Welcome to our last party of 2021! My goodness this year has flown by and we are moving right into 2022, so happy you are here with us today! We are busy here at the cottage putting away Christmas decorations and leaving some of the decorations for the New Years Open House. Are you making plans for the new year? I think about setting some goals and will be making a decision as to the ones I want to pursue in the new year. We have some awesome post from last weeks party, hope you will enjoy the post from these awesome bloggers! I look forward, as always to see what you will be sharing with us at the party today! Thanks so much for coming today and being a part of this community. All of you make this a great party every week, and I appreciate each and everyone of you. Hope to see you again each Thursday in 2022 as we will continue this journey together just one more year!

I always love coming to this post at the end of the year and looking at your 10 favorite recipes for this past year. We all have different cultures and cuisines, of course when I post a new recipe we love the recipe here at the cottage and are just hoping that you will like it to. I always know what you think of the recipe by the number of times that you visit the recipe, did you post it on Pinterest or maybe Facebook. It gives me so much pleasure to present your favorite recipes for this past year. Thanks so much for supporting us here at the cottage, you are a very important part of our community! We are wishing you the very best in 2022 and the Lord willing we will continue this journey together!

We love to entertain here at the cottage, sometimes we pack the rooms out and other times we have just a few close friends. If it is a large or small crowd we love to have folks over to enjoy a holiday, special game or just a fellowship with each other. One of the important things that make a get together successful is some of the food that our guest enjoy. I always like to plan some snacks and appetizers that are simple and will allow me to spend more time with my guest. I am sharing with you today some of the most popular snacks and appetizer's that we serve here at the cottage. Most of these are some of the favorites of the guest who frequent the cottage, according to a recent poll. Whatever kind of party you are having don't forget to enjoy it yourself!

  I sure hope that you and your family had a great Christmas celebration with lots of great food and fellowship. We had a great Christmas and now we are looking forward to the new year. We have some very traditional foods that we enjoy the week after Christmas and around the new years celebration. I will be sticking to most of our traditional recipes for the meal plan this week, most of which I love and am already hungry for. It is time for us to close another year together and I am so grateful to be here to do that. I want to thank all of you who come here each week to share our meal plans, and general cottage happenings. You are so important to us and I want to thank you for being a part of this community!

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday and our special Christmas Edition! I know that each of you are so busy getting ready for your celebrations in your own homes and perhaps some are even traveling to a special destination. I am so happy that you are able to stop by our party today and share some of your talent with us. I can't wait to see you at the party today and enjoy what you will be sharing with us.  I am remembering each of you precious readers and participants today and on Christmas, you are so dear to me, Merry Christmas!

  I love this Cherry Cookie Cups recipe, it is so easy to make and it will go anywhere. If it is appetizer desserts for a friends party or special treats for the family this is a great go to recipe, and they look so pretty. This special treat has a spicy cookie cup and then it is filled with spicy cherry yum. We top it off with a great white glaze drizzled on top. Part of this recipe will be going to my neighbor and my husband has laid claim to the rest, I am pretty sure he loves these cookie cups!

  It just seems like yesterday we were preparing for the Christmas week meal plan last year. I always get so excited about Christmas and all the wonderful food and festivities of the season. I am very grateful to spend this time with all of you each week and hopefully present to you some ideas and inspirations that you might be able to use in your own meal planning. Our cottage is all ready for Christmas week and we look forward to sharing it all with you!  I want to take a minute to remember all of our readers and blogger friends in the path of destruction during the recent tornado's. Our heart and prayers go out to all of you. Our church has sent provisions and man-power to assist with your immediate needs. God bless each of you.

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, I am so excited to see you today. Only 8 more days until Christmas! We have some great features from last weeks party and I sure hope that you will stop by theses talented bloggers site to say hello. We are having so much fun here at the cottage, I just had one of my annual parties last night , it was so much fun to be able to entertain our friends, it is really nice to be able to get together with everyone this year. I can't wait to see what you will be sharing with us for the party today. Thanks so much for coming to the party today and hope you are enjoying this holiday season!

