Once a week our family joins about four or five other families for a small group Bible study. While the kids get some fun playtime with each other, the adults dive into God’s Word and discuss how to better live our lives in an honorable way. Occasionally, we take a break from our normal routine and just spend our time socializing. On one such occasion recently we gathered at our home and had a potluck meal around a nice toasty fire. I had a recipe for a green salad, which happened to include pecans, that a friend of mine had shared with me and I was dying to try it.
The pecan trees are losing their leaves and the hulls are opening up which means it’s time to start picking pecans! What better time to start than today? This time of year we make frequent trips down to the orchards to see if the pecans are ready. Today just happened to include one of those trips. My guess is that Winston already knew that the pecans were ready because unbeknownst to me he brought a collection of buckets with us. He made it sound like he needed us to go check the trees with him, but in actuality I think he just really needed a few extra hands.
I find that many times we are so wrapped up in the overwhelming job of making our pecan farm operate that we forget what made us fall in love with this way of life in the first place. In order to be a farmer or a farmer’s wife you have to really love doing it. I mean that’s one of the things I first noticed about my husband long ago. He loved farming and he really loved life in the country. And you know what…he still does.
It’s been awhile since we’ve shared a pecan recipe with you. Now that the weather is starting to feel more like fall I think it’s time to start making hot meals. Of course, in Texas our mornings are about the only thing that is cool, but I still think it’s time to embrace something hot to eat none-the-less. After all, it seems that when we are accepting of the next seasonal change that it makes it a whole lot easier to make the transition.
The man who plants a tree has civilization in his soul, or so this was the truth according to our great-great grandfather. Now, more than one hundred twenty years later our family is still living out this motto. Our great-great grandparents knew a thing or two about planting trees, pecan trees in particular. They planted the first pecan orchard below their house in the late 1800s.
I’m so excited to share a new recipe with you! I created this recipe with my kids using some of our delicious pecan candy. This summer has been terribly hot here in Texas and most of us in the south have been super sad about Blue Bell Ice Cream being unavailable at our local grocery stores. So in order to satisfy my cravings I have been making a whole lot of homemade ice cream. Since we’ve mastered our vanilla recipe, my kids and I decided that it was time to get a little more creative. That’s how our Praline Pecan Ice Cream recipe was discovered.
Each pecan season we are blessed with a wonderful crew of dedicated workers. Some of them are legendary bakers and others are learning for the first time how to bake. One of my favorite stories this season was from Kristin, one of our novice bakers. Her Nana is known for making some of the best desserts in the family, but this year Kristin was hoping to win the honors. She offered to contribute a pecan dessert to their Christmas meal and Nana suggested they have a competition.
My husband, Winston, and my father-in-law had a really nice wheat crop this year. In fact, Winston even posted a blog about it recently. Our wheat harvest has struggled the last several years due to drought in our area. This year was another story, though! We were so enthusiastic about it, that we decided to keep some of the harvest for ourselves. My mother-in-law took what we kept and had it milled. We visited them a few weeks ago and enjoyed some warm, fresh biscuits that she had made with the recently milled harvest. I thought you might enjoy a picture of these delicious biscuits.
I’m always on the lookout for new recipes. Good ones. Taste is my number one requirement, but I also make it a point to keep my eye out for recipes that are healthy. It’s summer and this recipe accomplishes both. Not only does it utilize the abundance of zucchini that is produced this time of year as well as using pecan meal, but these fries taste great too. It’s the perfect gluten free recipe to add to your list this summer.
I remember when I was a kid it was quite the rage to start clubs and invite your closest friends to join with you. I was a member of The Girls Club in which we would yell “no boys allowed” at the top of our lungs when some little boy would innocently cross our path. Poor thing! I’ve even heard my daughter get into the spirit of clubs with her friends.
