An Ode to the Praline

I was a bad conference blogger. (Bad blogger! Bad blogger!) I had great plans to post every night to keep those of you who couldn't make it to Atlanta at least partially up to date... What is it they say about best laid plans?

Sorry.

I simply had too-too much fun and was wiped every night when I got back to my room. You could probably smell the drink on the posts I did manage to make. I loved the chance to hang out with other TKA clients (my new sistahs)and got to know many of the New England Chapter members, through Marley Gibson. What a fun/friendly group of writers! So, while I was only partially successful on my stalk Emily Giffin goal... I did do pretty well on my meeting-new-people-instead-of-falling-into the-comfortable-trap-of-hanging-with-friends-from-home goal. Yay, me!

Anyway... this post was supposed to be an ode to the praline, and I have seriously digressed before even starting. Oops. (Premature digression?)

Back to our regularly scheduled program:

On Tuesday evening, The Knight Agency threw an amazing party to celebrate their 10th anniversary. Great setting, great food, great drinks, great music, great company, amazing hospitality AND PRALINES!

My favourite ice cream has always been pralines and cream, so I'd heard of the southern US version of pralines before and assumed I'd like them... (Minor digression... Don't the Belgians--masters of all things chocolate--call all fancy prepared chocolates pralines? Must do some research. Here's a start.) But until this week, I'd never experienced a freshly made southern praline.

Let me tell you... You haven't had a praline until you've tried one made seconds ago in a copper kettle right before your drooling eyes. (can eyes drool?) Who knew butter, brown sugar, a squirt of lemon and some fresh pecans could combine to make such a delectably orgasmic treat?
Okay, now that I type out the ingredients, the whole tasty thing seems kinda obvious, but man, they were good!

Here in Canada, we have this treat called a butter tart, which I love (a little too much) and greatly missed during the 10 years I lived in the US. Butter tarts are a bit like like melting a praline into a pastry shell. (Mental note: Must make sure the TKA staff get to try some butter tarts in the future!)

Thanks again to everyone at TKA! I will be dreaming of pralines for months and someday may forgive you for getting me hooked on the hard stuff. Just what I needed--another sugar monkey on my back! (But seriously, thanks for an amazing evening.)