A few weekends ago my parents and my brother and his family came to Chicago for a visit. We didn’t really have anything planned, we just hung out and made lunch. Dallas marinated some steak and chicken the night before and we grilled it up. Stephanie and I made guacamole and with the salsa that I made the night before and tons of other dressings along with our flour, corn and wheat tortillas, it was so good.

For dessert, Amanda made a cake and brought it over and I’d made these butter pecan cookies the night before. I got the recipe from Elise at Simply Recipes. I love that site. Actually, now that I think about it, the guacamole recipe was from there too! Anyway, the cookies were so delicious. Especially when they were warm. Nice and crisp on the outside and really soft inside. It’s a wonder how good things are when you add a ton of butter and sugar!

Butter Pecan Cookies
From Simply Recipes

3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar, plus more for coating
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

1 Preheat oven to 350°. On a baking sheet, toast pecans until fragrant, about 6 minutes. Let cool completely; finely chop.

2 With an electric mixer, cream butter for about a minute. Add 1/3 cup sugar and cream until light, about 1 minute more. Beat in vanilla, salt, and flour, scraping down sides of bowl, just until dough comes together. Fold in pecans.

3 Separate dough into 12 pieces; squeeze dough to shape into balls. Roll in sugar. Place, 3 inches apart, on a baking sheet.

4 Gently flatten with the bottom of a glass (reshape sides if necessary). Sprinkle with sugar.

5 Bake until golden brown, rotating sheet halfway through, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with more sugar. Cool cookies on a wire rack.