Happy New Year and Holiday Leftovers

Happy new year, friends!

I hope everyone had a glorious, relaxing holiday. Can you believe it's 2013 already? The world didn't end, so I guess we're stuck with it whether we like it or not. Maybe the world will end again in a few years. Keep the canned goods and bottled water at the ready!

My office holiday decoration this year. A tiny USB Christmas tree!

I love the holidays, and I try to get as much holiday cheer (see my Christmas tree above) and noms in as I can during November and December. As a result, I often have lots of leftover holiday goodies hanging around into the later winter months. If you're like me, you probably have some leftover egg nog in your fridge. If you're really like me, this egg nog is not actually leftover from the holiday, but egg nog purchased in January at half-price when the stores are trying to get rid of it. Oops!

Now what to do with this excess of egg nog? While perusing the interwebs today, it struck me. Why not take one of the easiest and most delicious things to make and add egg nog to it?

Behold! Egg nog puppy chow was born!

I wasn't sure how this idea would turn out, but this stuff is really tasty, albeit a bit rich. I made a small batch to start, but the recipe could be easily doubled to yield the normal quantity of puppy chow that you would get if you followed the recipe on the back of the Chex box.

Egg Nog Puppy Chow

4 cups Chex cereal (I used a combo of rice and corn because that's what we had)
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp egg nog (I used light egg nog, but any kind should work fine!)
1 - 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1) Place Chex cereal in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

2) In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave the butter and the white chocolate chips on 50% power for one minute. Remove and stir the mixture,breaking up any lumps. Microwave on high for an additional 30 seconds or until smooth.

3) Remove the mixture from the microwave, and stir in the nutmeg and the egg nog.

4) Pour the egg nog mixture over the cereal. Stir to coat evenly.

5) Place half of the powdered sugar into a gallon-size Ziploc bag. Pour cereal mixture into bag. Add the rest of the powdered sugar. Seal the bag and shake to coat the cereal with the powdered sugar.

6) Line a cookie sheet with wax paper, and spread the puppy chow on the wax paper to cool. Store in the refrigerator for up to four days.

Enjoy!