When my Mother would buy a big batch of banana's at the store, I knew that she was about to make her banana pudding. Banana Pudding was one of my Dad's favorite desserts and I have to say my Mothers recipe is one that we have found to be our favorite through the years. This is a from scratch pudding and is thick and rich then we put a mile high meringue on top. This Old Fashioned Banana Pudding recipe is a very special treat for any occasion. 

  I am hoping to get this meal plan posted before the rain storms begins. I have been busy covering some of our plantings in the garden in case we have hail. I love the spring and all its beauty but the storms I could do without. The little farm stand at the end of our road has opened again so I am looking forward to a visit there and will be including some of the fresh fruits and vegetables on our meal plan this week. I am sitting on the screen porch today while I do our work on the meal plan and can actually smell the rain coming. I better hurry to finish the plan so you can have the meal plan to share with your family this week. My hope each week is that you will find at least one suggestion that will help you with your meal plan!

I am very excited to see you here today, so come on back to the patio with me and find a place at the table it is a beautiful day. When the weather is so beautiful I love to eat outdoors and enjoy such good food with all of my friends. We have had some wonderful post from last week that are featured and I know you will enjoy them. Thanks so much for coming to the party today,  I can hardly wait to see what you will be sharing with us at the party today. You are very special to us and it is always a joy to welcome you here!

  Slow Cooker Smothered Steak recipe has been in my recipe box for a very long time. The recipe was originally baked in the oven and I just used my handy conversion chart (included in this post) and put it in the Slow Cooker. Some days are just busy and the Slow Cooker is a real help. The recipe will just melt in your mouth and you can cut the meat with a fork. The gravy and the onions top off the dish to make it a favorite. I am serving it today over rice.

  We are enjoying our long weekend after a busy Spring break. We were lucky to get plenty of sunshine and go on some beautiful hikes. We even enjoyed a trip to the zoo! We wrapped up the week with some Saturday night burritos, and this cilantro lime rice really makes them special. You can use this rice as a side, in burritos, or mix with black beans. It also goes well with asian food.

We are so excited to Welcome April and all of you to share our meal plan for this very special week. Of course we will be starting our meal plan this week with a big traditional Easter Dinner with some of our very favorite Easter recipes. Then often times the challenge is to find something to do with the leftovers, but we will be using several of our favorite left-over recipes on the meal plan for this week. I am already hungry just thinking about it. We will be making a trip to the farmers market later in the week to make sure we have all the wonderful fresh vegetables that we will be needing. I already have my meat products in the freezer and I will be baking along the way, so I think we will be all set for a great feast for the week!

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, and here we are at the end of March and only a few days away from Easter! We are having so much fun at the cottage this week, getting ready for a really nice Easter week and weekend. We are excited to present our Top Ten Features from last weeks party, some very talented bloggers sharing some great post for all of us to enjoy. I just know that you will be bringing some fantastic recipes, tablescapes and food related post to the party today and I can't wait to see what they are. Thanks so much for coming today and have fun at the party!

Our Hash-Brown Broccoli Brunch Casserole will be delicious for a special brunch, a nice luncheon or even a casual family dinner. This recipe is one of those that will go to any meal or any function. Carry it to the covered dish at your favorite social or serve it to your morning Bible class. This is a very hearty casserole with an amazing flavor that just works together. When I serve this there has never been any left to freeze although you can freeze it up to 3 months. We love this recipe!

  It is a beautiful spring day and a perfect time to make some delicious spring recipes for our meal plan this week. When I sit down to make the meal plan each week, I always think what sounds good, what will be some great idea's for meals? Then I can check recipes, check pantry and freezer stock to see what I will need for the recipes. It takes a little time up front but then when we are in the frenzy of the week, it is a smooth flow, because we know just what we are having and we know the ingredients will be available. Meal planning saves me so much time and money, and who doesn't like both extra time and money.

