Happy Discovery Cooking: Pirate Rum-Vanilla Spiced Pecans

Pecans spiced vanilla

Riffling through the back-of-the-cupboard recesses for a jar of Cinnamon to add to my batch of spiced pecans, my hand happens on a forgotten glass bottle of homemade pirate rum-vanilla that I made as a part of family Christmas gifts last year. (Purportedly, like a fine cheese, it get’s better with age.)
With a satisfying “pop” the rubber-stopped cap twists off and I add a few splashes onto the pecans. The pan sizzles and aromatic steam wafts around the kitchen. I put them into the oven, set the timer for 20 minutes, and wait.

Soon as the timer goes off, I open the oven door and dumbly bend down too-fast directly into the  initial blast of oven heat. I pull back, pause then for a moment to let the heat wave pass, then I take them out. Setting them on the counter, I pull off the oven mit and take one carefully inbetween my fingers. I blow on it to cool it down a bit. Then plop it into my mouth.

Turns out that the vanilla-rum addition doesn’t change the flavor. They are just as delicious. If this was a perfume, it would simply be another scent for your nose to enjoy.

I love this about cooking. The experimentation of it all. The happy discoveries. 

So two questions:

  1. If there was a perfume that smelled like spiced pecans with rum & vanilla- would you wear it? 
  2. Do you have anything great to make/eat this time of year?