I am so glad to see you today, the cottage is very busy right now preparing for the 4th of July!Our little community has a parade, bake sale, pie eating contest, just a fun day of sharing with our family, friends and neighbors. I can't wait to see what you are bringing to share for our party today, and this is our special Top Ten Week of Features, lets get it started!

Salsa is a staple here at the cottage, it is product that we are rarely without. We can traditional tomato and jalapeno salsa every summer from our garden vegetables, and then family and friends are blessed with a jar of salsa at Christmas and other special occasions. Although the traditional salsa is our favorite we love to try other salsa's and our Cucumber Salsa is one of our favorites. I got this recipe from my sweet daughter in law a number of years ago and we just love it!

Red White and Blue, Parades with local High School Bands, Fire Trucks, Military Honor Guards, Bake Sales, Food, and Fireworks, it's a celebration! The 4th of July is a very special holiday here at the cottage. Our little community has a fun parade made up of all the locals including our animals. Of course there is the local bake sale with the best homemade baked goods around anywhere. Pie eating contest, the local choir singing all the favorites. Lot's of friends and family to visit and enjoy a day of Freedom! These are some of the foods with recipes that we will be serving for our 4th of July Picnic Celebration this year.   Let Freedom Ring!

We have had a very exciting week here at the cottage, our Granddaughter her husband and Great Granddaughter have been here for a summer visit and will be here next week, I am one excited Nana!  Meal plans are so important when we are having house guest it sure gives me more time to spend with them. I always include some of my guest favorites and sometimes they will go to the blog and make their selections.  We will be making several of their favorite recipes this week.

Hope you all had a great Fathers Day Weekend, we had lots of family and friends to enjoy some fabulous food.  I just love a potluck like we have here every week, so many wonderful recipes.  It would be so much fun to be able to visit each one of you and sit at your table to enjoy a meal and visit with you.  The first day of summer was yesterday and we intend to enjoy everyday of it!  I am sure looking forward to see all of your recipes this week so lets start this party!

There are times I am so grateful for a great Tex Mex Slow Cooker Recipe. This is one of those recipes, easy, and feeds a crowd if you need it to. Just put together the great Tex Mex spices and cook the beef until it shreds. Pile the shredded beef on a crisp corn tortilla and top with a nice mix of vegetables. This is a delicious recipe that our family and friends love. This is a great make ahead recipe and can be frozen for up to 3 months.

I was writing a post the other day for my Old Fashioned Coleslaw and realized that I had not posted my Old Fashioned Baked Beans and those two dishes really go together. A picnic is not complete without coleslaw and baked beans if its a Barbecue in the Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall these two sides are always a constant. This recipe has been in our family ever since I started making baked beans and we have never really had the need to change it. Some of my family and friends are so excited to get this recipe today, hope you enjoy it!

We have a great meal plan for a special Fathers Day to honor all the Dads! This is a perfect day to be outdoors and use the grill and prepare most of the dishes the day before, in order to spend more time with Dad and the family. Our meal planning is very important for special days so that our plan will be very smooth running and we can enjoy the event along with everyone else.

We are so excited to see you today and hope you are planning a great Fathers Day Weekend. There are so many wonderful recipes that will be perfect for Dad on his special day. We are expecting to have one of our Granddaughters and Great Granddaughter's to visit for the weekend, what a special time to see them after they moved across country two years ago. I am looking forward to looking at all the wonderful recipes that you will be sharing, so lets get this party started!

A friend called the other day and asked if I had an old fashioned Coleslaw recipe and I did have one, but I had not shared it on the blog. I promised her that I would post it very soon. Coleslaw is a year round salad that is a great side for so many dishes and here in Texas is almost a staple. We wouldn't think of having barbecue without coleslaw. This is the recipe that I have always used and have never changed it. When in season we use the cabbage from our garden so this is a great Garden to Table recipe!

We love spicy food here at the cottage and this recipe is a sweet and spicy combination that is delicious. This chicken sits in a wonderful marinate before cooking that leaves it so tender and when you bite into the chicken it just explodes with flavor. This recipe is best grilled on your outdoor grill but will be just as good grilled indoors or roasted in the oven. I recently made the recipe for a cookout and our guest just loved it, we will sure be making it over and over.

Once a month I teach a class to young people about basic homemaking skills. One of the sections of the study is meal planning and how important it is in the life of any individual and their family. I love sitting down each week to make my meal plan and then having the opportunity to share it with all of you. I hope that you are a meal planner and if you aren't that you will soon become a meal planner and save time, money and energy. It's time to get started on this weeks plan.

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather We are so excited in our part of Texas, the sun has been shinning all week! Things are beginning to dry out and everything is so green and lush looking. We have really enjoyed being outdoors this week and spending a lot of time grilling and having some great back porch time. Grilling season is here and I look forward to seeing some of your awesome recipes today. Come on in and join us on the back porch, we will sip some tea and enjoy all this great food!

When my kitchen counter begins to fill with fresh garden vegetables, I begin to search for just the right recipe to use for the wonderful fresh vegetables. Today I am making a fantastic Gazpacho, a cold spicy soup with a different combination of cucumbers, peppers and strawberries which blends a flavor that is fresh and delicious. I am serving this Gazpacho for a small luncheon today, but it could be served for a larger event or a family supper with a nice hot bread. We love this soup and sure hope you enjoy it!

One of my favorite flavors for a cake is lemon, it is fresh, simple and compliments almost any garnish for dessert. This recipe is a southern version of the lemon buttermilk cake that we just love and has been in our family as long as I can remember, ( at this point that's a long time). This is a great cake for any occasion, potlucks, picnics, family gatherings, or just the dessert of the week for your family. Hope you will enjoy this recipe as much as we do. Just look at that Berry Glaze dripping of the side of that delicious cake.

I am a native Texan and have lived here most of my life and have never seen so much rain as we have had this year. We have had over 12 inches here over the past few days and the water has nowhere else to go. The lakes and the rivers are full and running over. We are so grateful that although we have had a lot of rain, we are not flooded here. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those folks who have lost their home and everything in these floods. We are supposed to have a break in the weather on Sunday so we are headed outside to the outdoor kitchen to do some grilling, can't wait to get outside. I have made our pantry inventory, and have all of our recipes together so lets get this meal plan done then we will have more time to visit!

Where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather Welcome to Full Plate Thursday and Welcome June! It is so good to see you here today, it is a wonderful season for fresh foods from the gardens and farmers markets. We are gathering in our garden patio today so we can enjoy the freshness of all the garden vegetables that available. I can't wait to see all the wonderful recipes that you will be sharing today so lets get the party started!