Hello everyone and welcome to Full Plate Thursday,529! Wow sometimes when I write the number of the post for the party it seems impossible that we have been publishing this party every single week for 11-1/2 years, where indeed does the time go? I am so excited that spring is here, are all of you excited about spring? I want you to be sure and take a look at the wonderful features that we have from very talented bloggers from last weeks party. I can't wait to see what all of you will be bringing to share with us today and thanks so much for coming to the party today!

  My husband and daughter were both begging for cinnamon rolls this weekend. Since these only take about an hour I didn't mind making a special Sunday breakfast! You could also use cream cheese icing if you want to make them even better! 

Happy Spring! I can't remember when we have been so excited to welcome spring! We are really looking forward to our spring meal plans and all the fresh fruits and vegetables that we are able to put into our meal plans this time of the year. It's March Madness already and lots of fun game food. We have been very busy here at the cottage with our gardens, and you can read all about our garden adventures in our  latest garden post.

  Happy St. Patrick's Day and welcome to Full Plate Thursday! We are celebrating our Irish heritage here at the cottage today and I sure am glad you could join us. Stop and take a look at the awesome post from some very talented bloggers from last weeks party. We have had a great week here and have actually put seeds in the ground in the garden, we are so excited, you can read all about what we have been doing in the garden in this weeks Garden Post.  Thanks so much for coming today we always save you a place at our table!

In February we experienced a historical snow storm with temperatures dipping below zero. We were so concerned that some of our trees and other planting's might not come back in the spring. Our electric grid in Texas failed and we were without electric power for over 12 hours at a time. It was a long week, but thankfully we did not have the damage that some encountered. We were checking our trees and plants almost daily to see if they would have any sign of life and or new buds. We were so grateful when we began to see signs of life and new growth. We have now broke new ground for a garden extension and are beginning our spring plantings.

  Our Baked Cheese Steak and Rice recipe came about as a last minute change in a meal plan. Have you ever got that call from a family member that has invited a couple of extra folks over for dinner? That happens a lot here at the cottage and even more when the kids were in high school and collage. I learned along the way to make a meal stretch out just a little bit more so there would be enough for everyone. There is one thing for sure, folks never left the table hungry. We always seemed to have enough for everyone. This recipe turned out to be a favorite that is requested over and over.

  Oh my goodness it is the week of the Irish here at the cottage! I am planning many of our Irish favorites in the meal plan this week. I just got back from a walk down a beautiful country road near the cottage, the trees are budding and it looks like a lot of the storm damage to the vegetation is going to be repaired. I was in the market yesterday and many of the store shelves here are still empty and many of the meat products are very limited. I am so grateful at this point that we have been planners and have kept a good pantry and freezer stock, otherwise we might not be eating to well. With the luck of the Irish and the wind at our back we will all come through this and be better for it! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, I am thrilled to be able to invite you to the garden patio to enjoy our party today. We have great spring recipes featured from last weeks party that you will sure want to check out! We are in the middle of planting some spring vegetables, so come on in and enjoy the outdoors with us. This coming weekend on the 14th we change our clocks to Daylight Savings Time, Spring is almost here just a few more days. Thanks so much for coming to the party today, it is always great to see you here!

  Fried Cabbage is a very versatile recipe that can become anything you want it to be. I love going to the garden and bringing in a fresh head of cabbage, it smells so good. Today I am making a pan of Fried Cabbage and also add the option of Smoked Sausage. This is a great side dish or a main dish, you can use it for a family weeknight or dress it up for company. This recipe is absolutely one of those comfort dishes that is good any time of the year.

  Germany is still under restrictions for COVID-19 and I have been craving ramen like nobody's business. There are actually a few places with great ramen! But they are too far away from our house to take it to go and it is still too cold to eat outside. So I opted to try out some homemade ramen! This can really be as complicated or as easy as you want it to be. I am going to share all the components I made, as well as some easier substitutes you could use! If you decide you want to make your own bone broth and chashu pork, then it will be a two day process.  This is a very basic recipe so feel free to add whatever spices or flavors you like! I can't wait to try it again and up the spice levels a bit.

