Monthly Archives: May 2012

Long weekends equals BBQ gatherings

Posted by iloveyoumonkey in Customs and culture, Home cookin' and tagged with , , , ,

The three of us love BBQs.

Out of love and a need to compensate for the previous lack of opportunities while in NorCal, we take up any opportunity to participate in the SoCal BBQ culture. People in SoCal love to host BBQ gatherings on a nice summer day! Particularly on a long three-day weekend (like Memorial Day, July 4th, or Labor Day), the fragrant scent of plump hot dogs and freshly formed burger patties on the grill pleasantly permeates the SoCal air.

This weekend, local friends hosted a BBQ gathering. The food spread was replete with meats: carne asada tacos, sausage hot dogs, jalapeno jack burgers. Guests brought a variety of delicious complementary eats such as Chinese chicken salad.

Tender Carne Asada for tacos.

The three of us contributed snacks and dessert. One such snack was Muddy Buddies, a summertime classic that for Denise conjures up childhood memories living in the South. It is also called Puppy Chow or Monkey Munch, and I bet you know which name I favor.

Betty Crocker’s tried and true Chex Muddy Buddies, with our slight procedural tweaks

Total time: less than the quoted 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 9 cups Corn Chex
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup butter/margarine
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

  1. Measure out Chex cereal and set aside in big mixing bowl.
  2. Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter in saucepan over stove while mixing. Once melted, mix in vanilla.
  3. Pour mixture from 2. over cereal in 1. Gently stir/fold until cereal is evenly coated. Careful not to crush the buddies.
  4. Add powdered sugar, cover bowl and shake/mix until evenly coated.
  5. Spread everything out on wax paper or a large baking tray to cool.
  6. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
  7. Enjoy alongside a battle of the sexes on Xbox Kinect.

Image

I love you monkey fist pumping and powered up by Muddy Buddies.

While digging up the recipe for standard Muddy Buddies, we also found interesting variants: Orange Creamsicle, Cake Batter, or White Chocolate, anyone?