Inflation baking continues.
I ONLY make chex mix in December. Seriously, this is a hard and fast rule in my kitchen. Much to the dismay of my coworkers and friends who enjoy my recipe.
But it is now 6 months to the holidays. And I think we need a little encouragement/fun with the inflation, and price of gas, and pandemic, and war in Ukraine, and… Well, it’s a lot. And I know that out of season chex mix will make my coworkers smile. And none of us are guaranteed another December.
And it has been 95-100 degrees Fahrenheit here in the American South and it is too hot to run the oven during the day. My chex mix recipe bakes low and slow because everything contained in it is already cooked. The oven is set to 225 and I bake it for 2 hours, sometimes less, with frequent stirring. It smells amazing though.
What makes this recipe an inflation baking is the usage of ingredients already in the house. I overbought Chex cereal when it was on sale and I have been storing the excess for this upcoming baking season and they weren’t going to expire until January 2023. Why not use it now?
Also what makes this recipe an inflation bake is the utilization of plantain chips in place of pretzels instead of going out and buying pretzels. I had the plantain chips and I needed to use them so into the mix they went. These are garlic plantain chips. I have no idea how people are going to react. And as this is an experimentation, that is half of the fun.
When I was writing on the board what would be the inflation baking cookie of the week I added a note to remind people that the holidays are just 6 months away. And have they started shopping? Or started saving, although that would be a high bar what with the aforementioned worldly ills.
One thing the slow moving organization frenzy that I am in has been good for is finding presents that I bought and neglected to give to people. Sometimes because I found something better, sometimes I because I forgot where I hid it from myself. Now I have a small pile of presents ready to be gifted at the holiday season. It’s a start. Every little bit helps.
The use of inflation baking as a theme these last two months is to encourage the use of ingredients that already are existing in my house. My baking pantry was stuffed to the gills with Cookie Thursday is a Thing ingredients; it is less stuffed now.
Hospitals and healthcare professionals also suffer from this scarcity mindset or mentality. We are always saving in case a thing can be useful in the future. The sticker is that you have to utilize the thing that you’ve saved, not just buy the newest, shiny sexy thing.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 