  Slow Cooker Cranberry Meatballs are very popular here at the cottage. We serve these delicious appetizers for game day parties, gatherings for friends, and they have gone to many a party when we are asked to bring something. These meatballs are great all by themselves without the amazing sauce, Add the sauce and they are real winners every time. I have yet to bring just 1 meatball home, they are always all gone. If you want left overs, you need to make a double batch!

I love this Orange Cake recipe any time of the year, but it is especially good around the holidays. It has a delicious orange flavor, a soft crumb center and a wonderful orange glaze on the top. This cake is perfect for a special family gathering, a pot luck dinner or a nice slice with a cup of tea. My husband is right over my shoulder today, waiting for a slice of this cake, it's one of his favorites.

I am actually sitting on the screen porch to write our meal plan for this week. We are having unseasonable temperatures, but I have to say it is really nice. It is a very busy time of the year so I am grateful to relax with this meal plan for just a bit. Not only do I have a meal plan to write, but also a couple of parties to be planned. I love this time of the year with all the parties and festivities. I am heading to the winter garden to see what I can use in the plan for this week, fresh vegetables sound so good! What is on your meal plan this week?

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, it is so good to see you today! Come on find a nice warm spot by the fire, enjoy a cup of  Retro Holiday Punch  and join in the fun! We have some great features from last weeks party that I sure hope you will enjoy, we have some awesome talent in our Full Plate Thursday community. We are busy at the cottage, our decorating complete and now we are beginning to entertain, let the fun begin! I can't wait to see what you will be sharing with us today and thanks so much for joining us!

Cranberry Pie with Marshmallow Topping is a great holiday recipe that our family really enjoys. The recipe is so easy to put together with some warm cozy spices and topping it off with a creamy topping. This is a great pie for a special dinner or a pot luck dinner, it can be causal or elegant. The flavors are unexpected so make sure you have enough slices because they will come back for seconds!

  What a wonderful season to give some personal gifts from your kitchen, to a special person. One of my favorite gifts to give each year are the gifts that my husband and I work on all through the year. We grow many products in our garden and then they are harvested and preserved. Many of those products are produced especially for our Christmas giving. Each year we give our gifts from the kitchen, we reflect back on the labor of love that has gone into each personal gift. This year we are even giving some of our fresh vegetable's from our winter garden. I wish that it was possible to share a gift from this collection with each of you, but please know that it is in my heart and I am passing along all that love to you!

We are so excited that December is here! We have been so busy here at the cottage finishing our Christmas decorations inside and out, we even have a little wreath hanging on the barn door. It has been so nice to have family near by to help us out with the decorating. Meal planning will play a really big part in our life in December through the first part of January. It can get to be a fast paced roller coaster ride from this point, so staying organized is a real game changer for me. One of the most important elements of being organized going into this season is my meal plans and party plans for the events that I will be hosting. I am off to do my inventories of pantry, freezer and garden, need to get this meal plan underway!

I sure hope that all of you had as good a Thanksgiving as we did. We had lots of family and friends delicious food and great fellowship! We had some great blogger's at the party last week and we are featuring some of their post today. I hope you will be able to stop by and enjoy their post. We have been really busy the last few days to put finishing touches on the cottage, it's starting to look a lot like Christmas here! I am looking forward to seeing you at the party today and what you will be bringing to share with us.

Our Apple Bread Pudding Pie is one of my favorites from the bread pudding recipes. This recipe is rich and creamy with little bites of apples that are covered with some great apple pie seasons. My family knows when they are getting this recipe for dessert, you can smell it baking all over the cottage. This is a great dessert to take to covered dish dinners or a dessert event. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Our Sheet Pan Brussels Sprouts and Grapes is a new favorite recipe at the cottage. The combination of the brussels sprouts and grapes are seasoned with a mixture of herbs in a delicious vinaigrette. Easy roasting in a sheet pan, its no time before it can be on your table. I already have request for this recipe to make the holiday meal plans. 

I am so excited to welcome you to the 4th Annual Holiday Cookie Recipe Exchange Linky Party for 2021! I have enjoyed so many of your cookie recipes from the first 3 parties and I really treasure them. As I am making your recipes it reminds me of you and the special friendship that we enjoy in this very special blogging community. At the end of the party, we will have all shared with each other a memory and a part of ourselves that truly is a lasting gift. Thanks so much for sharing your cookie recipes with us, we cherish your cookie recipes and YOU!

