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Greetings from Sacramento! I see that it’s been a whopping 365 days since I last wrote, and I’ve been feeling increasingly the need to close that gap. I’ve missed you all.
To casually say “a lot’s happened in the past year” is an understatement for all of us. Part of my dragging my feet in starting up with the blog again was this sense that I could neither undertake commenting on the news or not commenting on it. Well, I am officially moving beyond that impasse and will offer a personal post away from the national stage of intense happenings, as a retreat both for myself and any readers that happen by.
It’s strangely fitting that the topic of my last post on October 27, 2019 was about bugout bags and preparing emergency supplies for the number of environmental disasters that can hit us here in California, especially in our hottest months, or ‘fire season.’ A prolonged, personal state of emergency began for me and my family just three days after I wrote it, when my husband’s health failed and we brought him to the Emergency Room where he was admitted to the ICU. Those of you who know us already know that Chris died in early December.
I am not going to go into a lot of details and make this a maudlin entry or I would postpone writing that forever; but I knew that it was important to me to mention the tilting of my world on its axis just a scant couple of months ahead of everyone else’s world tilting on its axis. Chris was my editor and supporter since I started this blog and it does sting, of course, to know that this will be the first of my meliovore posts that he won’t be reading. I am deeply grateful for the opportunities we had to be together, and have felt empathetic pangs for those who have had to go through the crushing losses of loved ones with the added, inconceivable layer of being barred from their hospital rooms. That’s got to be beyond brutal, and I don’t try to imagine it.
The lockdown complicated a necessary drive to relocate from San Francisco, but it ultimately went smoothly and has worked out fine. Though I hadn’t spent much time in Sacramento, other than downtown’s J-Street or the Capital Mall over a number of single day or overnight business visits, I was very pleased to discover so much more beyond that as I popped up on *very hot* summer days to look at places to live. I’m smitten with the lovely and very livable place I now call home. I always enjoy exploring new places, and it’s been very easy to get around and feel at home in Sacramento. The pleasant people, mellow traffic, the sunshine, the stellar-so-far Mexican food options. (It’s very possible that I’m getting a skewed perspective because of the pandemic lockdown, but I’ll take it. The landscape reminds me some of LA when I first moved there in the ‘80’s. The LA I knew then had a gracious- and spaciousness about it. Room and opportunity for everybody.)
Sacramento is a town that really reveres its trees. Having an old growth tree on your property is clearly a status symbol. Streets near me have islands of old oak trees with their own medians, apparently to leave them undisturbed. I’ve had to pull out my field guides because the apartment complex I am living in has at least 20 different varieties of trees, and I’ve needed to put names to them. Outside my window are a couple of sycamores, and what I thought was a willow tree is actually a quaking aspen. It’s very windy today and the wind through them is making a pretty, autumnal sound. East Coast-y, to my ears.
Cutting to the chase, let me leave you with a lovely and novel snack recipe for those days when the sameness of your options may get to you, and you feel like indulging your curiosity and craving for the savory. As the title of the post suggests, the recipe is for Stir-fried Cheerio’s. As far as I can tell, Chris invented them. He was ever the creative cook and I’ve never seen or heard of them anywhere else. It’s possible someone else has had a parallel idea. I’m guessing their origins are rooted in Chex Mix but these are a quick’n’dirty version. He would make them for a late-night snack, usually to accompany a late night television show. My daughter and I would get a little pouty if he wouldn’t save us any, so he would occasionally favor us with our own batches that would be waiting in our flat, blue enamel bowl the next morning.
I presented my first attempt at replicating them to Lydia one fitful afternoon about a month into the quarantine, saying, “I’m not sure whether I made stir-fried cheerios or not–” but she assured me, with much satisfaction, that I had. I’m pleased to be able to pass them on to you, and post the recipe here for posterity.
STIR-FRIED CHEERIOS
You will need:
- 3 cups cheerios
- 3 Tbsp. butter
- 1.5 tsp. Worcestershire sauce (Don’t use low sodium version, and don’t omit)
- ½ tsp. seasoned salt (Lawry’s)
- ½ tsp. ancho chili powder
- Dash or two of salt, and garlic powder
- 1/3 cup Grated parmesan cheese
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the Worcestershire sauce and spices to the butter and stir until blended. Add the Cheerios and gently toss them in the spiced butter until all 3 cups are coated. Continue cooking and toasting them over the heat until the Cheerios have absorbed the excess moisture and take on a darker color 3-4 minutes. Pour them into a shallow pan – a Pyrex pie pan would work well. Sprinkle the top with Parmesan cheese and eat right away.

In case there are any leftovers, cover the pan with foil or plastic wrap. I found that putting leftovers in a sealed Tupperware kind of container makes them soggy and inedible the next day. Probably they were still too warm when I sealed them up. The snack lesson for us then is, carpe diem.
Be well, and stay safe, everyone. I will try not to take so long before writing again. – Love, Janice

Janice, so lovely to see you back on these pages! I remember Lydia whipping up a batch of these when we were neighbors and she was just a tiny girl, oh so yummy. Looking forward to reading about your Sac exploration and cooking adventures:-)
Thank you, Tara! 🙂 Funny I had forgotten that she used to do it when she was little, she may have forgotten too!
Lovely post! I will try these when the girls visit next month. Love you!
Melissa
Thank you! Oh great, I’ll want to hear how y’all like them. Speaking of capitolselfies, I think we need to get you to Sacramento, don’t we? I would love to be able to show you around here! xoxo
Darling Janice, thanks for reviving your blog just when we need it most!
Your recipe sounds terrific. And your new life in Sacramento sounds fabulous. I can’t wait to visit you there!
Stay safe!
Love, Susan
Thanks so much, dear, dear Susan. 😄I would love that!
Glad to see you back at Meliovore. Your last post made an impression on me -and this one too – I accidentally read the headline as Stir-Fried Cheetos, and had a hard time comprehending that you and Chris would even buy them, then fry them!!! So when I saw the picture, it all made sense and sounds delicious!
Thanks, Laura! That’s funny. 🙂 We definitely had Cheetos around now and then, I’m not going to lie. I favored the ‘natural’ ones that were not bright orange. Stir frying them would be very weird, though, you are correct.
I was delighted to see you back but sorry to read your news. A lot can happen in a year and 2020 has been brutal. Hoping for an upswing in the days ahead! My blog has morphed into being much less frequent and minus Vinny most of the time. Still focusing on modifying recipes to include healthful additions, though :). Your cheerios recipe might fit in well with Vinny! Wishing you all the best!
It’s good to hear from you, thank you. I’m glad you are keeping at it too and I am feeling the upswing today myself…. ;-). Interestingly – speaking of healthful additions – for years it was margarine instead of butter both in the cheerios and Chex mix and we had to say goodbye to margarine and worried that butter wouldn’t work. It’s not exactly healthy but I always had the attitude about margarine that I did about diet sodas – AVOID! And for those of us who have to really ration the amount of gluten we take in, the cheerios snack is a nice GF option. Be well and stay well, S.
Hi Janice, my Mom made a similar snack for us in the early 60s! I’ve been searching for years for a recipe. I know hers had Worcester, seasonings and butter. The parmigiana is new, but I will definitely try it. Hope my grandkids like it, thanks to your husband! Happy Holidays.
Hi Lois, it’s fun to hear that you also enjoyed this in the past. I hope your grandkids like it too, and that you enjoy a reunion with stir-fried cheerios yourself. Happy Holidays to you as well. 🙂