I’m not necessarily a big one for making Christmas cookies, but I do like to do some baking over the holidays. In past years I’ve made a lot of biscotti, since it ships well, and occasionally chocolate crinkles. But last winter I went back to making a recipe that was a favorite of my grandmother’s – she picked it up while she and my grandfather were living in Corpus Christi, Texas, during World War II. They’re very simple cookies, but they remind me of her – plus they’re fabulously delicious. If I make no other cookies for the holidays, I will make these.

Corpus Christi Pecan Cookies

from the recipe files of Maurine Tuttle

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• a good shake of salt
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Mix everything together more or less in the order written. Drop onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350° until set and just golden brown around the bottom. Eat warm, cool or frozen.

You may have noticed, not only is this a very simple recipe, the instructions are pretty vague. That’s because it hardly matters what you do, these cookies will be good. See these cookies I just made? I forgot to add the baking soda to them. They were wonderful.