  I sure hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving. We had a delicious thanksgiving and lots of fellowship with family and friends. We will be busy at the cottage this week decorating for Christmas, which I love doing. I am like a little kid getting so excited about Christmas! I will  be checking my inventories in the garden, pantry, and freezer to see what is left after Thanksgiving. I intend to use some of my left overs this week, which will give me more time to decorate.

  Welcome to our Thanksgiving Edition of Full Plate Thursday! We are so excited that you are stopping by the party today and thank you so much for being a part of our weekly link party. When I sit down at our Thanksgiving table on Thursday, I will be counting each of you among my many blessing's. Come on in to the party today we are looking forward to some of your favorite recipes, tablescapes and food related post! I have 10 very special features from last week's party from some very talented bloggers, hope you enjoy them.

  Pumpkin Spice Swirl French Toast Bake recipe was developed in the bread section at the super market. We love raisin bread and it was on my shopping list. I noticed a new display of Pumpkin Spice Swirl, it was thick cut and a limited edition, I was drooling already. As I moved along with my shopping I thought that the Pumpkin Coffee Creamer would be perfect to mix the eggs with for a great French Toast, and so it was. I put the recipe together with some fresh blueberries and it was a big hit at brunch the next day. I did manage to put some of the special bread in the freezer to have on hand for holiday brunches.

I am so excited that Thanksgiving week is here, Making and preparing the meal plan for this week is so much fun. The hardest part about it will be making the decisions about which of the wonderful recipes I want to prepare for the big feast. I have been stocking up on staples for a few weeks and have even prepared some of the prep work and have it in the freezer. I like to prepare as much as I can ahead of time, so when the meal is served there will be more relaxed time for me to spend with my family.

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday and our Top Ten Features Week! Next week we will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday.  Next Week Full Plate Thursday, 564 Will Be Live On Tuesday November 23, 2021 at 6:00 am, CST This time change for the party will give you an opportunity to post your awesome post before or after Thanksgiving Day. I know that you will all be busy enjoying your Thanksgiving Day  with friends and family. Coming Soon-Mark Your Calendar Hope You Will All Plan On Bringing You Awesome Cookie Recipes To The 4th Annual Cookie Recipe Exchange!

  Our Turkey Noodle Soup is one of those recipes that makes me feel good just thinking about it. A great place to go with some of the turkey left overs that is so comforting for just relaxing after being in the kitchen for days. Just put these ingredients in a big soup pot to simmer, kick back and enjoy some rest time. Dip this up in a nice soup cup and the first bite is worth the wait! The soup has a great balance of turkey, broth, and seasons and can be enjoyed anytime of the year !

When the big turkey has been carved and all the guest have gone home, its time to get busy with the left overs. One of the recipes that I always look forward to with that left over turkey or even chicken is this Turkey Apple Salad Sandwich. This is a great recipe to make with some awesome apples and a few seasons to help make it a delicious salad. We enjoy the recipe served as a simple salad or layered on a buttery croissant, oh my that is a special treat! I just have to include that sweet little rose that is still blooming at Thanksgiving time, I am thankful for it's beauty!

  I have started to plan my Thanksgiving meal plan, how about you? I like to plan early so I can make sure there are the right staples in my pantry. We have been encountering some empty store shelves in some of the super markets here, so every time I am in the store I have my list with me to pick up whatever I may see that we will be needing for the big feast. It is only about 12 days until the big day so I have to stay on my toes, because guess what we have to have meals before Thanksgiving. Thankfully my little farmers market down the road still has some awesome products to choose, so I am off to the market to see what will end up on this meal plan.

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday and wonderful features from last weeks party. I sure hope you can take the time to visit some of the awesome bloggers that are featured today. I am so excited to see all of you today and I can hardly wait to see what you will be sharing with us today.  I know that some of you will be on holiday today and this weekend to observe Veterans Day here in the USA. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the Veterans who have given so many years of their life to our country and the cause of freedom. There is nothing I would love better than to have each of you sitting at our table today, we honor YOU!