Things are starting to look like a new season is coming here at the cottage. I am actually getting to sit on the screen porch and enjoy the sun while I work on next weeks meal plan. The roto tillers have been running in full force as we clear some ground for more row crops for the vegetable garden, it is very exciting! We will be planting this weekend and I will be doing a Garden Gate post very soon to bring all of you up to date on the garden. I love spring and summer foods with all the fresh vegetables, and in March of course we get to celebrate our Irish traditions!

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday,526, we are so excited to see you here today. Help me welcome March and all the wonderful foods of March. We have some great features from last week that I sure hope you will stop by and say hello to these talented bloggers. We are so excited that we are finally in the transition to spring so we can be outdoors in our garden and have a lot of screen porch time, just sipping some sweet tea! Hope you enjoy your stay at the cottage today and thanks so much for being a part of our Full Plate Thursday community!

Grandma's Irish Potato Cakes recipe has been in my family as long as I can remember. I remember my Mother, Aunts and my Grandma saying be sure and don't throw out the left over potatoes, because they wanted to make the potato cakes. It is a great recipe for left over potatoes and the fun part for a kid helping Grandma cook is you mix these with your hands. It really takes no time to make the potato cakes and they are absolutely the ultimate Irish comfort food!

  A big part of our family heritage is Irish and I love to make special Irish recipes. Most of the Irish recipes that I make are passed down to me by different family members. This recipe for Guinness Irish Chocolate Cake was handed down to me from one of my Aunts and it is easily one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes. The flavor of the cake is absolutely so good it really doesn't need a frosting to top it. We do have the perfect frosting with a creamy rich flavor that is a great compliment to this Irish family favorite!

  Just 2 more days of February and then comes March and all the fun meal plans we can make in March! What a February it has been, one for the history books for sure. I am looking back on the great Snow Storm that left us with no power and no water, it was a very challenging time. We are still on  a boil water order here and we are told it will last for a couple of more weeks. Today we are so grateful that we have full consistent power here at the cottage and although we are not fully back in the water department, at least we have water. We have been able to clear the plants out of the dinning room and put them back in their places. We have been able to spend some good porch time on a couple of really warm days. Looking forward to making this meal plan for the week, I'm hungry!

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday and the week for our Top Ten Post From Last Weeks party! We have great Top Ten Features this month that I am so happy to share with you for the party today. 

  Asian Zoodles with Peanut Sauce is a delicious vegetable recipe that we just love. We love vegetables and always look forward to our garden vegetables in the spring and summer, and in todays super market we can have them the year round. This is definitely one of those vegetable recipes that you can make the year round. From start to finish it is no time to put this awesome recipe on your table. The blend of these vegetables topped with a creamy Peanut Sauce is a plate full of goodness that our family loves. We never have any left overs from this recipe.

  Not to toot my own horn... but these are amazing. I wanted to try something a little different this week, and these buffalo chicken stuffed peppers were perfect! Easy, fast, and delicious. You can also use leftover chicken for this recipe, which is always a plus in my book. These are also easy to freeze as leftovers and reheat later. Serve it with a nice crunchy salad topped with ranch or blue cheese dressing and you've got a new recipe for the dinner rotation. 

  What a time to plan some "Storm Meal Plans", oh my goodness we are sure getting some practice here in Texas. Thankfully, our power has been restored after a week of camping out here inside the cottage.  There was not enough power to operate the in-take pumps at our water company, so we had no water for a week, thankfully the water was restored last night.

  Good Morning from our Texas Winter Wonderland For a Full Plate Thursday! I am writing this post in between rolling black outs with very little inter-net connection. I am going to try to get all of the features posted, but know that if I don't, I will come back and fill them in as time goes along. We just don't have the infrastructure here to deal with these zero and below temperatures. We are good here in the cottage, I wouldn't say cozy but we are layered up and warm. Goodness knows we have plenty to eat! I am moving on during this internet time to make sure the links are open for all of you and I look forward to seeing you when I can!

