Sweet Roasted Pecans

Even as my taste buds have matured, I'm still not much of a salad person. I'll eat one if I have to, but rarely will I crave a salad. However I have found that nuts (and cheese) make the salad eating experience much more pleasant. If you can ensure that you have a nut (particularly a candied nut) in each bite to disguise the lettuce, salad instantly becomes a much nicer tasting option. Unfortunately, nuts have a lot of calories even though they are good for you, so you lose the only other good part of a salad— not very many calories. You can't have your cake and eat it too, I guess.

These nuts are quite good. Mix together one tablespoon of melted butter, one tablespoon of maple syrup, one tablespoons of honey, two teaspoons of cinnamon and one teaspoon of nutmeg in a small bowl. Pour in nuts (we used about half a cup of pecans) and coat thoroughly. Place on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 350° for eight minutes. Let the pecans cool before you put them in an airtight container so the glaze will harden, and you'll have a sweet, spicy, and crunchy topping for your salad.