A few weeks ago, I was approached by the lovely Victoria of Floral + Teacups to work on a holiday collaboration. We connected via the interweb after the Spark Sessions conference last month, and have been busy tweeting and cooking up a storm ever since.

With Christmas just a few weeks away, we thought it would be fun to do a holiday recipe swap with a twist. We traded family recipes that were special to us during the Christmas season; recipes that our mom’s have been making for years. Victoria shared her family’s Nuts & Bolts – a homemade take on Bits & Bites, which I used to love eating as a child. It was a cinch to make, and the batch that I cooked up has already been consumed by anybody who could get their hands on it (it was that good). Here’s how to make it:

Ingredients

• 8 cups Crispex (I used Life cereal)
• 8 cups plain Cheerios
• 16oz pretzels
• 3oz Bugles
• 1/2 lb peanuts
• 1/2 lb sunflower seeds
• 1-1 1/2 cups butter
• 1/4 cup worcestshire sauce
• 1 tbsp celery salt
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp onion powder

Step 1: Combine dry ingredients.

Step 2: Melt butter. Add to the dry ingredients, along with the spices and worcestshire sauce.

Step 3: Bake at 275° covered for 1 hour and then uncovered for 1 hour. Stir every 15 minutes. Enjoy!

If you head over to Victoria’s blog, you’ll see the recipe I shared with her: Christmas Snowballs. These tasty treats have been my mom’s cookie exchange go-to for 20+ years, and it doesn’t feel like Christmas until we’ve eaten a few (handfuls) of them.

A big thanks to Victoria for collaborating with me on this project. It was the perfect way to kick off the holiday season! If you’re interested in collaborating with me, feel free to get in touch via social media or via email.