I took so many things for granted growing up in New Orleans, among them Southern Fried Shrimp or Stuffed Crabs and Brabant Potatoes for dinner on Fridays, beans or vegetables stewed with smoked or picked meats, leftovers magically reinvented as gumbo, and Pecan Pie on the Thanksgiving sideboard. I simply assumed everyone everywhere ate as we did in Louisiana.

As an adult I realize how spoiled I was, a reality of which I was reminded anew when I sat down with Jady Regard, the self-proclaimed CNO (Chief Nut Officer) and owner of Cane River Pecan Company to discuss the once-humble Southern nut. With holiday baking and candy-making at hand, pecans are in high demand, but I was still shocked to find them priced at $9 a pound?  What the hell?

“High, high demand in China is driving the price of pecans sky high,” Jady said. “The Chinese people have developed a real passion for them and they are currently consuming about 100 million pounds of the United States’ 300 to 400 million pound annual production.  We started seeing a blip on the screen four years ago but it really shot up two years ago. And what’s the tolerance for consumption in Asia? We have a finite number of pecans in this country.”

Wagging a bag of the most perfect, enormous, pale golden pecan halves temptingly under my nose, he counseled that the $9 per pound price tag applies to the common native baking nuts found in cellophane packages, not to the tantalizing variety in his hand. Those nuts, appropriately named “Desirables,” are simply not available though mainstream commercial channels. “For these you have to come to someone like me.”

So the lowly nut that inspired the Ursuline nuns to create Pralines when they landed in New Orleans in 1712 is becoming a luxury item, which, along with Gulf oysters, throws them into the category of High-Priced Southern Holiday Delicacies for Which I am willing to Make Sacrifices to Acquire.

Beautiful just straight from the shell, with little effort pecans are transformed into impressive desserts, snacks and quick gift offerings. A while back I created recipes for Sugar-Glazed Pecans and Spiced Holiday Pecans and both can be prepared in advance, stuffed into pretty tins or jars and presented as  impromptu holiday gifts or served alongside the river of libations that runs through the holiday season.

 My friends at Southern Candymakers in New Orleans, who are repeatedly recognized for their excellent pralines and hand-made candies, took holiday baking and cooking to levels of extreme ease for their customers when they created a few quick holiday recipes using products readily pulled from the shelves in their French Quarter stores, through Rouses’ markets throughout south Louisiana or via their website. Targeted at the laziest of cooks, their Quick Pecan Crust for Any Pie, Baked Brie with Praline Glaze, Candymaker’s Special Green Salad with Ginger Dressing, and Quick Glazed Holiday Ham are all Southern holiday winners requiring close to zero time and effort.