We have spent a week of cold rainy days and we are ready for some sunshine here and we are supposed to have some next week. When I started to make my meal plan for this week, I realized that we would be in the last week of February already and that means that spring will be right around the corner. I am already thinking of some awesome spring meals that we can have. We are trying to take advantage of the rainy inside days we have. I have re-organized and cleaned my entire pantry and of course I updated my pantry inventory. My pantry inventory really helps in making my meal plans plus helps at the market so I don't end up with 5 jars of the same ingredient or get into a recipe and have to run to the store before I can finish the recipe. Meal planning really helps me stay on track and organized.

Hello everyone, come on in this cottage and get by the fire it is cold outside. We have some great snacks and a nice pot of cider on simmer. I sure hope all of you had a great Valentine Day, we had some wonderful special Valentine treats here at the party last week. We have some great features today and I hope you will take the time to visit some of these very talented bloggers. Every week we pin our features on a special board and some of the features are on my meal plan every week, Whats For Dinner Next Week. I really appreciate you coming today and can't wait to see what you will be sharing for the party!

My Mother always kept a can of Pink Salmon in the cabinet. If we had unexpected company you knew the can of Salmon was coming down and Salmon Patties would soon be on the table. We lived inland so fresh fish was Catfish, Crapie, and mostly any other fish caught in the river or lake, fresh fish like Salmon would not have been on our table and wasn't. I love Salmon Patties, and every once in a while I really get hungry for them. There are hundred's of recipes for Salmon Patties, but this is our families recipe and I am happy to share it with you today. When I start making these patties, I can remember my mother standing in the kitchen with her apron on top of her "house dress" with her hair ever so carefully curled. A great memory to enjoy as I make up these delicious Salmon Patties with my apron over my yoga pants and top, wearing my running shoes, time move's on, but our Salmon Patties remain the same.

We really enjoy a great pasta dish and putting it all in one skillet is even better. I was having a really busy day and needed to get something on the table fast so this recipe for Shells With Creamy Beef Sauce Skillet was developed. This recipe can be ready to go on the table in no time and it is a very hearty dish. Great Italian flavors and a creamy sauce packed with cheese makes this dish very special. Just have a nice salad and a piece of crusty french bread and it is a great family meal, you will love this one!

Hope you all had a very loving Valentine Day, my husband outdid himself with beautiful roses and special little gifts, he is such a sweetie! Our meal plan is always contingent on who plans on being at the cottage for meals, the weather, outside plans, the food inventory, wow that's a lot to look at, but it is so worth it. I hope you are inspired to begin making meal plans at your cottage, it will show up in your extra time to spend with loved ones, and a savings on your food bill, both of those well worth the investment to make the meal plan.

Happy Valentine Day
I am excited to see you today as we begin our Valentine Day celebration together. We have some great features from last weeks party that will help you have very special Valentine foods on your table. It is really cold here and we are so happy to gather round the fire and enjoy our time together. Thanks so much for coming today, and hope to see you at the party with your very special recipes, and food adventures!

Pozole is Spanish for hominy, which is a product that is made from corn. The Corn is soaked in an alkali solution then the corn is washed removing the alkali solution and most of the outside husk, then it is dried and we have hominy. We love hominy and once had it right from the farm where the corn had been raised. The traditional Pozole Soup has meat and vegetables, but the meat is usually pork. Today we are changing it up just a bit and adding beef, to give it a whole new flavor and one that our family loves. This recipe has southwest seasons that makes it a real hit here at the cottage!

When I get a call to bring something over to someones home for a luncheon, or an impromptu gathering of friends, I don't always have a lot of time to put something together. When I got a call asking me to bring my Chicken Salad, I said sure and then thought this is a job for my Instant Pot. The Waldorf Chicken Salad turned out delicious and everyone at the luncheon just loved it. It took no time to prepare the chicken and it was so much better than the Grocery Store Rotisserie Chicken. The mix of the Waldorf Salad and chicken is a great combination and made a fantastic salad!

One day this week we enjoyed a wonderful 70 degrees and we grilled out, the very next morning it is 39 degrees and the temperature is still falling, that's Texas. We can have summer one day and winter the next which makes meal planning a real challenge sometimes and we learn to be very flexible with our meal plans. If we have a chicken stew planned we can easily go to the grill with the chicken. As I begin this meal plan I am checking the weather and hoping it holds true for my meal plans. This is Valentine week so I want to plan a special dinner for my sweetheart, how about you are you planning a special Valentine meal?

Welcome February
It is time for Full Plate Thursday and its February, as we move right along with great recipes for the season. This month we will be celebrating Valentine Day and Presidents Day, both are great holidays for delicious recipes! Every week I get to select an entire menu based on your page views, and you'al share so many wonderful recipes, it is very hard to make those selections, that's why I often rely on your page views for those selections. I encourage you to visit other blogs in this community that we gather in every Thursday! I look forward to the party every week to see what you will be sharing, so enjoy the day and enjoy the party!

I told my husband that I wanted to make him a special dessert and what would he like to have, he said, ummm, I would really love to have that thing you know that is a cake and it is really a pie, and oh I want ice cream on it. Do you ever get answers like that from your family and friends, you gotta love it! After a bit of thinking I came back to him and told him I would be making him a Cherry Pecan Dump Cake and did that sound like the one he wanted, he said yes that's it, that's the one! So here it is, fresh out of the oven with a big dip of ice cream to top it off, and it is delicious! There is just something about the old classic's that bring back good memories and great comfort.

A sheet pan meal is  just perfect for a day when you don't have a lot of time to prepare a large family meal. This flavorful sheet pan meal is ready all at the same time and you don't even have to find a platter to serve it on, just garnish and serve. I love the flavor combination of lemon and rosemary and the butternut squash with the Brussels Sprouts are perfect to share this sheet pan.

If you live where the temperatures have been below 0 then I really hope that you are a meal planner and that you are your family are safe and warm with great meals during this cold weather. This is Super Bowl Weekend, and although none of our teams will be playing, we are still planning on having a fun game day here at the cottage!  This is one of those times when checking the weather and making the meal plan really helps. It is very cold here but not nearly like what some of you are having. I am going to check my inventory for the cold bins in the barn and the pantry and then see what the meal plan will look like, I sure don't want to have to go to the market in this weather. Lets just sit together and have a cup of this delicious cocoa and make the meal plan.

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday and our Top Ten Features From Last Weeks Party! We always feature our Top Ten Page Views For The Last Week of the month, taken from the last weeks party and we sure do have some good ones this week. I hope that you are staying warm and cozy no matter where you are and if you are here with us, come in by the fire, have a warm cider and lets enjoy some of the great recipes that you will be sharing today. Now lets get this party started!

The Link Party Begins At 5:00 P.M. CST Today!

It finally happened, I got a Instant Pot for Christmas, and I have been having fun! I have used a pressure cooker for years and really wasn't afraid of the pressure and love the fact that I can set the pressure and the cooking time then walk away, whereas with the pressure cooker, it requires a constant watch. It is cold weather here so I thought I would start out with a very simple Italian Stew, it was delicious and sure didn't take very long to prepare, plus it gave me a lot of freedom to take care some something else in the kitchen while it cooked. Thanks so much family, I sure am enjoying this new kitchen toy!