I sure hope that you had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend and you got to try lots of new spring and summer recipes that you will be able to share with us today. We had a great holiday with friends and family right here at the cottage and lakefront for some of the festivities. Summer is officially open and we are in the last week of May which brings our Top Ten Post Views from last weeks party. I always look forward to see the post that you choose to view the most from a party. Many thanks for sharing your amazing talents with us and lets get this party started!

I love the comfort that most old fashioned desserts bring. This Old Fashioned Strawberry Pudding recipe traces back in our family to one of my great Aunts. I really enjoy finding the root of the recipe in our family so that as I pass it down to my family members they will know exactly where it came from. Of course we have added to and changed the recipe as time has gone along and tried to bring it into the society that we live in today which means it is easy! This recipe will go together real fast and will be delicious and very comforting!

This is a great layered salad to take to a picnic or a covered dish event. It is so easy to make and take, just layer the vegetables and toppings, cover and you are ready to head out to your event. A layered salad is always to pretty to look at in a nice round glass bowl, but really not to practical for a picnic or a backyard event. You can make this salad with as many or as few layers as you like, just have fun with it and make it yours. I love this layered picnic salad and the blend of vegetables and toppings making this recipe a real winner!

We are planning a great memorial day weekend, with family and friends. Making a meal plan for a week like this is so much fun, because we get to include some of the awesome recipes that we don't make every week. We will have all of our marketing done and some of our recipes prepared in advance, it will all be delicious and I can't wait! We always want to take the time out of our busy activities to remember the sacrifice of the men and women that have made it possible for us to enjoy our freedom here in the USA! 

What a week we have had here in our area, really bad storms and they went across the states all the way to the coast. We are so blessed that the tornadoes that were only 6 miles away did not come to the cottage, we are so grateful. Photo Credit Texas Storm Chasers Community Group Three Tornadoes Trying to Form Just Outside of Gun Barrel City, Texas This Is About 12 Miles From  Our Cottage We are sure glad to see you today and so happy that we can have this party today! I always look forward to Thursday's and the amazing recipes, table decor, and food related post that we have at the party! Thanks so much for coming today and hope you have lots of fun at the party!

We are  slaw lovers here at the cottage and love many variations of slaw. One of the newer variations that we enjoy is the broccoli slaw that is ready to go at the market, and who doesn't like that slaw already shredded. I am adding some awesome extras to this convenient product that puts it over the top in the flavor department. This slaw will be a lovely addition to any meal and it is really good with our  Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Sandwich .

This recipe brings together so many wonderful flavors that just make this a very special grilled chicken sandwich. I love to be able to grill out side, but if it is bad weather this recipe can always be made on a table top or stove top grill. This recipe can be made for two or twenty, its that easy and so very delicious! We recently served the sandwich to a crowd and it was a big hit!

We are expecting house guest here at the cottage this week so I will be keeping that in mind when making my meal plan. I love meal planning because it gives me so much freedom and just keeps an organized flow in the kitchen while enjoying my friends that are coming to visit with us. We don't have to interrupt our visit with going to the market, walking up and down the isle and wondering what everyone wants for dinner. By the time my guest arrive, the marketing is done and even some of the recipes have been made ahead, freeing all of us to enjoy our time together. With the busy summer months coming I encourage you to try meal planning, you will love it!

Hello everyone, we are so glad to see you today. Hope each of you had a great Mothers Day Weekend and are excited to get back to your routine. I am always happy to get back to the comfort of my routine after a holiday, and seeing you on Thursday is sure a part of that routine. We had some awesome features from last weeks party and I hope you can take the time to visit these fantastic bloggers. Thanks so much for coming to the party today I always look forward to the wonderful recipes, table decor and food related post that you bring every week to help make this party so successful!

We finally had a break in the rain so we could get our spring garden planted and we are so excited! We are planting real late this year because our area has been having historical rain breaking weather records. Some of the plants have loved all the water and others have had delayed growth while some have died because of to much water. Because the planting has been so late this year, we completely changed our garden plot plan. That's the fun of gardening it is ever changing and never a perfect science, we learn new methods all the time and will continue to pass that along to all of you. 

We love tomato soup and this recipe has a bonus of dumplings. The flavors in this soup and dumplings will have you talking about this soup until you can get seconds. A nice blend of vegetables and add some fresh basil from the herb garden then it is a hit here at the cottage. I made this special recipe for a ladies committee luncheon meeting and the ladies gave us rave reviews. My husband always ask for double dumplings, they are so delicious, I can sure understand why!

Today I am writing the meal plan and watching the rain coming down so hard I can't see across the pasture. We are planning on Mothers day here at the cottage and some of our family is coming for the day which we will sure enjoy! I am going to make the plan, then sit back and let them follow it, just taking the day off. That is one of the advantages of having a meal plan, just about anyone can take over the plan and make it happen, because the recipes are gathered, marketing done, all that's left is to cook it and serve it. So as a Mom I am going to be looking forward to the being served part of this plan!

Thanks so much for coming to Full Plate Thursday, I am so happy to see you today! Come on back to the screen porch and enjoy some of this amazing spring weather we are having. Take a look at our vegetable garden, we have some blooms on the tomato vines with one of the vines setting on little green tomatoes, I am so excited and can't wait for some fried green tomatoes. I know that many of you are planning very special Mothers Day celebrations for this coming weekend. I am looking forward to all the lovely Mothers Day inspiration that you will be sharing with us today!

This peach salad could be found on my Mothers and my Aunts table just about anytime there was a special family dinner. Some of the family would sometimes make a similar salad with pears, but we always made our recipe with peaches. I think we used peaches because my Grandparents had a peach orchard on their farm and they canned a lot of peaches during the peach harvest. Everyone always called this a salad but to me it was more like a delicious dessert that I loved back in  the day and I still do!

A cornmeal cake is really a very primitive cake but dressed up can be quiet elegant. We really enjoy a cornmeal cake and one does not last very long here at the cottage. The recipe is very versatile and several different fruits, juice or even wine can be used, but our favorite is orange. I like to use the little "Cuties" from the market, they are very plentiful this time of the year and lend a great flavor to this classic cake.

We have been celebrating Cinco de Mayo this past week and finish it out this Sunday. We are so excited here at the cottage, we finally got to plant our garden, harvest will be a little late this year but at least we got to plant. We made sure that we have all of the ingredients planted for our Salsa that everyone loves to get at Christmas. I love making the meal plan with a special holiday, especially when it involves Tex-Mex which is one of our favorites. So many great recipes, sometimes it is hard to make decisions!

I am so excited to see you here today for our Full Plate Thursday party! Come on in the cottage and find a place at the table, we will have a table full of wonderful food that all of you are bringing to share at the party today. I hope you noticed on your way in that we have finally got our garden planted, we are so exited to get the vegetables in the ground. The rain finally stopped long enough for us to get it done. I hope you take the time to visit the great blogs that are featured here today and say hello! Thanks so much for coming today, it is always very special to have you sit at the table with us!