pralines - heaven on earth PICTURES ADDED

First of all, say it right for god's sake! It is NOT "Pee Can Pray Leen," no matter what you may have heard on the Dairy Queen commercial and I don't care how Rachel Ray or Paula Dean or any of those other hacks pronounce it. It is "Puh cawn Praw lean. " It drawls off your tongue, sweetly and stickily, so don't mangle it anymore, OK??

Now, one of my best memories of Christmas is my granny's pralines...my grandmother did the cookies, but my granny did the candy!! And oh my god, they were to die for - just melted in your mouth and she NEVER messed them up!! As a little kid, I wasn't such a fan cuz kids don't like nuts, do we? But by junior high, I salivated every time I saw pecans. Every year, she would send my dad a tin of them, and they always seemed to arrive when I wasn't home, and he spirited them away to hide in his closet or under the bed, and by the time I tracked it down, there were just buttery crumbs left at the bottom of the Collin Street Bakery tin...but even the dregs were worth it. Of course back then I had not idea how to cover with insulin for all that extra sugar and ended up feeling like utter crap for days after.

Then my granny died, and I decided to make them my ownself. I asked my mom if she had the recipe and she pulled out a file folder, and said "this is a valuable file folder. When I die, don't throw this away." What is in it, I asked. "It's not what is IN it," she said, "it's what's written ON it." And there in my granny's scratchy handwriting, is the recipe for her pralines (which I can't share with you, but, you can imagine...sugar, butter, pecans and some other stuff)

So I am a true scrooge - I am wearing a grinch t-shirt today, i have not started shopping, i have piles of work to do and I am supposed to drive to houston on sunday...BUT screw all that, I am gonna go make pralines..if they come out (and the humidity has to be right for them to set), I will post some photos...too bad they haven't perfected smell0vision yet...you would DIE!!

OK...they came out good!! I am so excited

This is what the brown sugar looked like, curiously. I don't think this is what they mean when they say "packed"









here is the sugars and something else and the butter melting nicely








starting to boil, and adding another secret ingredient







this is the hard ball stage (not to be confused with the soft ball, the stinky ball, the hairy ball, and the godawful hard crack!!









adding pecans







cooling down, just about ready to be candy









first batch cooled a little quick








2nd batch looked a little better









the pot is about to be licked clean