Our Retro Red Hot Cranberry Jello Salad goes back to the early  1950's. I remember when my Mother and her friends were making this recipe for just about every covered dish dinner. When I was a young homemaker it was still a very popular salad especially around the holiday times. Our family loves this Jello salad and it usually shows up at our holiday gatherings. This is a layered salad with a delicious cream cheese layer between two layers of a blend of cranberry sauce, Jello and yes red hots, which gives it such a special flavor.

  Retro Pumpkin Marshmallow Pie was first made by my Aunt back in the late 40's and early 50's. She was a wonderful cook and always brought the most delicious dishes to family gatherings. When she passed away her son gave me many of her old recipes and that is where my daughter Robbin and I found this retro recipe. We have made a few changes but the base of the recipe remains the same. One thing for sure that didn't change is the amazing flavor with the most silky filling. I am so happy that we found the recipe, it sure brings back lots of great memories and we made new memories as we made it together.

  Fall has truly arrived and it is sweater weather, warm cozy soups and comfort foods are screaming out to me. I walked out to the garden this morning and my winter kale is looking good, the collard's are almost ready to try. It is so much fun having a garden with fresh greens in the fall and winter. I have put away all the Halloween decorations and now the cottage looks like Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I can almost taste that Turkey and dressing already! 

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday and welcome November! Are you ready for the big holiday season, food is such a big part of the next 3 months and we have so much fun planning for and making all of our favorite recipes. I am always excited to present our features to you each week. It is interesting how our whole blogging community here are for the most part seasonal cooks. I am enjoying the post with beautiful tablescapes that inspire us to make our tables special for our friends and family. We have a growing area for food related topics that have some nice features. I really appreciate each of you that help to make this a very special party each and every Thursday, you'al are the best of the best!

  There is always something special about a family recipe that has been handed down from generation to generation. Our Old Fashioned Apple Crisp is a family recipe that was handed down from my Grandmother to my Mother and then on to me. It is interesting about this time of the year I start getting calls for the apple crisp recipe. I decided to publish it on the blog and that way the whole family will always have it. This recipe is very simple with delicious spices and the great flavor of a blend of apple's making it very special.

  Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! If you have leftover pumpkin seeds this is a yummy and easy way to snack on them. Just 1 secret ingredient and you've got some savory seeds with a little kick! 

Hello everyone, are you ready for all the spooks to visit your house today? We have been having festivals, and treat's abound around our community. We are enjoying our daughter and her husband as house guest while they are in the process of moving to our area. I have been trying to make meal plans that they all like as well as being time efficient to help with the move as much as I can. Here we are about to go into November already and I love the meal plans that happen during this season. I really look forward to all the Slow Cooker days as the weather begins to really cool off here. I need to get busy here and figure out Whats For Dinner Next Week!

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday and our Top Ten List from last weeks party. We always feature our Top Ten on the last Thursday of the month! We are ready for the little spooks at our cottage and looking forward to the little ones that show up for the fun treats! How about you, are you ready for the little spooks at your house this week? I am so excited to see you at the party today and can't wait to try your special recipes and see all of your fun post!

  I love this simple recipe that is so full of delicious flavors. This Frosted Pumpkin Walnut Snack Cake has been around our family for a very long time and is just perfect for a  after school snack for the kids or a great little snack cake to serve your friends that drop by for coffee. We have lots of friends and family that drop by the cottage for a cup of coffee and a nice visit, I really enjoy having a little something to offer along with that cup of coffee or tea. This recipe is easy to put together and has a great spice combination to enhance the flavor of the pumpkin and is topped with a silky frosting with walnuts.  

  Halloween is almost here! Hopefully you are getting to celebrate with friends this year. We have some friends coming to visit and we are looking forward to it. I was trying to plan fun things to cook for the kiddos and my husband had this crazy idea, fried mashed potato balls. He also came up with the name! These are a fun and filling party food that can really be made anytime of the year. They are sure to be a graveyard smash! 

Our cottage is all a buzz this week fall is in full swing with pumpkins, hay rides and fun festivals. It is so much fun to bring goodies to the bake sales and get ready all the little spooks that will be calling at the door later in the week. I am excited to make a meal plan this week that will fit in with our busy life for this coming week. I am really paying attention to some of the sales at the super market as the prices keep climbing every week. Reminds me of the days when we had kids at home and the money was tight and we needed to stretch the dollars, sure am glad I have those skills in my homemaker tool box. I would sure be interested in the food cost in your part of the country, leave me a comment.

