I don’t cook or bake often, but occasionally the kitchen bug bites me and I go crazy! This is especially expected around the holidays. In the spirit of giving and baking, I spent the entire evening making Spiced Maple Glazed Pecans. I am a little embarrassed to say: I found the recipe on Martha Stewart’s website. But no less, they are delicious and creative gifts. This little kitchen adventure also turned me on to Mason jars and Ball jars! There are so many cool things you can do with these things - and knowing me, I will spend the next year trying to figure those things out. Anyway, the first thing you want to do is prepare:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2) Mix the following ingredients:
- 9 Tablespoons of melted unsalted butter
- 3 Tablespoons of light-Brown sugar
- 12 Tablespoons of Maple Syrup (I used Cracker Barrel brand.)
- 3 teaspoons of coarse salt
- 3/4 teaspoon of ground Cayenne pepper
- 2 teaspoons of thyme
- 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

Meanwhile, make sure your jars have been washed with hot water and soap. They must be dried out completely before storage. Pour 3 pounds of pecan halves into a bowl and try to pick out the really small pieces and flakes. Next, pour the mixture from step two into the bowl of pecans and stir slowly. Make sure every pecan is coated. (Three pounds is quite a lot to work with, so I just used 2 bowls and tossed them back and forth between the two.)

3) Pour the coated pecans in a thin layer onto a non-stick cookie sheet. A medium-sized cookie sheet will fit about 1 pound.

4) Bake them for 12 minutes, remove from oven and mix them up again. Put them back in the oven for another 5 minutes if needed for extra browning.

5) Let the pecans cool for 5 minutes, then use hands to break up any clusters. Pour pecans into the jars, seal and decorate!

Glazed, right out of the oven:

After:

I used Glue Dots (from the scrapbooking section at Walmart) to glue on my decoration.

Three pounds filled up 12 small jars and 1 medium one. Tailor the recipe for however many gift jars you need. (Btw, cinnamon was not a part of the original recipe but it’s a nice touch.)