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.

My Grandpa used to cure and smoke hams and I remember going in the smoke house with him when he would check the hams. The gentle stream of that smoke traveling up through the ham was a wonderful smell and a precious memory of spending time with my Grandpa. This recipe for country ham is just that. A Country Ham that my Grandmother may have cooked right out of the smoke house and then put on the table for a special family meal. Our family loves ham and it is the meat that just keeps on giving. There are so many meals that one can have from one Country Ham.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends and sure hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I always want something like Tex-Mex after Thanksgiving and it will be on The Menu this week. We will be busy this next week, putting up our Christmas decorations, I love this time of the year! Come on back to the kitchen with me and have a cup of coffee with a muffin while we finish this menu for next week.

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather *Thanksgiving Edition* When I Sit Down With My Family On Thanksgiving Each One Of You Will Be Among My Many Blessings May God Bless You and Your Family Abundantly On Thanksgiving

This is such a great recipe for left over turkey or chicken and can be a crowd pleasing  appetizer. It is a flavorful luncheon dish, just add a salad and it is a delicious light meal. I always freeze my left over turkey or chicken in 2 to 3 cup bags because most recipes call for that amount. It is really easy to just take that bag out of the freezer, already cooked and chopped ready to go. This is a super easy recipe to put together, just bake and enjoy!

It's here folks, the week of Thanksgiving 2015, I am so excited. Turkey and Dressing one of my favorite meals will be on The Menu this week for sure. We are very busy here at the cottage preparing for all the festivities that will be coming on Thursday and the weekend. It's at holiday times that I am so grateful that I took the time in the fall to organize my pantry and that we will have this lovely menu to follow saving us time and money. All this gives us the opportunity to spend more quality time with our loved ones. When We Sit At Our Thanksgiving Table Please Know That I Count Each Of You Among My Many Blessings May God Bless You Abundantly This Thanksgiving

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather I can't believe that we are just one week away from Thanksgiving, the big feast! The cottage is very busy this week getting ready for the big day with friends, family and lots of wonderful food. We will be having a different schedule for our party next week so be sure and read the announcement. I know that you are sharing some fabulous food for the table today and I can't wait to taste it.Lets get the food on the table and party!

Everything Pumpkin When we think of fall and of the many celebrations that we have in the fall, we naturally think of Pumpkin. We have several pumpkin recipes that have become our favorite and wanted to share them with you today. We just love pumpkin and really could enjoy it the year round but we have it as often as we can during the season. I sure hope that you enjoy these recipes.

When I was a very young girl my Grandmother would make biscuits then put them in her wood stove oven. While the biscuits were cooking she would make this heavenly gravy with bits of vegetables and meat. The bonus of all that for me was the hoe cake that she would bake on top of the fire plate of the stove and that was mine, it was so good. Although our biscuits and gravy have changed since that time along with our ovens, I still think of my Grandmother and that special cake when making biscuits, along with all the love that went into them. We love the combination of the Cranberry Biscuits and Sausage Gravy and hope you enjoy the recipe.

We were driving to town the other day and right there by the side of the road was this flock of Wild Turkey's, yes all you hunters out there would have loved it, they were so pretty. It's that time of the year when we see lots of wild life in our area. This week we are planning to have one of our garden vegetables that is still producing. It is really nice to have these wonderful seasonal garden vegetables to include on our menu.

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather We are so excited to see you today, and looking forward to all the wonderful food that you will be bringing to share with us today, because we know that it is the best of the best! We had some awesome dishes last week that are featured today so be sure and check them out. I know that some of you will be on holiday today and this weekend to observe Veterans Day here in the USA. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the Veterans who have given so many years of their life to our country and the cause of freedom. There is nothing I would love better than to have each of you sitting at our table today, we honor YOU!

When the oven is filled with other dishes it is awesome to have a fantastic dessert in the Slow Cooker.  This is a delicious dessert with a great fruit combination and a rich sauce all in the same cooker. I love this recipe when we are having a busy day or a family gathering. This is a great dessert to take to a covered dish luncheon. We really love this Fruit Pudding Cake and hope you will enjoy it.

I am always on the lookout for a great Slow Cooker recipe that will be ready to go at the end of a busy day. This is one of those recipe's that can go anywhere to a community or family pot luck or a week night supper with the family.This recipe is packed with the flavors that our family loves, it will be a dish that we will be making over and over again. I am so excited to share it with all of you today.

Fall has really arrived with chilly rainy days and the smell of fireplace smoke in the air. I am planning warm and cozy food for this week and am glad that you stopped by to help me plan this menu. I will have my favorite Pumpkin Soup and a family favorite Fresh Apple Cake on the menu this week. Come on back to the kitchen and have a cup of hot cider and a warm slice of coffee cake while we get this done.

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather It is great to see all of you today.  I often get emails from readers telling me that when they want a quality recipe for their family they come to Full Plate Thursday, that is awesome! We are starting to see some thanksgiving dishes appearing and that big day will be here before we turn around, where does the time go?I am excited to see what you are sharing today so lets get this party started and take a look at YOUR TOP TEN FROM LAST WEEK!

Just about every family I know has their own favorite Green Bean Casserole recipe. Sometimes it's the Grandma's or an Aunt's recipe that is a family favorite at holiday meals and pot lucks throughout the years. Nana's Green Beans, one of our family favorites, has changed through the years but the recipe that I am making today is our favorite this year and is a great dish for family gatherings and pot lucks.

My husband loves pudding's and custard's, he asked me the other day if I would make him a pumpkin "something" that didn't have a crust. I love creating a special dessert just for him and this is the pumpkin "something"! He just loved this this Pumpkin Custard, it is so smooth and packed with flavor.Although it is perfect for the fall season this will be a recipe that we will be using the year round.

