Just one more week before Christmas and we are busy! Making meal plans this time of the year is so important for saving time and money. We are entertaining here at the cottage several times in the next couple of weeks so it will be very important to have the meal plan in addition to the flow chart for the parties. We are looking forward to enjoying every minute of the festivities!

Only 12 days til Christmas and so much to do, so many wonderful recipes to try, so much fun! I love the excitement of the season and all the activities, especially the amazing food that we enjoy at all the functions. That food all starts with great recipes from bloggers like you who have worked hard in your kitchens to perfect the award winning recipes that you bring here every week. We have some great features from last week that you will want to check out with wonderful time saving ideas and delicious flavors! It sure is good to see you here today and thanks so much for stopping by!

One of the special projects that I really enjoy at Christmas is giving my homemade gifts from the kitchen. I remember through the years that the homemade gifts I have received are always so precious to me, because I know how much love goes into the planning and preparation of the gift. It gives me more joy than you will know to be able to give a gift from my kitchen and I am sharing with you some of the gifts that I will be giving this year. My wish would be that I could share one of these gifts with each of you, because you'al are so very special to me.

We can and preserve much of the harvest from our garden every year and we love to share those products with our friends and family. Through the years we have shared an abundant garden harvest and it gives us much joy to do so. Every year we like to make a very special canned good to share at Christmas with friends and family. This year we have made this beautiful Cranberry Jelly. What could be better at Christmas than a nice jar of Cranberry Jelly. This Jelly is delicious and can be paired with meats, poultry, and great with vegetables. We have been enjoying it with our sour dough bread and toasted bagels. It is a great jelly and providing we have some left by Christmas, we will be sharing a jar or two.

We have enjoyed a little slower pace this week and starting to enjoy the fruits of our decorating labor for Christmas. I just love it when we get all the decorations finished and sit by the fire with a nice cup of cider to just enjoy the cottage. I am excited to make the meal plan this week as one of my friends will be coming to the cottage and has requested a special recipe, I just love it when my family and friends want something special on the plan. I need to get started on this plan while my cider is still hot.

We are kicking off December with great features and looking forward to lots of fabulous food for the party today. It is a perfect time of the year for parties and party planning, whats a great party without great party food. We have some of the greatest cooks on the planet that are a part of our community here and we are so happy that you are one of them, we are sure looking forward to what you will be sharing with us for the party today!

We love bread pudding, it is always so comforting and full of flavor. I made this bread pudding with some of the pears that my neighbor gave me, those pears are so delicious. I added some dried cranberries and pecans then drizzled some caramel sauce to finish the dessert. This one sure didn't last long, next time I will make a bigger one to enjoy a little longer. I love recipes that just happen, sometimes they are the very best!

We have been getting some great carrots from the garden they are so fresh and tender. The fall garden vegetables have been great this year and I have had fun developing new recipes. I used a really different spice with this sheet pan recipe and it is delicious. I didn't have many carrots for the recipe so the next time I make it I will double the recipe, it was that good!

Here we are at the first of December already and the cottage is beginning to look a lot like a winter wonderland. The decorating and baking process has begun. Decorations being sorted and placed so carefully: to cookies coming out of the oven, it is a special time of the year. My meal plan this week will begin with a Hanukkah meal to honor my friend who celebrates Hanukkah, I am always excited to do that for her.

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday and the Top Ten features from last weeks party!
I sure hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of wonderful food and fellowship with family and friends. Now we are all ready to move on to the Christmas and Hanukkah season, one of my favorite times of the year. Come on in and get you a cup of hot cocoa and a cookie, there is plenty of room to warm up by the fire. I love Thursday because I know that you will soon be here with your fantastic inspirations!

Cookies and Christmas just go together and what more fun at Christmas and Hanukkah than a great Cookie Exchange Party with your friends. We have a fabulous blogging community here with some of the greatest cooks on the planet. I am looking forward to the awesome collection of cookies that we will have here. At the end of the party I hope we have some fabulous cookie recipes to take home that we can enjoy for years to come! Thanks so much for bringing your cookie recipes to share with us, we will cherish the love that has gone into everyone of your recipes!

There are pecan orchard's and pecan trees all around us and in the fall of the year when pecan harvest is going on there are plenty of pecans for everyone including the little squirrels. A favorite southern treat is a praline, so for this recipe I am combining a nice spice cookie with a praline topping making this a very special cookie! This cookie is crisp on the outside and soft on the inside topped with fresh pecans from East Texas, just delicious!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving with lots of wonderful food and fellowship with family and friends. It is really winter time cold here, I think we must have skipped most of fall, so we are on to warm cozy foods to fill our meal plan for the week. I am off to the pantry, then the barn to see what supplies have been depleted after Thanksgiving. I always check my inventories before I start planning meals, it just make's my life easier and we all like to have life a little easier. I can see some Slow Cooker recipes coming up next week.

Welcome to our special Thanksgiving Edition of Full Plate Thursday! The cottage is very busy this week as we prepare for friends and family to sit around the Thanksgiving table and enjoy great food and fellowship. That is exactly why we are having an early Thanksgiving with all of our blog friends. We have some awesome features today and I really can't wait to see what you will be bringing to share with us this week, you'al are the greatest! Thank you so much for being a part of Full Plate Thursday and being a part of this community!
Wishing You and Your Family An Abundant Thanksgiving Filled With Special Blessings, Love and Joy!

My original recipe for this dessert is very old and the card is yellowed, we have made it for many years. Some of my friends make a recipe that is very similar and they call their recipe a salad, but to us it has always been dessert. It has layer's of flavors starting with a salty base then a creamy sweet layer and ending with a tart cranberry topping. This is a great dessert to serve anytime but is especially great for holiday meals and events. Take it to your covered dish dinners, luncheons, and then it is perfect for that special family gathering.