good old Texas pralines

Those crazy Cajuns in New Orleans pronounce it prah'-leen, whereas any self-respecting Texan knows it's pronounced pray'-leen. Also, most people up here say pee-can', instead of the absolutely correct pe-cahn', so to say this correctly, it's peCAHN PRAYleens. You really should moan a little while you say it too, and please pronounce it correctly from now on.

In Austin, at the old-timey Mexican food restaurants like Matt's (El Rancho, though if you're from Austin, Matt's will do), dessert options were always pralines or sherbet. Even though I always wanted both, usually the pralines won. Sugar + pecans, nothing beats that.

When I saw the Homesick Texan post a recipe for pralines, my heart skipped a beat and beat very fast, at the same time. The recipe sounded easy, and the recipe notes said it was easy too, so even though I'd never made them before, I got out the ingredients and made me some pralines:

I made a fatal error somewhere -- should've used that candy thermometer -- but you know, sugar + pecans = good eating no matter what. The sugar wasn't right, it wasn't creamy enough, but we had no problem finishing them off.