Welcome To Full Plate Thursday What a busy week we are having here at the cottage. By the time you get this post, we will be busy with the little ones coming to our door for treats, and there will sure be some cute ones. Then here we go into November and the big feast that we look forward to. Full Plate Thursday is just the place that folks come to find fabulous recipes for their special holiday meals, and I am so excited you want to be a part of that. We have some great features from last weeks party and I sure hope you will stop by these awesome blogs and say hello. I can't wait to see what you are bringing to share with us today so lets get the party started!

We have had a bountiful harvest of butternut squash this year and I love developing different recipes that we will enjoy with our fresh garden butternut squash. This recipe is so easy and so full of fabulous Tex-Mex flavors. These Black Bean-Butternut Tostada's will make a great lunch or light supper, plus they are on the table in no time.

When I make my meal plan for the week, I always ask my husband if there is anything that he would like included, and for this week he wanted Sirloin Tips on Rice. He said "you know like the kind we used to get at the old cafe on the square in our hometown", I said sure let me see what I can develop, this is the recipe that I came up with and have to say that it is really close and so good, it sure took us down memory lane. Food always makes good memories!

This is always a fun week for us here at the cottage. We always look forward to all the little trick or treater's that stop by the cottage. There several fall festivals that we always enjoy attending in the community. It has been sweater and jacket weather so we are definitely into the fall meal plans this week. We always have chili on the 31st so I will be serving one of my new chili recipes this year. I better get started on this meal plan, I am getting hungry!

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday  This will be the last Thursday of the month already and on the last Thursday of the month we have our Top Ten from the last weeks party. The Top Ten that have the most page views and we really good ones this week. Hope you will visit all of these great bloggers and say hello! I am excited that you are here today and can't wait to see what you will be sharing with us. I love all of the wonderful fall recipes and fun parties that you are bringing to share with us and thank you so much!

My neighbor gave me a basket full of pears the other day and they are beautiful, plus I have several butternut squash from the garden, it sounds like a great combination to me! I got busy and made a delicious crisp that has all the seasons and flavors of fresh fruit from a grandma's kitchen. This is a very easy crisp to put together and I love the butternut squash and pear combination!

When the temperature drops I begin to think of a great bowl of warm chili and it is time to get a pot of chili on simmer. When you walk in from a cold rainy day there is nothing like the smell of a great pot of chili on the simmer. I am making a new recipe today that I started working on sometime back and now it is ready to share with all of you. This chili is just delicious and so easy to put together, filled with the flavor of Salsa Verde, vegetables and a great mix of seasons. Lets get this chili cooking!

I am sitting by the fire today to stay warm and cozy while I work on this weeks meal plan. Winter has definitely arrived here at the cottage plus we have had historical rain fall for this time of the year. I have been busy making sure that my pantry, and freezer inventory is in order. Our cold bins for root vegetables are full going into the winter months and that is great, lots of home grown sweet potatoes, white potatoes and onions. I will be doing some baking and enjoy baking in the oven this time of the year, it makes the house smell so good and just give a cozy and homey feel to the cottage.

Winter has arrived at the cottage, it was actually 42 degrees and rain this morning. Sounds like a real cozy day for a pot of stew, soup or a great chili, yum! We had a great party last week and you can sure tell that fall is in the air and we are all getting ready for the fun holiday parties coming up.  I have talked to a couple of you this past week and know that you are bringing some really special dishes today, we can't wait to see all the delicious recipes, beautiful decor, and just great blog reading!

We often times enjoy a lovely salad for lunch or a light dinner. I try to keep some ingredients on hand that I can make one of these salads in just a few minutes as most of the time when I have a salad like this it is a very busy day. I like to keep salad greens and chopped vegetables and fruit on hand in the refrigerator ready to go into a great salad. Another thing we keep on hand is poached chicken breast that we can slice or dice to use in a salad, casserole or soup. These things make putting a great meal on the table in a hurry a lot easier. This is one of the awesome Chicken Salads that I made recently and used one of my new Fall Salsa's to top it off. It is delicious and I sure hope you enjoy it!

We love a great salsa here at the cottage and this Fall Salsa is so versatile and delicious that I actually keep some on hand in the refrigerator and have used it in so many different ways. This salsa is a blend of fall fruit and a flavorful dressing that make it a real hit!

When I started the meal plan for this week, I immediately thought of some comfort food. It was a really rough week last week with the horrible storms hitting our Gulf Coast and leaving such devastation. While in the military we had lived in that area at one time,then later having family members stationed in the area as well.Our hearts just broken when we saw so many of the places we loved gone forever. Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to all the folks on the coast as they begin to re-build their life.

Hello everyone and welcome to Full Plate Thursday! I sure am glad to see you today, it is a beautiful time to take a drive in the country and enjoy some fantastic fall food. We had a great party last week and have some delicious post from that party. I sure hope that you will visit some of these awesome bloggers and say hello. I know that you are bringing some fabulous recipes to share with us today and we can't wait to try some of them! Late Addition To This Post Hurricane Michael is about to make land fall in and around Mexican Beach, Tyndell AFB, and Panama City Florida. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who will be affected by this historical storm. God Hold You In His Mighty Arms and Be With You

When the pumpkins start showing up at the Farmers Markets I know it's time to get all the pumpkin recipes out and get to cooking. This year I decided to make a new pumpkin cookie, just a real simple soft sugar cookie that is filled with a pumpkin spice and flavor and then cover with a flavored sugar. It really doesn't get much better than this, and I already know that I can't eat just one of these cookies!

If you have ever been to Natchitoches, Louisiana or heard of it you know that they are famous for their delicious meat pies. Every year the community has a festival that surrounds their little meat pie that originated when the French settled in their area in 1714. The filling that goes into these little pies is simply delicious and our family loves the Natchitoches Meat Pies. We recently had a family gathering and some of the folks wanted the pies and I just did not have time to make that many little pies, so I developed the Natchitoches Cajun Casserole, everyone loved the casserole and it is sure easier and quicker to make than all those little pies. In addition I found that it freezes really well and can be made up ahead of time, lots of great recipe features!

We have had a very special week here at the cottage. Our youngest son was able to come and spend some time with us and we got to celebrate his birthday while he was here. These are special times for us as he lives across country from us. We will be planning some awesome meals for this coming week, fall has really arrived and the air is starting to be a little crisp in the mornings. It is nice to include the fall recipes and vegetables in the meal plan again.

I am so excited to see you today for our Number 400th posting of Full Plate Thursday. Wow that is a lot of plates filled through the years, and many thanks to each of you who show up faithfully with your amazing creations to help make this linky party a success, without you it would just be an empty plate! Today we have some very special features from last week's party that I hope you will visit and get to know these great bloggers! I can't wait to see what you are bringing today so lets get the party started!

My Aunt Ann wrote that when my Grandmother finally gave her this recipe, it used terms like stoke up the fire in the wood stove and use the fresh milk from this morning's milking. Be sure and use the fresh apples from this years harvest and be sure and set the peelings aside for the preserves and jelly. Well certainly some of our methods have changed but the basics of this recipe are the same. I can still picture my Grandmother taking out a fresh baked cobbler from the old wood stove that sat at the back of her kitchen and the smell of that cobbler, oh my goodness I would sure love a serving of that cobbler, so lets just make it!

Our Slow Cooker Mustard Pork Roast With Sauerkraut is a perfect recipe to serve for a big game day, a Sunday dinner or a weeknight family supper. This is a very flavorful recipe that will have you coming back for seconds. The pork just falls apart and is so tender and juicy that no more than a fork is needed. The seasons for this recipe gives it a very special flavor and is perfect for any gathering.