What a fun week to make meal plans for a very special holiday. We will be celebrating the 4th of July this week. We have celebrations all of the lake area from air shows to country fairs and back yard Bar B Ques. Great ways of celebrating our freedom and our love for the all American foods. We will be enjoying some of our traditional foods this week and I have some of our family favorite recipes ready to place on the meal plan.

  Welcome to the last party of the month and our Top Ten Features! Wow this last party of each month sure rolls around pretty fast sometimes. You picked some great post with your page views for this weeks party!

  Our Fresh Strawberry Dip is a perfect appetizer for a party of one or twenty. It is very cold and refreshing, very simple to make with just a few ingredients. It is one of our favorites here at the cottage. I like to serve this with a few mini vanilla wafers and a little salty Pretzel Crisps. I just love that salty and sweet combination. You can prepare this recipe the night before and it is all ready for your guest the next afternoon or evening. 

Hello everyone, it is good to be sitting on the screen porch with you while we make this meal plan for next week. It is a beautiful morning which inspires me to put together some great meal plans for this summer season. We actually have some vegetables that are  growing in the garden and in the Veggie Pod. I visited our Farmers Market last week and they have a great selection of everything I will need to make the recipes that I have picked out for this week. 

  Hello everyone and welcome to Full Plate Thursday, 699! I sure hope you had a great Fathers Day weekend, we had a  great celebration here at the cottage.  We had a  very special party here with all of you last week and we have some outstanding features to share with you from the party. Thank you so much for coming to the party today, I have saved you a seat at the table, now fill your plate and enjoy yourself!

  A cold rainy day can happen anytime, spring, summer, fall or winter. My Baked Beef Tips With Gravy is one of my favorite recipes to serve on that kind of day. This is a budget friendly recipe and so easy to put together. Just let it simmer in the oven and when you take it out it is ready to serve a hungry family. There will be enough for seconds as most will want a second round. I like to serve this recipe on top of creamy mashed potatoes with a fresh garden salad.

Hello everyone and a special greeting to all the Fathers on this Fathers Day weekend. We are expecting a full house this weekend to honor my husband and some other fathers in our family. We are planning on a fantastic time with delicious food. Great food requires careful attention. Meal planning allows me to have a more organized meal time and gives me more time to enjoy family and friends at the event. 

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, 698. I am so excited to see you here today, we have some really great features to share with you today. We are having some beautiful days and our little plants are loving it. We are actually planting some late garden that we feel sure will make harvest. It will be fun to watch the crops and even better to enjoy the harvest on our table. We are having our party on the garden patio where we can really enjoy the great outdoors. I have saved you a place at the table and thanks so much for coming to the party today!

  Our Potluck Pasta Salad is a perfect salad for any potluck gathering. This salad is easy to put together and has fresh garden vegetables which makes it a very healthy salad to take. We live in a country lake community, our lake shore line touches several small communities. We interact with several of those communities and participate in great potluck gatherings during the course of a month. This has been one of my favorite salad's to take. I rarely ever bring any back home with me.

Hello everyone, it is so good to see you here on this sunny morning! We are actually going to be able to have a cook-out and enjoy being outdoors with no rain for a few days. I have made a inventory of our pantry and freezers, unfortunately we don't have that many fresh vegetables in our garden. We will be making a trip to the local farmers market to fill the order for our meal plan for the week. It will be fun to see what the market has to offer this week. 

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, 697 and the month of June. We are going to have a great party today with the beginning of the summer season. We have some awesome features from last weeks party that I sure hope you enjoy. I love the summer food season from so many garden to table recipes and beautiful photo's of fresh foods. It is so good to see you here today, we have saved you a place at the table!

    This month we have some great foods in season that go from garden to table in the very best of fresh food. We get to spend a lot of time in the garden but if we are not growing the fresh fruit or vegetable that is in season, then we are off to the nearest farmers market. Some farmers markets are open year round now, but most are open by now. I love to carry all these fresh foods into my kitchen to create wonderful recipes for my family and friends.

Good morning, it is a beautiful June day to enjoy planning a great meal plan for next week. I am so happy you can join me here on the screen porch today, ya'll know how I love the screen porch. We have had some pretty weather around our part of the world this spring, and we are so grateful for the rain, and the fact that we have not had any damage from surrounding storms. The weather looks like we will be able to do a little grilling this week and enjoy some fresh vegetables from the garden and the farmers market.