Welcome to Full Plate Thursday and the first day of September. This is a really big weekend coming up and many of you will be entertaining for the labor day weekend. We will have awesome recipe suggestions for the weekend and the transition time into fall. If you have big plans for the weekend, take care and stay safe, we want to see you here again next Thursday with great recipes to share with all of us!

We love a great pot of chili and just about always have some left over for the next day. One of the awesome dishes that I make with the left over chili is a Frito Pie. I have been making Frito Pie for more years than I can count and it was one of our favorite dishes on Friday Night Football Nights when the kids were in school. The other day I made this awesome pot of Garden Chili and of course we had lefts overs and I thought why not make a Frito Garden Pie. It was out of this world delicious, wish I had thought of this a long time ago.

Wonderful garden vegetables in the pot with some great spices and we have a garden to table treat for anytime of the year. This recipe started one rainy summer morning after I gathered the vegetables from the garden. As I began to clean the vegetables I had the thought that a nice garden chili would be delicious with all these fresh vegetables. As the chili began to simmer later in the morning, I knew that this would be a great pot of chili and so it is, we loved it and will be making this recipe the year round.

It is hard to believe that we only have a few days left in August, this summer has really flown by.It is Green Chili season and we have been roasting green chilies, the aroma of the chili is filling our whole neighbor, so be sure and look at the Sunday Menu for our newest Green Chili recipe. I love being able to share these meal plans with you and hope that in someway they help you with your busy family life and inspire you to make meal plans, saving you time and money.

I sure am looking forward to all the great food that you will be bringing today and what a great time to spend time in the country, it is actually cool in August. This is our last Thursday of August so we are featuring our Top Ten from Last Week's Party. It is always a fun party to see who you are spending time with. Everyone in this part of the country is sure busy with going back to school activities and just gearing up for fall, we will have a lot to talk about and lots of great food to enjoy today!

It's Green Chili season here and many of the open air markets are roasting Green Chilies. The smell of the chilies roasting is amazing and the flavor of the chili is one of my favorites. Today we are preparing our Green Chili Chop Steak that is made with our roasted green chilies and topped off with a great Green Chili Sauce. We will be serving our steak with a great Refried Bean Hash making this a very special plate of food.

When I cook a pot of Pinto Beans I know that we will be making more than one meal from those beans. One of the many recipe's that we enjoy is the Refried Bean Hash, this is a great dish that can be used as a delicious side, a crowd pleasing dip and it make's my favorite Bean Burrito, plus a great Tostada. With all these possibilities today we are making the hash, dip and burrito.

Some of the schools here started the end of last week and the rest will start this coming week. Time to slow down going through those school zones and watch for the little ones in the cross walks. It's time to think about after school treats and kid friendly family suppers. If you are new to meal planning or just thinking about meal planning this is a great time to get started, it will save you time, money.

After over 20 very hot summer days with no rain, it finally rained and we are so grateful for the rain and the cooler temperatures. It renews our interest in cooking when it is not so hot outdoors and our interest to develop new recipes. Summer is starting to wind down now and we are all beginning to transition into fall with wonderful dishes showing up on our tables.  I can't wait to see the wonderful recipes that you will be sharing with us today so lets get this party started!

I have been making this Frozen Fruit Salad Pie for so long that my original recipe card is frayed around the edges and very worn. This pie is so easy to put together and we can always have one in the freezer for dessert. It great when someone comes by and I can offer them a nice slice of this pie to go with their coffee or tea. The texture of this pie is so creamy and delicious and just like having a fruit salad in a pie. This is diffidently one of those Retro pies that we love!

We have a bounty of vegetables from our garden right now, great onions, tomatoes and lots of zucchini. We were hungry for a pizza so why not just use some of these awesome vegetables and create a pizza. The caramelized onions with seasoned zucchini and tomatoes make this a very flavorful pizza that we just love and will be making over and over. Take a look at that really used and well seasoned pizza stone, we have made lots of pizza on that stone.

We are coming to the end of the summer garden season and this is the week we will be making our End of Season Soup. Several friends have been asking me lately when are you making the soup, I don't know for sure but I think they will just be dropping by about dinner time on the soup day. When we make the End of Season Soup it's like a celebration of a great summer season that is coming to an end. Lets get started on this meal plan so we can know exactly which day all of this is happening.

It is that time in August when folks are trying to get in some last minute travels and others are starting to get ready for the school year to begin. When we think of food for this hot and busy month all of you seem to have the best recipes. It is so difficult for me to choose features for the week when all of you truly are the greatest cooks on the planet. I can't wait to taste all the wonderful food you will be bringing today so lets get this party started!

I love a great salad for a lunch or light supper. A nice salad is a great dish to take to a covered dish luncheon and my Chicken and Fruit Salad is often the go to salad that I will take to a covered dish luncheon. It is really easy to put together and the flavors are a great combination. I have been making this salad for years and my family and friends request it often, and really enjoy it.

The farmers market is peach heaven right now, when you walk by the peach stands you can just smell the wonderful flavors of the fresh peaches. I love the vendors that are standing at their booth giving samples of the ripe juicy fruit. We are making a great dessert with our fresh peaches today, that is easy to put together and full of rich flavors. This is a great way to serve a cool refreshing dessert that is fresh from the farmers market.

August along with its temperatures have arrived and the weather man says that we are looking at over 100 degrees for all of next week. When I hear that I want my meal plan to be simple and cool. We are in the process of using up most of our garden vegetables before the heat takes them. What are some of your favorite dishes to prepare in the hot weather of August?

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday where The Greatest Cooks On The Planet Gather on Thursdays. Some of the best recipes on the internet show up at this gathering and I am so glad to see all of you today! The August heat has arrived in Texas and we are real busy here at the cottage to get our garden vegetables harvested, canned and preserved. All these canned goods will sure be good when the snow is on the ground next winter. I can't wait to hear what you have been doing and what you are sharing today.

We have had a fabulous garden season this year. Early in the spring we got more than our share of rain which filled our rivers, lakes and left our ground real soggy and planting a little later than usual. We were very grateful for the rains after a few years of drought conditions. All in all it has been a great year for production, even the birds have had their share of the left over berries.

When it is hot outside there is nothing better than to sit in the late evening and enjoy a refreshing Watermelon Lemonade Float. We love watermelon and as most of you know my husband has to have his Ice Cream every evening. This is a great float that is easy to put together and has a great combination of flavors. (Be sure and put an extra dip of Ice Cream, and why not?) Rest a while and enjoy!