Tijuana Trash

The holidays are fast approaching.  You are going to be thinking about some snacks to serve your guests or take to a holiday party.  My friend Chris brought this to one of our parties a year ago.  I thought it was so unique and different.  You have the sweetness, the saltiness, and the spiciness of an interesting snack.  I do hope you will try this - it's a winner!

Ingredients:

2 c. tortilla chips, broken into 1-inch pieces (I use small Tostitos, broken in half)
1½ c. Crispix or Corn Chex cereal
4-5 c. popped popcorn
6 oz. Spanish peanuts
4 T. light corn syrup
4 T. butter
4 T. brown sugar
3/4 T. chili powder
1/8 t. ground cinnamon
¼ t. cayenne pepper



In this demonstration, I doubled the batch (strongly suggested)

Preheat oven to 250º.  Pop popcorn and place in large mixing bowl.  Combine tortilla chips, cereal, and nuts.

In a saucepan, combine corn syrup, butter, brown sugar, chili powder, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper.  Heat to boiling.

Mix cereal-popcorn mix with your hand or a spoon.

Place in a large greased roasting pan or you can line the pan with foil for easy clean up.

Pour syrup mixture over cereal popcorn mix and stir to combine.  Place in 250º oven, uncovered, for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and turn onto a sheet of waxed or parchment paper, to cool.

This will keep in an airtight container for about two weeks.