1986 winner: praline cookies

1/2 c  butter
  1 1/2 c  Packed brown sugar
      1    Egg
  1 1/2 c  flour
      1 ts vanilla
      1 c  Chopped pecans
 

  :       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.  (These cookies are chewy, not hard).
  :          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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