Butter Roasted Pecans

Hey Y'all. It's been a long time. I was in Chicago for the holidays and have been back in Milan for a while now with no impetus to write at all. I've got a lot of catching up to do. So how the hell are ya?

Back in Chicago I found a delicious new recipe from an unlikely source: my Dad. Since his retirement, he's made a few forays in to cooking with his #1 result being Cabbage Soup of the famed Cabbage Soup Diet. "Eeew!", you say? Well I have to tell you that this stuff isn't half bad and having eaten it for lunch pretty much every day over the whole vacation, I actually lost weight at Christmastime! Can you imagine?

Anyway another yummy treat my Dad makes is butter roasted pecans. They are simple and delicious. Here's the recipe:

1 pound of whole raw pecans
3 tablespoons of butter
salt to taste

Heat the oven to 265 degrees fahrenheit. Place the pecans in a single layer on a large cookie sheet. Allow to slowly roast to extreme crunchiness for 30 minutes. The relatively low temperature and long cooking time allow the nuts to get fully crunchy and evenly brown, not burny on the outside, chewy on the inside. Music to slow-roast pecans by: "Pressure Drop" performed by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros. Why? It's just the song I've had going around in my head for the last couple days after having viewed the "Grosse Pointe Blank" episode of my own personal John Cusack film festival. Speaking of John Cusack, did you know that, aside from having probably the best musical taste in Hollywood, he has a few rather strong opinions about the war in Iraq? Have a look here. Back to pecans: during the last 10 minutes of slow cooking, place the butter in a large glass or metal mixing bowl and put in the oven to melt. Take out the nuts and the butter. Immediately pour the pecans into the butter and stir to coat everything. Keep stirring until all the butter has been absorbed. Sprinkle with salt and mix again. Taste and repeat until the nuts are salty enough.