We call it "Trash"... what do YOU call it?

Today has been the windiest day in recent memory that I can remember. Enough so that for the most part we stayed in, out of the wind chill. Had plenty to do though: the website I've been building is finished and went online a few hours ago, and my client seemed pretty impressed by the finished product when he came by this afternoon. In the meantime there was taking down the final bit of Christmas (the tree is bare, I pack it up tomorrow) and playing videogames. We thought of going out tonight (I'm itching to get to Toys R Us and use this gift card that Lisa got me, hoping they'll have the new LEGO Star Wars Slave I set) but instead opted to stay inside and watch the pilot episode of Lost from my new DVD set, which I actually watched a few nights ago but Lisa thought it looked interesting so she wants to check it out from the beginning too.

But right now Lisa is engaged in, I guess you could say she is beginning a ritual that she'll probably be doing the rest of her life. I first did it two years ago and now it's her turn to pick up the tradition. She's in the kitchen right now making a batch of Trash. She did her first one a few days ago and for a first-timer she did pretty good.

What's "Trash"? I don't know if that's the regional name for it, but that's what my Mom and her family and most other people I've known around here call it. It's called that because "there's all kinds of junk in it". I've heard that different parts of the country have other names for it but I've no idea what those names are: if you call it something else, send me a note about it.

So what's this "Trash" stuff? That's our name for Chex Party Mix. You know, that scrumptious melange of Chex cereal, nuts, pretzels, Worcestershire sauce and other seasonings that there just can't seem to be enough of around the holiday season. We always have enough raw materials to make a few batches into February. And Lord help us, we gotta have 'em. Mom makes this stuff like crazy around Christmas and it's always the first thing to go: she gave us a few containers of it this past month, what little there was that Dad didn't eat! Only difference between the stuff we've been making and the original recipe is that we've never used bagel chips, but that's okay. Lisa's got a fresh batch in the oven right now... and it smells delicious!

So that's our plan for tonight: watching Lost and eating Trash. As good a thing to do on a wintery Saturday night as any :-)