Craddock Farms

A few years back we prepared a basket of Rick's canned goods for an auction at his family reunion.  I jokingly told my dad we would say it was from Craddock Farms. Rick has been raising our produce at dad's.   Dad thought it was funny but when I got home I was just thrilled with the idea of it.  I created a postcard size card labeled Craddock Farms with a great picture of the garden on one side.  On the other side I showed my dad as owner, my husband as operator, and me as pea sheller.  He got the biggest kick out of that.  He grew up in Tennessee around truck farms and knew a lot about them.  The fact that I had taken his 1 acre homestead and made it into a huge truck farm was funny to him.

Since his death in June we have had some "signs".  My daughter has a plant from my mom's funeral 7 years ago.  It never bloomed again after her funeral but bloomed the week of my father's funeral.  My mom's gardenia bush has not bloomed well and this year was full of blooms. 

We moved to mom and dad's home Labor Day weekend.  Within a few weeks we started picking up pecans.  We are into December and the pecans are finally winding down.  I don't think Dad ever had a harvest this good.  I have laundry baskets and copy paper boxes all over the garage full of pecans.  We love pecan pie but I started looking for something new I could do that may be a Christmas present or a new dessert for the holidays.  I found the Lee Bros cookbook at a thrift store and they have a spiced pecan recipe.  So I made some Sunday and hubby loved them.  I'll take some to work and test drive them there.

The finished product is beautiful.

I ended up making 2 batches, each batch is 3 cups of pecans so I used up a quart bag the hubby had just shelled the previous 2 nights.

I have seen the Lee Bros on Cooking Channel and didn't realize who they were but loved their comments about different foods.

So, last Friday, after taking our 5 rescue dogs to the vet for their annual checkups (yes, we are saints, NOT) we decided we deserved some shopping treats.  After hubby got new work boots, we went to Goodwill.  I know Goodwill serves a good cause but their prices are getting ridiculous.  FYI - don't get upset with me Goodwill, I have my many receipts for all my donations this year which is probably 1/2 my salary.  Any how, we went back to one of our thrift stores and found some nice shirts for both of us (1/2 of Goodwill's prices).  I always go by the book section every where I go. 

That is when I stumbled on their cookbook ($2.92) and over 2 days I read it from back to end.  There are only a couple of recipes that I would make but it is great reading and gave me some new ideas of what I want to try.  Plus I got the opportunity to learn about the Lee brothers.

Tonight I am down to one pint. The test drive worked, my co workers loved them.  Some wanted them hotter.  Maybe I've got a great Christmas present for some family members.

Thanks for stopping by.