It's Chex Mix season! I made my first batch on Saturday night. I had a few ingredients left from last year, and figured I might as well use them up. I warned Hick.
"I can't see throwing this stuff away. I'm going to make Chex Mix, but if it doesn't turn out right, we can throw it away then."
"Or me and my buddies will eat it!"
"Yeah. I guess. I know the cereal part will be fine, because after baking it for two hours, it's not going to be stale. The only part might be the pretzels. They're thicker."
To be on the safe side, I sampled the last crumbs in the pans. Tasted fine to me, but I didn't have a leftover pretzel. I set aside a small bowl for Hick. He took it with him to his SUS2 (Storage Unit Store 2) and said it was fine. I even offered to take some to The Pony.
Hick bought my container last week when he got canned dog food for my Sweet, Sweet Juno, who has put back on the weight she lost, and is no longer looking skeletorish. After last year's fiasco of the expensive metal tins that were much too large to fill with Chex Mix and give away, I cautioned Hick to get the plastic tubs with the holiday theme. He did.
When I got out the tubs to wash them while waiting for the Chex Mix to finish, I ran into a problem. Those containers came in 2-packs. The fourth pack I opened would not separate. They come stacked together. I pulled and poked and stabbed and twisted. I jammed a butter knife, a sharp knife, and my letter opener down between the containers. They snapped together while I was prying with just my fingertips, and caught my left index finger between them as the inner one snapped back. It felt like I had closed my finger in a car door!
Anyhoo... after 30 minutes of struggling, I gave up on trying to separate those two. I could still use it as one container. The lid fit. It just had a double bottom. That's the container I took to The Pony.
"I will only let you have this if you promise not to try and separate the containers! I spent 30 minutes on them, and they are NOT coming apart. It's like an elephant stood on them! Don't try to jab something in between to get them apart. It doesn't work."
"I might try running warm water on the outer one, after I'm done eating it." Said The Pony, already with the lid off, and halfway finished.
With him enjoying the yearly Chex Mix so much, I could not wrest that container out of his hands. I am worried that he will try to separate those containers with something sharp. He might lop off a limb!
We know how The Pony has a knack for injuring himself in mundane ways...
I was going to suggest the warm water trick but The Pony already knows it. It helps too if the water is a bit warmer than warm and the upper container has cold water in it. Not full, about half, just enough to keep it from expanding in the heat of the warm water as the bottom container expands. We learned this in school in a science lesson.
ReplyDeleteI was aware of the hot water trick as well, but had no desire to get my hands wet in this freezing kitchen, even though I used the oven as my personal fireplace every 15 minutes while stirring the Chex Mix.
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