Last night I worked on party treats to take to Anne & Rick's tonight. I made sausage- and cheese-stuffed mushrooms, hot artichoke dip, little smokies in a tangy sauce, ham and cream cheese pinwheels with pickles, spicy pecans. I was disappointed in the pecans. My mom makes them every year at Christmas and they are delicious. I asked her for the recipe, which she gave me - and she is not the sort of person who would deliberately distort it or omit an ingredient so that yours is never quite as good as hers. Well, she might do that to one of her DAR ladies but not to me. Anyway, I followed her recipe pretty closely and if anything, erred on the side of more spicy; I added a bit more garlic powder and a couple of dashes more Tabasco than she suggested, but mine turned out rather flat. They're okay, still a decent snack, and I might like them if I hadn't tasted Mom's before, but I have so mine don't measure up.