Based on a recipe given to us by Ms. Jeannette McInis! May she live long and prosper.

This is a great dish – especially for keeping to eat when company comes or when that sugar need strikes and you don’t want those sweets with harmful stuff.

Many stores sell raw pecans in two cup packages. Those are perfect. If not, wherever in whatever quantities you can get your pecans works.

Needless to say, but we will repeat it anyway -all ingredients should be organic. We realize it is difficult to get organic pecans, but once you have searched you will find a source and be able to go back there many times.

2 cups pecans

1/2 cup organic sugars (mixed is preferable.) You can find organic Turbinado Sugar; organic coconut palm sugar and more. Except don’t bother with brown sugar – organic or not. That is simply white sugar with the molasses from the end stages mixed back into the sugar. Best to have sugars which are the least processed.

Cayenne pepper to taste – We have tried from 1/2 tsp to 1 1/2 tsp. Both were great!

3/4 tsp himalayan salt.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the sugar, salt and pepper. Add 4 tsp water stirring until dry ingredients dissolve.

Add pecans

Stir until pecans are coated.

Be careful that you don’t have too much liquid. We tried water and milk. Both were great. The first time we tried this we added too much water and the result was pecans in a thick, caramelized mess. When we finally caught on to the need for minimizing the liquids we produced pecans coated beautifully with just the right amount of sugary stuff to make the pecans stiff.

Spread the pecans on a baking sheet – evenly so one does not touch another.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes until pecans are crusty and wonderful. Another caution. Do not bake too long or you will get burns pecans.

Once out of the oven and cooled, remove pecans from the baking sheet and store them in a glass jar.

Enjoy!

P. S. You can go crazy with this recipe by adding all kind of spices and herbs to the mix. Cinnamon and nutmeg are some traditional ones for holidays. But try turmeric – and so many more – what are your favorites!! Use them!

My mother always had a bottle of tabasco sauce in her pocket book so I tried that instead of cayenne pepper and it was astoundingly good.