1986 WINNER: PRALINE COOKIES

      Title: 1986 WINNER: PRALINE COOKIES
  Categories: Cookies, Holiday
       Yield: 36 Servings
  
     1/2 c  Butter
   1 1/2 c  Packed brown sugar
       1 ea Egg
   1 1/2 c  Flour
       1 ts Vanilla
       1 c  Chopped pecans
  
   Preparation time: 25 minutes Baking time: 10 to 12 minutes
   
     1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar and egg. Stir in
   flour, vanilla and pecans. Mix well by hand. Shape into balls about
   the size of walnuts, place on cookie sheets and flatten to about 1/8
   inch.
     2. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until brown. Remove from oven and
   allow to cool completely and harden.
     Winner Jean McGree of Flossmoor "bores everyone," she says, with
   this family tale of Christmas praline cookies: "Since the time Mom
   had been a little girl, each November Grandma would surround her back
   yard pecan tree with sheets to catch the falling nuts. But most of
   the nuts had to be knocked from the branches with her long-handled
   broom. Then she would spend hours stooped over those sheets, picking
   up the pecans and sorting the good ones from the black and hollow
   shells.
     "When her daughter married and moved away, the nuts were carefully
   picked over, packaged and shipped 'up North.' Free time in the first
   week of December was always marked for shelling the pecans. Sore
   hands and stiff backs were repaid with secret nibbling and promises
   of praline cookies for Christmas.
     "Soon, I'll start looking for a package from Great-Grandma in South
   Carolina. Then, as we crack the pecans, I can retell the 'pecan
   story' to Michael and Ann, who know that Santa always looks for
   pralines on Christmas Eve." from the Chicago Tribune annual Food
   Guide Holiday Cookie Contest December 4, 1986
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