Happy November It is really beautiful fall weather here. The leaves are a beautiful color and everyone is ready for a great month. One of my favorites will be on The Menu this week, I can't wait to have the Cornbread Dressing and Chicken Casserole.  It's that time of the year when we get to indulge in our favorite fall foods.

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather I am so excited to see you today! We have had at this time,over 17 inches of rain in a very short time frame. I thought for a little bit that we would be able to go fishing on the front porch. We are all good here no fear of water coming in our cottage, all the water drains very quick and runs right down to the lake. The little ghost and goblins will be knocking at the door very soon now and the cottage will be a packed with goodies. I always look forward to your treats every week, you bring the best treats of all!  

These Nutty Pumpkin Bites are just right for little hands and just a bite for all the adults.  The little bites are just packed with fruit and nuts with a crunchy outside and a flavorful inside. I will have these sitting out for my all the folks who stop by to have a little cup of cider and stand by the fire to warm up on a lovely fall afternoon or evening.

Enchiladas can be found all over the state of Texas, but each region has it's own claim to enchilada fame. The recipe that I am using today takes me back to my youth and the little cafe's and Mexican Food restaurant's in the panhandle and western part of Texas. When this pan of enchiladas come out of the oven, it brings me right back to all the wonderful sounds and smells of my youth. I remember my Grandmother, Mother and Aunts making this recipe and it is still one of my favorites.

The Cottage is ready for all the little goblins that will come knocking at the door this week looking for special treats. This is going to be a real busy week so I am planning a week of easy cooking and good food. Sometimes the best food is so easy and that's what we all look for on those busy days. This is where meal planning really pays off, we won't have to spend a lot of time wondering around in the market trying to make a decision whats for dinner, because we have it planned. I hope that you are making your meal plans to save time and money!

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather We have been having so much fun in our community with fall festivals, carnivals and lots of wonderful food. The State Fair of Texas just closed and no more giant corn dogs until next year. Every week all of you have been bringing the most awesome fall dishes to share with us and I can't wait to see what you are sharing this evening so lets get this party started!

My Granddaughter called the other day and asked if I would send her the family Macaroni Soup recipe, which I did of course. I hadn't made that soup in a very long time and it sounded so good, and brought back some great memories. I used to make it often for the kids it was really one of their favorites and it was real easy to sneak some vegetables in their meal plan for the day. We really enjoy the soup and so glad she reminded me of one of our favorites.

I love this time of the year when the fresh pumpkin's are in all the markets and the flavors of fall abound. I recently had a little morning coffee for a group of friends and wanted to serve them a very special coffee cake to go with the coffee. This is a recipe that I have had for many years and it is one of my favorites, I haven't found it necessary to change a thing in all these years. I am happy to share this recipe with you today and sure hope you enjoy it!

A Weekly Family Friendly Meal Plan With Recipes We are here in the middle of October with some record temperatures, we actually are still in the 80's and 90's some day's.It has given us a little extra time to get ready for the cold weather months that will come. I recently cleaned out the freezer and updated my inventory list. This gives me the opportunity to know exactly what I have on hand without digging in a cold freezer for something that isn't there. Although we are having warm weather my taste is still for fall when I am making my meal plan for the week.

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather I am so excited that you came to the country to spend some time with us today. We have our tables all set up in the Up Stairs Garden today so we can enjoy some of this outstanding fall weather we are having. I know that you'al will be filling those tables with lots of wonderful fall creations.My neighbor gave me a big sack of apples so I've been busy creating this awesome Apple Cider Chicken dish that I will be sharing with you today. Lets get all this delicious food on the table so we can get this party started!

We have fresh greens for salad growing in our garden and lettuce tub almost the year round. There are times in the winter when the temperatures dip so low that most of the greens will die,but some make it the year round. I have sometimes had Collard plants that were two and three years old and still producing. I love going to the garden and gathering a bunch of greens, coming in the kitchen and putting a fresh salad together. I had added some of my favorite fruit to this salad along with a nice Vinaigrette for dressing. This is a perfect salad for any season.

Pinto Beans are a staple here at the cottage, they are a regular part of our meal plan. The first time I made this recipe we just fell in love with the flavors and the dumplings on top are a bonus! This is not just a pot of beans, this is a very special dish that you can serve for any week night dinner, a pot luck, or a great game day recipe!

Hello, come on back to the Herb Garden, I am gathering some herbs to dry before the winter sets in. I love to gather the herbs and tie them in little bundles, hang them upside down and let them dry, then they are ready to go into a lovely dish. There is nothing like fresh fruits and vegetables on the table. My neighbor gave me a big sack of apples and small pumpkins so guess what I have on the menu this week?

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather It is really good to see you today I always look forward to your wonderful recipes. The farmers market is filled with pumpkins, squash, and apples in wonderful fall colors. I love picking up the fresh fall vegetables and coming home to my kitchen and creating a wonderful fall dish.  I am sharing a great Apple Skillet Pie with you today.  I can't wait to see your wonderful dish that you are sharing today. Come on back to the kitchen and lets get the party started!

The last few weeks the Farmers Market has had the most beautiful fresh cabbages. I just could not resist coming home with some of those cabbages, we love cabbage, boiled, baked, or in a cole slaw. This is a spicy recipe that makes a great side dish for any meal. We love this dish and I am happy to share it with you today.

I have had this recipe on my note cards for sometime and I continued to add to and take away from the notes. Finally it was ready to try and it certainly did not disappoint, I only wish it could have been ready sooner. A trip to the farmers market for fresh apples and vegetables, pick up some chicken breast, now we are ready to go! The blend of these flavors are wonderful and I can't wait to share it with you.