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, I am so excited to see you at the party today! Come on back we have a fire in the firepit, who knows we may even have some S'mores, and hot chocolate in a bit. We have some great features for you to enjoy this week, be sure to stop by these talented bloggers and say hello! I can't wait to see what you will be sharing this week with us, thanks so much for coming!

  A snack bowl full of Sweet & Spicy Snack Mix is a great snack to have while watching the games, playing cards with a friend or just sitting quietly and reading a book. It sure is a good snack for our family to enjoy any time. I can set a bowl of this mix on the bar top and it will disappear in no time. This snack mix is a great mix of sweet & spicy  seasons with crackers, pretzels, peanuts and cereal, baked in the oven to perfection . 

Our Pumpkin Poke Cake with Pumpkin Spice Frosting has layers of flavor and then its topped with more pumpkin spice flavor. This is a very easy cake to make and it will be a great hit for any occasion. I have a lot of fun with the sprinkles of the season and wait till you find the special treat hidden in the frosting. My husband loves this cake and gets so excited when I start to make it, I have to guard the cake to get my photo's before he attacks it. It is truly a favorite here at the cottage!

Meal planning is going to be very important to our family this week, it will be busy here at the cottage. One of our daughters and her husband are moving back home to Texas and will arrive in to their new home this week which happens to be only about 30 minutes from us. To say that we are excited is an understatement, so of course we will be really busy helping them to get moved and settled in their new home. They will be staying with us until all the work on the home is done so they can move completely in, and I will really enjoy getting to cook for the moving crew. This is when I am really grateful that I am a meal planner, I will need to be organized so I can keep things running on time and make a very special homecoming for our daughter and her family!

Hello everyone and welcome to Full Plate Thursday! Did you have a nice holiday, the kids here were out of school for Columbus Day and Fair Days. We have been busy here taking advantage of all the fall weather to get our fall outdoor chores completed. We have even taken on a re-organization of our barn, oh my goodness, what were we thinking? We sure have some great features this week, I have added a new category to the party this week. Starting along about now we have a lot of parties with delicious appetizers, so we will have an appetizer category through the holidays, YUM! Thanks so much for coming today, I can't wait to see what you will be sharing for the party!

Octoberfest always brings back so many memories of my visits to Germany. One of the many foods that I loved and continue to make today is Currywurst and I like to serve it the way it was served to me there with Pommes Frittes (French Fries) and lots of  Octoberfest: Curry Ketchup This is a very flavor filled meal with the bratwurst steeped in the curry ketchup, and it is such an easy recipe! A fun way to celebrate Octoberfest or any other special season.

We have had several family members live in Germany for quiet sometime and I was fortunate to be able to visit more than once. One of the foods that I fell in love with was Curry Ketchup. Curry Ketchup is a blend of spices that makes this ketchup so special. Curry Ketchup is used to make Currywurst a great combination of Brats and Curry Ketchup and very popular dish in Germany. Curry Ketchup is a favorite with Pommes Frittes & Curry, in English that is Fried Potatoes & Curry, one of my favorites. This is one of the condiments that I like to keep on hand in the refrigerator especially in the fall of the year around Octoberfest.

We really enjoy a great pot roast with all the wonderful root vegetables roasting slowly in the blend of seasons and juices. Our vegetables for this pot roast came right out of our garden, and there is no flavor like garden vegetables. This is a very easy recipe that will serve a crowd or give you some nice freezer meals with your left over's. We often times take the left over's and make small individual freezer meals that sure are nice on a busy day! 

Hello everyone, I sure hope you are enjoying this wonderful fall, it is a great time to be outdoors. Not to hot with just a light chill in the morning air, what a great day to take a walk in the country. I am taking a walk to the lake this morning and plan on sitting on the dock to make my meal plan for this week. I may as well put a fishing pole in the water, who knows maybe I will catch something while I am sitting on the dock, thinking of  delicious food to serve my family for the next week.