This is really great to be able to kick off 2017 with you today! We are having a great New Years Day with friends and family and have planned a really great meal plan that will allow us to have some left over's next week. After all the holiday cooking I always like to slow it down a little and have some easier days in the kitchen. This is a really great time of the year to get started on Meal Plans for your family. I have some great meal planning ideas for you at the end of todays post. Wishing You and Your Family Abundant Blessings In 2017!

I am so glad that you can join us for our last party of 2016! We have all had a great year together here at Full Plate Thursday, with all the wonderful food that you bring to share with us every week. We are going to finish our year out this week with our Top Ten Views from last week. I know that we will have a wonderful party today with lots of great ideas to help us bring in the new year. I really appreciate all of your support in 2016 and look forward to spending Thursday at the table with you in 2017!

I am always excited at the end of every year to take a look at YOUR Top Favortites for the year. I have so much fun sharing our simple way of life with all of you and I really look forward to you spending time with me in the kitchen as we are trying out new recipes. You have joined me in the garden as we prepared, planted and harvested our vegetables. We also had a big home improvement project this year that you came along on that journey. It has been fun taking this journey with you this year and I want to thank you for being a part of it!

We have had a fabulous Christmas with family and friends. We were so blessed to have some of our family here that had not been home in many years because of Military commitments, no empty plates on our table this year. We are planning a real southern and very traditional New Years meal plan for the beginning of a new year. As we close out 2016 together, I want to thank you for your loyal support through the years and let you know what a pleasure and joy it is for me to be able to share these meal plans with you every week.

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday Special Christmas Edition We are wrapping gifts, making cookies and baking special Christmas Breads here at the cottage, it smells so good in here. A Christmas Elf named Pilchard has made his way to a shelf and watching over the little one's here in the house. It is all a buzz and then on Christmas Eve it will all be still and quiet for just a bit to remember what Christmas is all about. On Christmas Morning we will wake to find that St. Nick has visited us while we slept. The very best part of it all will be the wonderful memories that will live in our heart. Thanks so much for coming today to share your awesome recipes helping us make memories to carry in our heart.

This retro Green Holiday Salad will be on lots of tables during the holidays. Each family seems to have their own recipe for this amazing salad that has been handed down from Grandma to Mom's and Aunts until it finally ends up on our table as well. I rarely remember a family holiday meal that we didn't have this salad. In our family we called it "The Green Salad", everyone just seemed to know which one it was. Recently I made the recipe for a holiday meal and remember all the wonderful family dinners where we would always find "The Green Salad". I often wondered as a young woman why we called it a salad when it was clearly dessert for me. I still love "The Green Salad" and it will sure be on our table again this year!

Only 8 days until Christmas and we are busy going to Christmas events and enjoying the excitment of the season in the faces of our grandchildren that are visiting for the holidays. I usually make the meal plan from Sunday through Saturday, but since Christmas Eve is on Saturday and Christmas Day on Sunday I am including both those days with this meal plan. I love the food this time of the year so my biggest challenge is making a decision what to make, I love to many different recipes. We will have a joyous Christmas with family that we have not seen in a very long time and for that we are so grateful! Wishing You and Your Family The Peace and Joy of Christmas and May It Live In Your Heart Always Merry Christmas

Hello everyone, we had so many wonderful recipes for the holidays at last week's party and I am looking forward to even more this week.  We have family visiting for the holidays and we have been enjoying trying some of your awesome recipes.  It is a very busy time of the year and one that I just love, I wish it could be Christmas everyday, I think that's the kid in me. Announcement To Give You More Time To Spend With Family Full Plate Thursday Will Post Early Next Week Tuesday December 20, 2016 7:00 a.m. EST Hope To See You There! Now Lets Get Today's Party Started!

Homemade Gifts are some of my most favorite gifts to give and receive. We put so much love and attention into the homemade gifts that we make, really we are giving a part of our self. When I am creating a new recipe, a painting, or making a quilt, I am giving you part of me. My husband and I grow a very large garden every year and then we preserve most of the vegetables so some of the gifts that we give are a labor of love from our garden. These are some of the gifts that will come from Miz Helen's Kitchen this year.

My Granddaughter Stephanie was recently visiting and we decided to make some Salted Caramel Candy, it was heavenly. Caramel is one of my favorite flavors for a treat so I could not wait to have one ( or more) of these delicious caramels. This is a great recipe and a lot of fun to make with a special Granddaughter or a friend. These little caramels will make a great gift for any occasion and disappear before you can wrap them all . Hope you enjoy these little caramels as much as we did!

Our cottage is all a buzz with activity this week. We have family that is here for the holidays and our Granddaughter and Great Granddaughter have just arrived, we are so excited. Meal planning is a must when the family gathers for special celebrations. We will be planning recipes this week that will be some of their favorites and some new recipes that I can't wait for them to sample. Hope you are taking the time to make meal plans through the holidays, it will sure save you time and money!

So many parties, parades, open houses and most of all wonderful food, tis the season! I am so excited that you could take some time from your busy life to stop by and share some of your awesome recipes with us today.  We truly do have the greatest cooks on the planet here on Thursday to fill our plates with goodness!

Our Spicy Pecan Custard Pie is a combination of a custard and some great sweet and spicy pecans. The pecans used in this recipe give the pie a great flavor that will surprise and wake up your taste buds with a special treat. The pie has a crunchy top with a very creamy inside then a bite of spice that will have you asking for seconds!

We like to serve this Rosemary Prime Rib Roast for very special occasions. It is a wonderful cut of meat that is tender and delicious. Our recipe for Rosemary Prime Rib Roast is very simple with the combination of herbs that forms the crust for the delicious flavor of the Prime Rib. I started making this recipe over 30 years ago and is still to this day one of our favorite's.

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving and now we are working hard to get ready for Christmas. I love to make special dishes for the season and decorate for the festivities. This week I will be attending a ladies luncheon where I will be taking one of my favortie salads. I am trying to get my meal plans made ahead of time for the month so I can enjoy the parties and my family who is here with us.