Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather Welcome to the last party of 2015, wow it has been an outstanding year that all of you make so special every week! Your food that you bring every week is always something that I am happy to put on my plate and table any day of the week, you truly are "The Greatest Cooks On The Planet"! Thank you so much for being a part of Full Plate Thursday! We Wish You  Happiness  and Prosperity For 2016 Happy New Year

I have the greatest readers that come faithfully to read and try my recipes.I love developing these recipes and sharing them with all of you. I am always thrilled to get a comment or an email from one of you about a recipe that you have tried or that you would like to try or even that looks good to you. All of you are a special part of my life and I thank you for your loyal and faithful support. These are your Top Favorites From Each Month of 2015

When the year comes to an end and a new one begins, it is always fun to get together with friends and family to look back a bit and plan ahead. We are planning a New Years Eve Open House for friends and family to drop by and spend some time with us. This is going to be a very casual event, just folks stopping by to say good-bye to the old and hello to the new. We will be having a few laughs, maybe shedding a few tears and mostly grateful for the life with family and friends that we have been given.

We have come to the end of 2015 and what a great year it was in so many ways and as a family we have so many things to be grateful for. This week for our meal plan we will be planning our New Years Eve and our New Years Day, all family favorite selections that hopefully bring good luck in the new year. I am so glad that you stopped by today to spend some time in the kitchen with me for our last menu of 2015!

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather I am so excited to welcome you here today at Christmas time. It is a very special time here at the cottage with the smells of Christmas all thru the whole house. In the kitchen we have some hot spiced tea and a buffet of sweets so come on in and join us as we begin our celebration! Thank you so much for coming today and for all your support throughout this year!

Our family loves Pimento Cheese, it is a great cheese mix that can be used as a dip, and makes an awesome sandwich. The other day I made up a recipe of Pimento Cheese and decided to make a very special snack tray for a friends party. These little Pimento Cheese Bites were a great hit at the party and I just knew that all of you would want the recipe. This little appetizer has two layers of cheese, with a jalapeno bite at the end, it is great!

When I start thinking about party or snack food, I want it to be something that can go anywhere and be enjoyed anytime of the year. This is one of those recipes and I have had so much fun developing it. My official taster (aka Honey) has loved every one of these Taco Balls. I know when he says to me "I am not quiet sure yet maybe I better have another one just to make sure", yeah you guessed it, he loves the recipe at that point! I am excited to share this with you today.

How exciting, it's the week of Christmas! There is a certain energy that can be felt in the community as we get closer to Christmas, I just love it! We will have a Christmas Eve Buffet and Christmas Day Dinner on the menu this week. We are looking forward to enjoying time with friends and family this week and watching the bright faces of the little ones as they discover Christmas.

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather I am so excited to see you today with only 7 day left until Christmas! It is along about this time we begin checking all the list twice and making sure that everything will be special for family and friends. We always have so many wonderful recipes at this party I can't wait to see what you are bringing to share today!

For as long as I can remember our family has enjoyed a Tex Mex buffet on Christmas Eve. We always look forward to all the homemade tamales, and the fun that went into the preparation. We have a real time of fellowship as some of us are gathered days ahead of the celebration to make the tamales. Usually it is an all day event as we make several different kinds each year. We will have the tamales with all the trimmings on our buffet table and we are so happy to share it with you this year. May The Joy Of Christmas Live In Your Home and Heart Throughout The Year We Wish You Christmas Blessings

Our family loves pie and we are always looking for a very flavorful pie, and that is just what this pie is. In addition to being so flavorful it is very easy to put together and can be made the day before you need it. The pie has a base layer of wonderful cheese with a tang, then a layer of sweet cranberries, then we top it with a wonderful pecan topping, oh my goodness. I had to put the pie under lock and key to just get it cooled. I recently made it for a very special event and it was enjoyed by all, I promised the recipe to some friends and am so happy to share it with all of you today!

We have been so busy here at the cottage with Christmas activities and parties for the season. Last weekend I had a few friends over for Hot Chocolate and Cookies an old fashioned get together with some old friends, we had so much fun! This week we are getting ready for the big parade and the official arrival of Santa of course, who always makes an appearance at the parade, really I'm the biggest kid at the parade! We are expecting some guest this week so we will be planning a fun meal plan to allow us time to spend with them.

Where The Greatest Cooks on The Planet Gather We are sure glad to see you today and excited to share all the wonderful food that you bring each Thursday. We have been so busy here at the cottage with holiday baking and parties. Don't you just love holiday parties? I had a small hot chocolate and cookies gathering this past weekend, we had so much fun. Lets get this party started, someone said they were hungry!

I love receiving homemade gifts and I enjoy giving them even more. Lots of love and caring goes into a gift that someone has taken the time to plan and make just for you. Many of the gifts that we give are home canned with fruit and vegetables from our garden. And really who wouldn't just love a fresh pie, or a nice basket of cookies.  These are some of the homemade gifts that will be coming from my kitchen this year for family and friends. Gifts From Miz Helen's Kitchen

We love Sweet Potatoes and sometimes we grow them in our garden. I had never really thought about having Sweet Potatoes for breakfast until I started on this recipe. The flavor of the potatoes with the sausage and spices is just fabulous. I made this for a weekend brunch when we had house guest and it was a real winner. Next time it was made for a smaller group and the remainder of the dish went into the freezer. It was just as good when we popped it out of the freezer and enjoyed it again. I am excited to share this with you today and hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

Sometimes when the world around us becomes so uncertain we turn to the comfort of our faith, homes, families and close friends. Often times that includes the comfort of familiar food that brings us some form of comfort. When these times come we tend to draw into our home and the comfort of our own cultures. We are taking a moment today to think of all of you and asking God to be with you and help you through this time of uncertainty. I am looking out over the pasture covered in white frost and the stillness and peace that surrounds the cottage and hoping that you to can feel that same peace today. As I prepare the meal plan this week, I am very careful to observe the cultures of very close friends and family members in addition to seeking to provide my family with the nutritional comfort for today.

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather Welcome to December and the party, I am so excited to see you today! I sure hope that you had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends, we had a wonderful day to reflect on all our many blessings. We are going into the Hanukkah and Christmas season my very favorite time of the year. I am sure looking forward to all the wonderful food that you will be posting in the next few weeks for this season.

We grow Swiss Chard in our garden and it is great to go to the garden and gather the greens for a recipe.  The other day I rushed out to the garden to gather my Swiss Chard before the first freeze of the season and ended up with this fantastic recipe.   I had some Acorn Squash so why not make a wonderful vegetable dish with these vegetables. We loved this combination for stuffing the squash and I am sure we will be using this recipe over and over. The sweet flavors of the squash and the crunchy stems of the chard along with the nuts, and the savory rice, oh my this is delicious.