Mischief Munch Crunch

Are you crunched for time? Your family or gift recipients might enjoy "crunching" this mix. And bonus! It's quick and easy.

I have lots of favorite snack mixes - probably too many, if I'm honest. This year, I asked my family which were "must-haves" for our Christmas gathering. Some of them require baking time or extra things like popping popcorn. 

While none of them mentioned Mischief Munch Crunch, I had written a note to myself last year that the mix was popular both at home and at the extended Moore family Christmas. Since we have a nut allergy at the Moore gathering, it is also a good one when you are avoiding things like peanut butter or nuts.

And it requires no baking at all so it is quick and easy to add to your arsenal of snacks at the last minute. Let's face it: The last minute is about to arrive. On second thought, it's probably already here.

Mischief Munch Crunch

Modified from Facebook

2 cups Golden Grahams cereal

1 cup Cookie Crisp cereal 

2 cups Life cereal

2 cups micro-mini pretzels

1 cup mini marshmallows

1/2 cup red and green M&Ms

12 oz. white chocolate/almond bark

2 tbsp. holiday sprinkles

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

 

In a large bowl, combine all cereals, pretzels, mini marshmallows and M&Ms. Melt almond bark in a microwave-safe bowl in 30-second intervals, stirring in between. (I used 50 percent power so I wouldn't burn it.) Once melted, pour over cereal mixture, stirring to coat everything. Transfer mixture to lined baking sheet; top with holiday sprinkles and mini chocolate chips. Allow to set up before breaking into pieces.  

For gift giving, portion into decorated plastic bags or holiday tubs. 

Notes:

• The original recipe called for French Toast Crunch cereal. I can't find that in my area, so I used Golden Grahams.
• I cut back a little on some of the cereal and added the mini pretzels. I found mine at Glenn's Bulk Foods. I have seen the micro-mini size in discount stores, but I couldn't find them this year. I like the little bit of "salty" in a sweet mix. The amounts in the recipe are the amount I used.
  
• My almond bark had 24 ounces in the package, so I doubled the cereal/other ingredients and used the whole package of almond bark. Easy, peasy! And then I did it three times! I give a lot of snack mixes for gifts.
   

Bookends of Our Trip

 

BOOKENDS: Every trip has a start point and an end point. Of course, if you have stronger "constitutions" than we old people do these days, there don't have to be as many way-stations along the way. But our trip to and from Eureka Springs had some tourist stops on both ends of the journey. 

BEGINNING BOOKEND

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite TV shows was "Bewitched." I often daydreamed about how convenient it would be to "wiggle my nose" like Samantha and instantaneously get the result I wanted. 

Alas, it doesn't work any better now than it did when I was a kid. So, when you depart for a trip, you know it's going to take you a certain amount of time to get there. When you live with a map aficionado like Randy, he definitely develops a time table and plan. 

Randy figured our departure time would have us arrive in southeast Kansas around noon.When it's nice weather, we often take a sandwich lunch in a cooler for our noon meal, rather than stopping at a fast food place along the way.He proposed stopping again at Big Brutus, where we'd had a picnic lunch on our spring 2023 trip through Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and back home again.

On one of our excursions through that part of the state, I'd seen that there was a Little House on the Prairie Museum. So I suggested a new stop instead. The museum near Independence, KS, celebrates the setting for Wilder's "Little House on the Prairie" book. 

My mom read the "Little House" books to we three girls, and I re-read them myself later in elementary school - twice, if I recall. Both Jill and Kinley read some of them, too. During the earlier 2023 trip, we'd stopped at Mansfield, Mo., when I happened to see a billboard advertising a Laura Ingalls Wilder museum there. While the Kansas version wasn't as extensive as the Mansfield site, I still enjoyed it, and there were even picnic tables there to enjoy our lunch. 

