Cake

There isn't anything special about this cake, its just a spice cake out of the box. But these candied pecans are very, very good. I found a recipe for candied walnuts in a stir fry book, which sounds weird because they topped a zucchini/garlic stir fry. But I used the same recipe for pecans and they are delicious on salads, cake, whatever. You can hide them in the freezer and just dole out a few at a time. In fact, better to keep them out of sight, or you might gobble them all down at once. The recipe is a bit of trouble, but worth it.

Candied Nuts
1/2 pound walnuts or pecans
2 tbs. honey
2 tbs. sugar
pinch salt
2 tbs. cooking oil

Cover the nuts with water in a small saucepan, and boil over high heat for 5 minutes. Immediately drain in a colander. In a 2 quart saucepan, mix the honey, water, sugar and salt. Bring this to a boil, then add the nuts. Stir and cook until the nuts become almost dry, several minutes. Spread the nuts in an even layer on a baking sheet, and bake in a 350 oven until they become a dark brown color (but not burned) about 12 minutes. Cool.

I have a friend who makes a delicious green salad with apples, nuts and dried cranberries. She gave me the recipe, but mine is never quite as tasty as hers. To a daily cook like me, there is just something about the pleasure of eating good food other people prepared.
Julie, these nuts would be perfect for that salad!