  Slow Cooker Vegetable Beef Stew is a delicious dish of comfort. This recipe is packed full of vegetables with little bits of tender beef chuck. With a special blend of flavors this is truly a very flavorful stew that our whole family enjoys. I have been making this recipe for my family since before I had children. This stew has been to family get togethers, and covered dish dinners. One great thing about this recipe is that you can freeze the left overs (if you have any) for up to three months.

  Garlic Butter Cod With Caper Sauce is a delicious recipe that is so easy to prepare and can be on the table in no time. The fillet is dredged in a season mix, then cooked in a garlic butter sauce. To top this special fish we use a delicious caper sauce. We live inland so seafood is a real treat for us. Rarely do we have it fresh, it is most usually frozen, this is a great recipe for frozen fillets.

Happy Valentine Day, hope you have a very special meal plan for today. Above all hoping you are warm and cozy wherever you are. We are having record breaking cold temperatures so I will be planning some very enjoyable and comforting meals for the week. Our gardening project has been put on hold while we work through this current cold weather working its way through our area. I am planning a very special meal for my favorite guy and Valentine for this year and many years to come, I hope!

We are expecting some serious winter weather later this week, so we are looking at real cozy food for the week. Of course we are planning something real special on Valentine Day. Most everywhere you look it is all about Valentine Day and then right behind that is Mardi Gras, fun food times. We have some great features from last weeks party that I sure hope you will visit, and don't forget we are always pinning those to our features board. I look forward to hearing all about how you are staying warm in these winter storms and planning special evening's for your families. I am always so excited to see what you are sharing with us at the party today, thanks for coming today you are very special to us!

Nana's Maple Pie, is a creamy bite of something you can't put down until there are no more bites. I started making this pie in my early homemaking days and ya'll that has been a very long time ago. Along the way it became Nana's Maple Pie. This is a very old fashioned from scratch recipe that I have brought up to date with just a few convenient product changes. A family member who had been quarantined for sometime recently told me, "if I could just have some of Nana's Maple Pie, it would sure make it better." So this is for all of you who may have been stuck in your house to long, and I sure hope it makes it better!

  Mardi Gras is around the corner, and this is a great easy way to celebrate! My mom is from Louisiana and I have family there. We visited frequently growing up and I always loved getting to have fresh boiled crawfish. Over here in Germany I couldn't manage to get my hands on any crawfish, but I did find some great shrimp. This recipe is fun to make and more fun to eat and it was nice to have a little southern comfort food. Plus it only takes about 30 minutes! 

  We are kicking this week off with Super Bowl Sunday. Although my husband and I will be alone watching the game, we are making a special meal plan for the day and we will enjoying lots of good food. We are beginning to have some glimmers of spring, I made my seed order today and can't wait to get them in the sowing pots. I am also planning some Madri Gras food for next week, we really love our Cajun food! So many good food's to enjoy through this season.

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday and February! We have to hurry along in February to enjoy each one of the special events. Right now we are all about Valentine Day coming up in just 13 days. We have some great features today that will hopefully give you some fantastic inspiration, they sure gave me some. Well it is still cold here so hurry in and find a spot near the fire, grab some hot cider and enjoy the party, I am so happy you could come today!

  Sometimes in bad weather we can't get out to our smoker or grill so we will make our brisket in the oven. It is delicious but we usually have some left over brisket to slice out for sandwiches or make our Brisket Soup. We started making our Brisket Soup years ago when we had a house full of family and some left over Brisket. As it turns out it was a big hit with the family and we have been making it ever since. This soup has great flavor and is just perfect to serve a crowd for a ballgame day or a family movie night.

  These Pizza Roll Appetizer's are so easy to put together and really delicious. We have made these little appetizers several times lately and are just loving them, we know that if we are having folks over we will need to double the recipe. This is one of those recipes that you can really make your own and change it up every time you make it. We have a favorite combination of Italian meat, and cheese that we will be sharing with you today.