The log cabin resembles one described as the Ingalls' home in "Little House on the Prairie," though this is a reproduction. The Osage signed the treaty selling the land to the government on September 10, 1870. The family home was listed as the 89th residence of Rutland township in the 1870 U.S. Census, and the family lived there about one year. In her book, Laura told of building the cabin, of encounters with Indians, of going to Independence for supplies and of Dr. Tann's treating the family members for "fever'n'ague." Dr. Tann's grave is in Mount Hope Cemetery in Independence. The family Bible reveals that Caroline "Carrie" Ingalls was born in Rutland township in Montgomery County, Kansas, in August 1870.

There is an old farmhouse on the site, but the Ingalls family never lived in the house. It's just a representation of how people who settled in the region may have built more permanent housing if they were in Kansas to stay. The Ingalls family only lived in the area about a year before returning to Wisconsin.

 

A gift shop is now in the farmhouse.

The hand-dug well on site, dug by Charles Ingalls, is mentioned in Laura's book.

Also on site are the Wayside, Kansas, post office ...

... and the Wayside School.

It was a nice stop along the way ... even Randy enjoyed it (though probably not as much as I did).

ENDING BOOKEND

We stopped to see Brent and Susan in Kansas City on our way home. While they finished up their day of work, we did a "tourist-y" thing and went to the Kansas City World War I museum. We'd been to a concert on the grounds, and we'd seen the museum from the outside. For this trip, we took the time to tour it.

The displays were excellent. At the time we were there, they were working on a display that would feature tanks used in warfare. We'll have to go back another time, since Randy's dad drove a tank during the Korean War. (It was scheduled to reopen on Veteran's Day, so if you're planning a trip to Kansas City during Christmas break, it should be open.)

However, there was a bit of nostalgia with another of the displays. Randy remembers a tent similar to the one above that they unearthed at his Grandma Ritts' house. It had probably belonged to her brother, Ray, whom she'd cared for. Randy and Lyle took it home and had a grand time setting up the tent and playing Army at the farmstead.

Soon after World War I ended, Kansas City leaders formed the Liberty Memorial Association (LMA) to create a lasting monument to the men and women who had served in the war. In 1919, the LMA and citizens of Kansas City raised more than $2.5 million in just 10 days. The equivalent of more than $40 million today, this accomplishment reflected the passion of public sentiment for the Great War that had dramatically changed the world.

“It [The Liberty Memorial] has not been raised to commemorate war and victory, but rather the results of war and victory which are embodied in peace and liberty…. Today I return in order that I may place the official sanction of the national government upon one of the most elaborate and impressive memorials that adorn our country. The magnitude of this memorial, and the broad base of popular support on which it rests, can scarcely fail to excite national wonder and admiration.”

— Liberty Memorial Dedication Speech, President Calvin Coolidge, November 11, 1926

All the displays were well-done and gave plenty of opportunities to read as much or as little as you wanted. Plus, there were films interspersed throughout, giving ample chances to sit, rest and learn something at the same time.

 

Over time, the physical structure of the original Liberty Memorial deteriorated, and it was closed in 1994 due to safety concerns. However, in 1998, Kansas City citizens passed a limited-run sales tax to support the restoration to better showcase the WWI-related objects and documents the LMA had been collecting since 1920. In 2004, the Museum and Memorial was designated by Congress as the nation's official World War I Museum, and construction started on a new 80,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art museum and the Edward Jones Research Center underneath the Liberty Memorial.The Liberty Memorial was designated a National Historic Landmark on Sept. 20, 2006, recognizing the monument as a nationally significant historic property. 

JUST ONE MORE STOP

 

Final stop on our travel itinerary was a home football game at K-State. Susan and Brent joined us.

The late start time made for a beautiful sky to begin the evening.

There were fireworks after beating KU, 29-27. Unfortunately, the late start meant a middle-of-the-night return home. A victory always makes the drive a little more pleasant.

More from Arkansas (After a Delay)

 

A note: I began a travelogue from Arkansas a month ago. And then, life happened and interrupted my posts. But, I'm continuing the story, mainly for Randy and me, even though it's been way too long between posts. 

Last time, I wrote about the more "faith-related" stops we made on our 1,160-mile trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and back home again. But there were other stops along the way. 

