour.
Stir contents, cover and bake again for another 30 minutes.
Stir again and then bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes.
Allow to cool/dry before storing (I spread it out on cookie sheets to dry it faster.)

Now that we have Trash in the house, I feel like it is OFFICIALLY fall! Now to just make time to get those fall decorations out! By the time Thanksgiving gets here, it’ll be time for a Christmas tree!

Done Done the Can Can!

Four 1/2 Pint Jars of Fig Preserves

I have now canned (which seems like a silly term, to me, since you’re really putting the food into JARS) two batches of fig preserves, following my grandmother’s recipe. The first batch we over cooked… I left Jason to stir them while I ran to Wal-mart for the jars and a few other things we needed… I told him to just let them go till I got back because there was so much water I figured I’d be back in plenty of time. It took me longer than I thought it would, and so he actually stopped them about 10 minutes before I got back cause they were already gumming up and looking like preserves (while they were still hot… you can imagine what they’re like now that they’re cooled!) The stuff was just too thick to try and strain the seeds out, so we just jarred it all up. I got three 1/2 pint jars out of that first batch.

I picked 16 more figs today and just made 1 more 1/2 pint out of that today. I made sure not to overcook them this time, and strained it to get some of the seeds out, hence the prettier end product. I think you can tell from the pic which one I did today! I’m not sure how many more jars we’ll get this season since we wasted so many figs the first time around (probably about 3-4 jars worth) but I’m hoping for 1-2 more before the tree finally just shrivels up from this extreme heat. It’s already loosing leaves like crazy. Stupid 100+ degree weather all the time!

Granny’s Fig Preserves:

4 Cups of Ripened Figs (I cut mine in half to make them bite sized pieces)
2 Cups of Sugar
1/4 Cup of Water
3 Half Pint Mason Jars (1 Pint Jar would probaly do the trick too, if there’s any extra you can put it in a tupperware tub in the fridge to use before cracking into your preserved jar. )

This process is what she calls “the quick way”, but it will still take 1-2 hours to prepare!
In a sauce pan, combine sugar and water over low-medium heat. Stir frequently to