Weekend Roundup: Saturday Swap, a New Product & Spicy Orange-Cranberry Nut Mix

Happy weekend! Time to bid adieu to our friend the pomegranate and turn our attention to All Things Thanksgiving...preparations are well underway here at Casa Garcia. I'm busy cleaning, decorating, and getting some of my food prep started. I figure anything I can do now will make my life much easier come Thursday ;)!  Before I give you a recipe for a FAB snack you can put out for your Thanksgiving guests to munch on when they arrive, I wanted to share two exciting bits of news with you.

First, today is the Saturday Swap recipe sharing project over at Quit Eating Out. Every weekend, Kim's readers share their favorite recipes of the week. Take a moment to go have a look...I promise that you'll find a lot of great new recipes and blogs to visit. I've been taking part for a couple of weeks and have been having a LOT of fun! Maybe you'll even want to join the fun and submit a favorite holiday recipe next week!

In chocolate news, I received a free bag of a fantastic new Hershey's product today. My good friend Michelle at Everyday Celebrating had a giveaway to win a free bag of Hershey's Drops a couple of weeks ago. I was one of the winners and received my bag of Cookies 'n Cream Drops today. Let me tell you...these are WONDERFUL! They'll be in stores next month, so be on the lookout for them.

Now...are you ready for a great little Thanksgiving appetizer that you can make ahead to put out for your guests to nibble on while you're taking care of the final touches on your meal? This afternoon, I whipped up a great fruit and nut mix that's a little spicy, a little sweet, and completely yummy! The nuts feature orange juice, orange peel, and dried cranberries...a great flavor profile for Thanksgiving and into the holiday season!!

I hope you'll give them a try for your holiday celebration. I'm planning to set up an appetizer table with these nuts, white bean hummus, pita chips, a cheese ball, and some crackers.

Spicy Orange-Cranberry Nut Mix

adapted from Cooking Light

Step 1:  Preheat oven to 250. Add 1 egg white, 1 tbs. orange juice, and the grated peel from one orange (about 1 tbs.) to a mixing bowl. Whisk until frothy.

Step 2: Add 1/2 cup pecan halves, 1/2 cup almonds, 1/2 cup walnuts, and 1/2 chopped hazelnuts to the egg mixture. Stir well to combine; the nuts should be evenly coated with the egg mixture.

Step 3:  Add 2 tbs. dark brown sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, 1/2 tsp. chili powder, and 1/2 tsp. kosher salt to the nuts. Stir to combine.

Step 4:  Spread the nuts in a single layer in a 13x9 pan. Cook for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and stir in 1/2 cup of dried cranberries. 

Step 5: Cool the nut-cranberry mixture completely and serve in a pretty fall bowl.

That's it...five minutes to assemble + an hour to bake and cool. One Thanksgiving day food down, many more to go. I'll share a few more recipes from my Thanksgiving menu in the coming days!! So tell me what YOU'RE serving for your Thanksgiving meal this year!!!

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