Frugal February day 13 - the nut house

My husbands coworker, David,  had a very good pecan harvest,  he gave us some pecans and we also picked up a lot of pecans on halves at his orchard. I don't know how many pounds are already in our freezer, but lots, and there is going to be more.  Back in the fall
My husband cracked and picked all of ours out the old fashioned way, with hand crackers and a metal pick.

David had more pecans mechanically "cracked and blown"   The pecans are not ready to eat after that process but a lot of the shell has been removed.  He wants them picked out all the way and my husband is doing it for him, on thirds. David will get 2/3s of this batch and we will get 1/3.

This is what the cracked and blown pecans look like- there is very little shell left in. 

David brought us a big storage tub with 2 trash bags full of pecans. 

My husband has already cleaned half of them,  I think it yielded 6 gallon bags - each bag is almost 4 pounds of pecans, from just half of them. 

These pecans would be especially delicious in pecan pie but we are trying to not eat that many calories. 

We do like to snack on nuts so I tried roasting a few from the freezer. I stirred them in just a little melted butter and salt, then baked them at 350 for about 8 minutes. I think they taste really good. 

For portion control and convenience, I used a 1/4 measuring cup and divided them into small dishes. 

I expect some of our pecans will end up in pecan pies or chocolate chip cookies but for everyday eating, we will enjoy eating our pecans roasted and in small portions. 

My frugal tip- everyone isn't friends with a pecan grower but everyone knows busy people. If you are willing to do odd jobs, I think there are plenty of opportunities to do similar things, 

Rescued from the rag bag

Finishing this quilt top did not take too long. If you remember,the finished top was something my dad got at a yard sale or thrift store. It is all scraps and was not much to look at it. But my husband likes it, and since I want to make a bunch of quilts in 2014, I finished it.


Linking to the party at Green Willow Pond

Our bed is a queen and the new quilt is laying on top of the bedspread. I think the new quilt would cover a double bed just fine. It should be quite warm as the batting in it is a thick cotton one.m

Oh Sew Scrappy......

The back is scrappy too, I couldn't decide what the predominate color was so I used 4 scraps and pieced them to back a piece big enough.

Quilt Purists would think this is very primitive but that is OK with us. I like precise, perfectly made quilts but at this stage of my life, I can't fit that fussy sewing in. Sew- if I do finish 6 or 12 quilts in 2014 like I hope to- some of them will be more projects like this.