Sculpture in front of Crystal Bridges

 

CRYSTAL BRIDGES

Bentonville, Ark.

We drove from Eureka Springs to Bentonville one day to see Crystal Bridges. We'd watched either a CBS Sunday Morning segment or a 60 Minutes report about the museum built and financed by the Walton Family of WalMart fame. Even though there was construction underway at Crystal Bridges, it was well worth the drive, especially since we got to drive along the tree-lined roads filled with fall colors. (A couple of notes: It seemed to take twice as long to get from Point A to Point B on the winding, hilly roads of Arkansas. Of course, we are used to the flatlands of central Kansas and the orderly grid of roads that come together perpendicularly at the mile lines. The colors would have been more vibrant had the area not been experiencing the same drought that had plagued our area before some nice rains fell in November, but it was still pretty.)

 

 

Best of all, the Crystal Bridges museum was totally free, thanks to the generosity of the Waltons. There are very few attractions like that!

We had also hoped to see the original Walton 5-and-10, but it is being renovated as a museum and was temporarily closed.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened its doors on 11/11/11 and received more than 650,000 guests during its first year. By its seventh anniversary in 2018, more than four million people had come to view the art and walk the grounds.

The concept began as a sketch on a paper napkin. It has become a place to experience art, architecture and lifelong learning in a natural setting in Northwest Arkansas.

Crystal Bridges was the brainchild of Alice Walton, a daughter of WalMart founder Sam Walton. Alice's interest in art began in her childhood when she discovered watercolors. She and her mother often painted with watercolors on family camping trips or on hikes in the Ozarks.

To me, people everywhere need access to art. That's what we didn't have here and that's why it was so important that Crystal Bridges be located in this region. For years I'd been thinking about what we could do as a family that could really make a difference in this part of the world. I thought this is something we desperately need, and what a difference it would have made were it here when I was growing up.

Alice Walton

Besides the museum itself, there are a number of walking trails with sculptures and art along the way.

Narcissus Garden was an art installation on water by Yayoi Kusama, comprised of nearly 1,800 mirrored spheres:

 

 

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It re-imagines the story of Narcissus. In Greek mythology, the self-absorbed hunter Narcissus is lured to a pond where, upon gazing at his own reflection, falls in and drowns. The artist encourages us to look past our own unique reflection to see those of other people and the natural surroundings, becoming part of one greater sphere - that of an interconnected universe.

Taken from over a bridge on the walking trail. It was gorgeous!

"Maman" (below) was created by artist Louise Bourgeois as a tribute to her mother, who she described as her closest friend. Bourgeois thought of the spider as caring, helpful and hard-working - the way she remembered her mother. 

Randy found a seat in a couple of unusual settings:

One was in quartz quarried in Arkansas ...

... and the other with a couple of quiet friends. He lent one of them his hat. 

We also toured a Frank Lloyd Wright Bachman-Wilson home on the grounds. Randy and I decided it was not built for people our size. While the living room was large and open, you had to turn sideways to walk down the narrow hallways. No photos were allowed inside the house.

MAGIC SHOW

Local people know that Randy went through a "magic phase" after seeing Siegfried and Roy on stage during our first trip together to Las Vegas. He read a lot of books and joined an international brotherhood of magicians in Wichita, where he learned more. For years, he did magic shows and taught 4-Hers interested in magic for a self-determined project. He still does magic for children's sermons at church on occasion.

And while golf has taken over as his favorite hobby, he still enjoys seeing magic shows when we travel. The one in Eureka Springs was in a repurposed 120-year-old stone church and featured husband-and-wife duo Sean-Paul and Juliana Fay at the Intrigue Theater.

We saw their regular magic show - not their paranormal one. But that's the photo op they had during intermission.

It was a small, intimate setting, and Randy thought the act was better than what we'd seen the year before in Branson. They've been featured on America's Got Talent, Penn and Teller's Fool Us and the Magic Castle.