Here we are at the end of January and the beginning of February with meal planning a lot of fun in February. This month we have Madri Gras, Valentine Day, and the Super Bowl, and that's a lot of really good food. My husband and I are having a lot of fun transitioning into his full time retirement. We are both structure oriented people and are working out days so that we have time to enjoy our life together. We are making lots of plans for the garden and some serious porch sitting time in the spring. We will be having lots of great garden to table meal plans that we can all look forward to.

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, it's time for our Top Ten Post features from last weeks party. These are always fun features that you have choose from your pageview from the last week and you picked some very special post. We are still having rain here with no sunshine in sight so put on your rain boots and come on in the cottage. Help yourself to some hot tea and special treats, we can't wait to see what you will be sharing with us today. Thanks so much for coming to the party today, we always look forward to your visit!

  When your favorite Chinese restaurant is closed and you think you just have to have some Chinese food, this Chicken and Rice Chow Mein Casserole is a great substitute. I have been making this casserole quiet a bit lately and it sure fills the void of our regular favorite Chinese food restaurant. This is such an easy casserole to put together and I use some of my frozen bagged chicken that I keep in the freezer for Casseroles, Soups and Stews. I shared this casserole with some friend's lately and they loved it!

My husband and I had a favorite restaurant in Boise, Idaho that we went to any chance we got. We were always so excited when they had their lamb lollipops on the menu. Since we have moved I have been craving them like crazy, so I decided to try them myself! We needed something to cheer us up after hearing Germany has extended their lockdown to February 14th. Much to my surprise, the hardest part of this recipe is finding a nice cut of meat and cutting it appropriately.      I made roasted brussells sprouts with radishes and mashed potatoes for the sides and topped the lamb with a fresh mint sauce. You could also make a chimichurri if you prefer. I also got to enjoy a lovely local  gewurztraminer that I bought during a wine tour before things shut down again.      This is a nice special occasion dinner that really doesn't require that much effort and tastes delicious! 

Good Morning, my goodness I sure am glad to be here today, as there was some question whether the post would get out. I love sharing our weekly meal plan with all of you ,it gives me a chance to stay organized, with some structure in my life, and for me that is very important. I had several technical issues that brought me all the way down for a bit. We had to work real hard and do some digging including replacement of some equipment, but with God's help, we made it!

  Hello everyone and welcome to Full Plate Thursday, 520 we are very happy that you could make it today! We have very cold rain today so hurry in the cottage and find a cup of hot chocolate or a cup of wonderful soup, find a chair by the fire and enjoy your visit here with us. We have some great features from last week and I sure hope you will stop by and give these talented bloggers a shout out! Thanks so much for coming to the party today and sure hope you will come back to see us real soon! Let's Party!!

Our Italian Sausage Skillet Pizza is a perfect deep dish pizza with great flavors. This pizza is so easy to make and the crust has lots of flavor waiting in edge. Italian Sausage with some seasons and special vegetables make this pizza a winner here at the cottage. I recently made a couple of these skillets for the ballgame crowd and everyone loved them, and it is such a fun way to present the pizza!

  I have so much fun creating new recipes and this is one of my new brunch and breakfast recipe's that we just love. This is a great combination of sausage, eggs, and seasons all rolled into a nice dip of goodness sitting on top of a toasted muffin and covered with a layer of melted cheese. This recipe has quickly become of of our breakfast favorites.

It is a very special time here at the cottage and making meal plans right now may be a little different as some things here at the cottage are changing.17 years ago my husband retired, we traveled, moved to the country, remodeled our little cottage, developed a fantastic organic garden and had a lot of fun. Then 11 years ago he went back to work, this week he retired again (for the last time I hope). We have some great plans to sit on the screen porch, enjoy the bird sanctuary, work in our garden, continue to preserve the garden harvest and when it is safe to do so again, we look forward to traveling. The meal plans that I have made here for our dinner meals won't change, but we won't be getting up at 4:00 a.m., packing lunches along with 2 snacks on work days. It really is time for us to begin this part of our life and we are very excited about the journey. I shall keep all of you posted as we move along.