1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon butter

dash of salt

1/4 tsp. vanilla

1-1 1/2 cup pecans, depending upon how integral pecans are to you.

Combine the first five ingredients in a heavy saucepan.  Bring it to a boil and boil gently until a soft ball forms in cold water, or to 236° if you're a techy sort.  Remove from heat, add the vanilla and pecans, grab a wooden spoon or spatula, roll up your sleeves and prepare to get buff.  Beat it until it begins to lose its gloss and thickens, coating the nuts.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto parchment paper.

In the above photo, I'm making pralines without nuts because we've family who either cannot eat them or doesn't want to, and it's really a smidge too thick.  I wouldn't let it get that thick before dropping the spoonfuls on the paper. 

It should be pretty thin when one starts, but toward the end it should be stiffening up quite a lot, having to be sort of shaken off the spoon, if you see what I mean.  If it starts stiffening right off the bat, it's been overcooked and won't be much use as pralines per se, but can be crumbled and baked in brownies or sprinkled over ice cream, etc.  If you finish making the pralines and it hasn't begun stiffening, there's a strong chance it's undercooked and will never stiffen.  Scrape it off the parchment into a container...heated slightly in the microwave it makes a terrific ice cream topping, or poured on gingerbread or something like that.