GOLFING

And speaking of his newest hobby: Randy golfed the Holiday Island Golf Course.

For a vacation area, there aren't a lot of golf courses from which to choose. It definitely didn't compare to the course at Couer d'Alene from earlier in the the year, but we found one.

 It was a nice day for golfing ... or in my case, for reading and taking photos.

EATING AND SHOPPING

Of course, eating and shopping were on the agenda. We did more browsing than actual shopping. But we did plenty of eating. I will say that the hills and the uneven sidewalks made walking around a little precarious, especially in the dark. But it's a fun tourist destination.

Once a week, Randy meets some buddies for breakfast at Stafford. One of the restaurants reminded him a little of Joan's Cafe, where he and his friends meet in Stafford. There was definitely a table of the "old guy regulars" at the Eureka Springs establishment - just like home!

MAIN STREET CAFE

He says he doesn't order as much in Stafford. I have not verified this assertion with his friends.

THE FILLING STATION

My favorite breakfast place was The Filling Station. The decor fit the old filling station setting and the food was delicious.

We went there the final day we were in Eureka Springs. A lot of restaurants are not open every day of the week, and this was one of them. However, we weren't in peak tourist time so I'm sure days and serving times vary.

BAVARIAN INN

Randy's German blood must have been singing because he really wanted to eat at the Bavarian Inn, which had authentic German and Czech food. I was less enthusiastic, but I had a horrible cold the entire time we were there, so I wasn't that hungry anyway. So I relented. Pictured above is their specialty, sauerkraut soup, which they serve as an appetizer. As I said, I wasn't that hungry, so I ordered the sauerkraut soup and a dinner salad. Randy liked it much more than I did. (I don't have a drop of German blood.)

What he really wanted was a wiener schnitzel and fixings. He thought it was tasty. 

FAVORITE MEAL (and most expensive)

Grotto Wood Fire Grill and Wine Cave was recommended by Brent and Susan, who'd visited Eureka Springs a couple of years before. I realized after we got home that I hadn't taken any photos there. Trust me: It was delicious. Randy's only complaint was that he didn't get enough to eat. That is not unusual at higher-end establishments. He had the smoked duck and I had cedar-plank salmon.

Photo from a Facebook post - not my photo

WORKING BUNNIES

Susan and Brent had also told us about Eureka Springs' working bunnies. Of course, we had to find them. They do their "work" in two retail stores, East By West and Caroline's Collectables and have since 2000.  

We bought a couple of stocking stuffers so that we could watch the bunnies work.

I'll have a final wrap-up of our trip to Arkansas next time - finally.

We Interrupt Our Regular Programming: Chocolate Peppermint Lasagna

 "We now interrupt our regular programming for a Christmas special." If it's good enough for NBC and CBS, I guess it will work for a lowly blog, too.

Actually, my blog "programming" has been interrupted all on its own for the past month. Other obligations have left little time to write, so it's been awhile since my last blog post - probably the longest I've gone between posts in my nearly 15 years of Kim's County Line. 

But, instead of returning to regular "programming," I'm going to substitute some Christmas flavor. If I don't, it will be past Christmas. And there's no way I will remember in a year. (Case in point, I knew I'd saved the recipe for a snack mix I'd tried last Christmas. However, it took me awhile to figure out where I'd safely stashed it.)

This recipe for Chocolate Peppermint Lasagna would be good at any time of year, but it seems particularly appropriate for Christmas with the chocolate and hint of peppermint.

I was one of two hostesses for a PEO guest day December 3, along with my friend, Betty. We were responsible for coming up with and preparing the dessert for 41 members and guests, along with doing gingerbread cookie favors for them to take home. 

