Mix all ingredients except butter, vanilla, and pecans. Cook on low fire until the mixture forms a soft ball in cold water. Remove from fire. Add butter, vanilla, and pecans, and beat until the mixture holds its shape. Spoon onto buttered wax paper (Add old newspaper under your wax paper.) If candy gets hard before all is spooned out, add a little water, and heat over. Or you can let it stand on low heat while spooning out. If you have never tasted freshly made pralines, made from fresh Louisiana pecans, you have just never really lived. Justin Wilson says, "Doris is the much better half (wife) of my good friend Gordon Martin, the sheriff of St. James Parish. Every Christmas Eve we go by to see them after watching the bonfires that are burned on the levees along the Mississippi River to light the way for Papa Noel (Santa Claus).