The cottage is buzzing this week, we are preparing for Thanksgiving, with the wonderful food, family, friends and an opportunity to enjoy the harvest of our lives. For several weeks now I have been making sure that my pantry will be fully stocked with the staples that we will need to get the meals prepared for the number of folks that we will have here this week. I am so excited to be able to enjoy cooking the meal and not worry about what to cook, because we have our meal plan.

When We Sit At Our Thanksgiving Table Please Know That I Count Each Of You
Among My Many Blessings May God Bless You Abundantly

Oh my goodness, come in the cottage and warm up by the fire, winter has arrived! We are going to have many wonderful recipes on the table today that will bring you cozy comfort during this cold weather. We had a great party last week and are featuring some of your most popular post from that party. Be sure and check out the NOTICE OF CHANGE For Thanksgiving week here at the cottage and for this party. I can't wait to see all of you today so lets get the party started!

The men and most of the women in our family love a great potato dish. We have made a number of different potato recipes in my day, and this is one that they all love. It is a very special recipe with herb infused cream and very creamy potatoes that just melt in your mouth. This is a potato recipe that I make for very special occasions and very rarely have a left over. It has gone to church dinners, ladies covered dish events, and football banquets. It is a great recipe for a family gathering of any kind.

We are sweet potato lovers and this is a great cake recipe that we really enjoy here at the cottage. Sweet potatoes are one of the crops that farmers produce in this area, so we are blessed with wonderful fresh sweet potatoes. This is a very special cake recipe that was developed and served for a special party for one of our Grandchildren and that's when it became, Nana's Sweet Potato Cake. This cake is so easy to put together and is full of warm cozy flavors, and is often time's requested from friends and family. Very moist and it is almost like a pie, we like to top it with a nice dollop of ice cream and a drizzle of caramel!

We are planning a very special meal for the Veterans in our family to honor them in some small way for the service that they have given to our country. We have had so much rain here and it is very cold, so all of our activities will be indoors this week. I am preparing for the Thanksgiving Feast meal plan and beginning to put together some staples that will be needed for that meal, planning ahead always helps. I am going to sip on some wonderful Spiced Cider while we put together this meal plan for the week.

Welcome To Full Plate Thursday
When you come to the country and down the country roads to get to the cottage, you will find that fall is surrounding us with beautiful color, a chill in the air and I am so happy to see you! We will have some hot cider for you to sit by the fire and enjoy the fellowship with all our friends that gather here every Thursday! The recipes, thanksgiving ideas, fall decor, all so special this time of the year. Our party links are the best in  blogger land and we feature some of them every week, which I hope you will go by and visit these awesome blogs. I am getting so excited to see what all of you will be sharing with us today, so lets get busy and get this party started!

We love roasted vegetable combinations that are so full of flavor. When we are serving a crowd or just a simple family dinner, this is a very simple but delicious way of preparing a great side dish. For this dish we are going to the garden to harvest some of our home grown butternut squash, it has a very rich flavor when roasted. We are mixing some Brussels Sprouts, Cranberries and great seasons to make this a favorite for the season!

When the holidays would be close, my Grandfather would begin to gather the pumpkins from the field and bring them up to the house. My Grandmother would cut the pumpkins, take the seeds out to clean and dry, then she would roast the meat of the pumpkin. I remember getting to help carve one of the pumpkins, with a funny mouth before it was roasted. There is a very rich smell that fills the kitchen with the roasting pumpkin in the wood stove oven. The pumpkin meat was cooled then she would mash it up and next was the pie. Much later when that pie came out of the oven it was amazing, I can still smell it and almost taste it. I am so grateful to have my Grandmothers recipe for that pie, so that I can re create those memories and share them with family and friends.

Welcome November and it came in with a bucket of rain at the cottage. It is cold rainy and fall has arrived, definitely time for cozy fall meal plans. I am having fun looking at recipes, checking the pantry and making the plan, hope I don't have to get out in the rain to go to the market. This week I may be able to make the meal plan without having to go to the market, that would be great and what a great time of the year to save a little money for the holidays that will be coming up. Now I have challenged myself to cook from the pantry this week so lets see what we can do, I love a challenge!

Welcome To Full Plate Thursday
What a busy week we are having here at the cottage. By the time you get this post, we will be busy with the little ones coming to our door for treats, and there will sure be some cute ones. Then here we go into November and the big feast that we look forward to. Full Plate Thursday is just the place that folks come to find fabulous recipes for their special holiday meals, and I am so excited you want to be a part of that. We have some great features from last weeks party and I sure hope you will stop by these awesome blogs and say hello. I can't wait to see what you are bringing to share with us today so lets get the party started!

We have had a bountiful harvest of butternut squash this year and I love developing different recipes that we will enjoy with our fresh garden butternut squash. This recipe is so easy and so full of fabulous Tex-Mex flavors. These Black Bean-Butternut Tostada's will make a great lunch or light supper, plus they are on the table in no time.

When I make my meal plan for the week, I always ask my husband if there is anything that he would like included, and for this week he wanted Sirloin Tips on Rice. He said "you know like the kind we used to get at the old cafe on the square in our hometown", I said sure let me see what I can develop, this is the recipe that I came up with and have to say that it is really close and so good, it sure took us down memory lane. Food always makes good memories!

This is always a fun week for us here at the cottage. We always look forward to all the little trick or treater's that stop by the cottage. There several fall festivals that we always enjoy attending in the community. It has been sweater and jacket weather so we are definitely into the fall meal plans this week. We always have chili on the 31st so I will be serving one of my new chili recipes this year. I better get started on this meal plan, I am getting hungry!

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday

 This will be the last Thursday of the month already and on the last Thursday of the month we have our Top Ten from the last weeks party. The Top Ten that have the most page views and we really good ones this week. Hope you will visit all of these great bloggers and say hello! I am excited that you are here today and can't wait to see what you will be sharing with us. I love all of the wonderful fall recipes and fun parties that you are bringing to share with us and thank you so much!

My neighbor gave me a basket full of pears the other day and they are beautiful, plus I have several butternut squash from the garden, it sounds like a great combination to me! I got busy and made a delicious crisp that has all the seasons and flavors of fresh fruit from a grandma's kitchen. This is a very easy crisp to put together and I love the butternut squash and pear combination!