Betty and I experimented with several different recipes - both for dessert and for the cookies - before choosing our favorites. Betty made all the gingerbread people using a Taste of Home recipe she modified, and I decorated them all: Divide and conquer! **See Betty's changes in a note below.**

After binging on Food Network's Christmas Cookie Challenge, I had planned to make my debut decorating with royal icing. But after an emergency phone call to Jill and a kitchen covered in sticky royal icing, I gave up and went back to my old faithful decorator's tube and buttercream. (It tastes better anyway). Since my kitchen was a disaster, my dining room table became the gingerbread assembly line. I used sprinkles I'd gotten at Glenn's Bulk Foods to add some flair. Since the guest day group was all women, I decorated the gingerbread to imply dresses, with jaunty snowflake bows in their hair.

It may not have looked like the Christmas Cookie Challenge caliber, but they ended up pretty cute. I found the history of Gingerbread Men and attached them to each individual cookie package, ready for our guests to take home.

I also had a few ask for the Chocolate Peppermint Lasagna recipe. It was originally from OMG Chocolate Desserts blog, but I made a few changes. I prefer using soft peppermint candies, rather than hard candy canes for a less jolting texture and subtle peppermint flavor.

Chocolate Peppermint Lasagna

Recipe from www.omgchocolatedesserts.com

I made modifications from the original recipe. Those are reflected below.

Oreo Crust:

36 Oreo cookies

1/2 cup butter, melted

Peppermint Cheesecake Layer:

1/2 cup butter-softened

8 oz. brick-style cream cheese (room temperature)

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. peppermint extract

1 1/2 cups stabilized whipped topping (like Cool Whip)

1/2 cup crushed soft peppermint candies (original recipe called for candy canes - I prefer the softer peppermints)

Chocolate Pudding Layer:

2 x 3.9 oz. packages instant chocolate pudding

2 3/4 cups whole milk

Topping:

8-ounce tub Cool Whip

1/4 cup crushed candy canes (to be added at serving time)

Seasonal sprinkles, opt. (added right at serving time)

In a food processor, grind whole Oreo cookies with the filling. Add melted butter, and whisk with the fork until evenly moistened. Press firmly into the bottom of 9 x 13 inches dish. Place in the fridge or freezer. (That makes spreading the next layer much easier; don't skip this step!)

Unwrap candy; place in a zip-lock bag and crush with a rolling pin onto coarse pieces. (A hammer on a sturdy cutting board worked better for me – double your plastic bag. After I got them into coarser pieces with the hammer, I used my rolling pin.)

Beat softened butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla and peppermint extract until smooth. Mix in 1 ½ cups whipped topping. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is mixed well and smooth. Finally mix in 1/2 cup candy cane pieces. The mixture will get light pink from candy canes. If you want more intense color, add a few drops of red or pink food coloring (I didn’t). Spread the mixture over chilled crust and place back in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.

Whisk two packages of instant chocolate pudding with 2 ¾ cups milk until it starts to thicken, then spread over the peppermint cheesecake layer. (I used the whip attachment on my mixer.) Place in the fridge until the pudding has set, then spread an 8-ounce tub of whipped topping over the pudding layer. (I waited several hours before topping.) Chill at least 5 hours before serving, or preferably overnight. Sprinkle additional crushed candy canes on top just before serving, because they might melt if stays too long onto whipped cream. We also used seasonal sprinkles (holly and gingerbread men – those were two separate sprinkles I got at Glenn’s Bulk Foods) for the PEO event.

Store in the fridge. For the PEO event, we cut it into 12 generous pieces. However, I think the pieces could be smaller if you were serving it at home, etc.

Gingerbread Men Cookies

The original recipe is found at Taste of Home (click on the link.)

**Betty made the following changes**

• She substituted 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves INSTEAD of the nutmeg. 
• She refrigerated the dough for 3-4 hours before working with it, rather than just 30 minutes. 
• She lined her cookie sheets with parchment paper for easy removal and baked for 9 minutes in her oven. The recipe yielded 2 1/2 dozen cookies with the cutter she used; but, of course, it depends on the size of your cutter, the thickness of your cookies and your oven.
  
• She also recommended just cutting the cookies from 1 disk, leaving the other in the fridge while you work. She cut out the first cookies and then reformed the "scraps" into a small disc before returning it to the fridge to chill while cutting the cookies from the second disc ... and so on.)