The Top Ten Reader Favorite Recipes is one of my favorite post at the end of the year.  The post gives me a great look at what my special readers have loved the most throughout the year. 

  Welcome to the last meal plans for 2025, and the first meal plans for 2026! Here it is a brand-new year about to begin. When I was making our meal plans for this week, I just glanced back at our year and really wondered where in the world did the time go?  We are going to be serving a very traditional Southern meal for our New Years Day meal, that our family looks forward to having every year. Of course, some of the items on the plan will directly relate to our good luck in the New Year. My Mother used to call me and remind me to be sure and eat my Black-Eyed Peas and Collards on New Years Day. I have to say that I do the same thing as she did. So don't forget to eat your Good Luck food on New Years Day!

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday,774 our last party for 2025! It is hard to believe that the calendar will be turning to 2026 this time next week. We have some great features to share with you today and I sure hope you enjoy them. Be sure and take the time to read the announcements for the party!

    Our Winter Roasted Vegetable Salad is packed full of delicious vegetables and fruits. We start with a bed of fresh greens and lay in the roasted brussels sprouts and butternut squash. With an addition of mandarin oranges and pomegranate seeds, topped off with a lovely Honey Lemon Dressing and a garnish of Fetta Cheese. This salad will complement any special meal.

Hello everyone, I am so glad you could join me to plan our Christmas Week meal plan. A very special season for our family and our traditional foods that we enjoy this time of the year. We are looking  forward to friends and family gathering at our table to share the joy of Christmas!

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, 773 Christmas Edition! We are just a little early, as Christmas Day is on Thursday this year. I know you will be busy with your family and friends celebrating the season. What an amazing foodie season we have had leading up to the big day.

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all warm and cozy with your hot coffee or hot chocolate today. Meal planning is so important to an organized holiday season. So many events  to attend and maybe you are entertaining in your home as we tend to enjoy during this season. We have a busy week coming up so I will be looking for easy comfort and of course something warm.

Hello everyone, and welcome to Full Plate Thursday, 772. I am sure happy to see you today and hope you are warm and cozy in this winter weather we have right now. We had a great party last week and are excited to share those features with you today. This is a great time of the year for festive foods and old favorites. I can't wait to see what you  will be sharing with us today. You are a very important part of our blogging community and thanks so much for sharing with us!

Gifts From Miz Helen's Kitchen annual publication of our most popular gifts for Christmas. I love receiving a homemade gift that someone has put so much love and work into the finished product. We often time give gifts from our garden that is actually a year long effort. There are always the favorites every year and then we like to add some of the new things that folks will enjoy! It is with great joy that I present the gifts from our kitchen for this year.

It is good to be with you today to plan our meal plans for next week. I have a personal message for you today that you will want to be sure and read. It is very cold here and I am thinking in terms of warm and cozy foods. I try to keep a really good pantry supply on hand this time of the year. Our freezer is well stocked and I doubt I will have to go to the market except for something fresh. I am going to sip on my  hot chocolate and enjoy our time together!

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, 771 and December! I always look forward to this season with all of you as we celebrate Christmas and other spiritual holidays. Our foods always play a very important part in our celebration and what you share here with us is a reflection of the tables all over the world. I am so excited that you are here to share your corner of the world with us today!

I am so excited to welcome you to the 8th Annual Holiday Cookie Recipe Exchange Linky Party for 2025! I have enjoyed so many of your cookie recipes and I really treasure them. As I am making your recipes it reminds me of you and the special friendship that we enjoy in this very special blogging community. At the end of the party, we will have all shared with each other a memory and a part of ourselves that truly is a lasting gift. Thanks so much for sharing your cookie recipes with us, we cherish your cookie recipes and YOU!  I Can't Wait To Try Your Cookie Recipes, Lets Get Started!

  Our Harvest Salad is just perfect for a very special meal or a great main dish. It includes some great roasted sweet potatoes, grapes, and the last of the cherry tomato harvest. We just mixed all of this together with some greens add some Feta Cheese and a delicious Maple Dressing. This salad is fabulous!

Happy Thanksgiving Week! We already have guest arriving at the cottage so it will be a busy week here. It is a great time to be a meal planner and have things in place so we will have time to enjoy our guest. I have actually been stocking my pantry and doing some cooking ahead of time so were are all set here. I am so happy that you have stopped by to enjoy this meal plan with us.

Welcome to Full Plate Thursday 770! We are having a very special party of gratitude and thanksgiving with all of you who come here and are a big part of our blogging community. When I sit down to our Thanksgiving table I will be counting all of you as part of my blessings. I sure hope you enjoy all the features from our talented bloggers who shared at the party last week. I have a Thanksgiving surprise announcement so be sure and read the announcement!

Apple harvest is great when you can go out to the orchard and fill your basket with wonderful crisp apples. This recipe is so simple to make. The cake is filled with caramel sauce and topped with caramel apples. The cake is refrigerated to give it a real delicious moist crumb. This is a very special dessert that will complete any meal.

  Our meal planning is running a little late this week. I have found that sometimes the demands of the season will bring time management issues that I can't control. This makes my meal planning even more important. We  are going into the week before Thanksgiving plus we have guest that will be arriving this week. This is a very special time for our family as I know it is for most of you as well. I have my "Oldie But Goodie Recipes" ready and have checked my pantry, and freezer, we are ready to make some amazing meal plans for the week!

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday,769, we are so happy to see you here today. We had a really great party last week and I am so excited to share our special features with all of you today. We are so blessed to have these talented bloggers as a part of our community. Folks are getting real busy getting ready for the upcoming holidays, I love the energy of this season. We have saved you a seat at the table and can't wait to see what you will be sharing with us today.  

  I love Old Fashioned Chicken and Dressing. There is a certain time of the year when that is one of the recipes that I crave. My Grandmother would make this recipe for a Sunday dinner and you could smell it cooking all over the house. This is a very simple recipe and can be made ahead of time or frozen after baking. It is a delicious family recipe that says, warm, cozy and lots of love.

Hello everyone, I am so glad you could join me today for another great fall meal plan. We have been doing some prep work outdoors to get our property ready for winter. The chores always change with the season and so do our food taste. I am looking for some real cozy comfort foods and some new discoveries at the local Farmers Market. I recently posted  November Food and Recipe Basket , a great source for fall recipes!

  Welcome To Full Plate Thursday, 768 and to November! November is a food lovers month, with so many traditional foods plus the new ones. We have been enjoying some real fall weather which puts us in the mood for all the fun and delicious links you will be bringing to the party today. We had an outstanding party last week which means some awesome features for you to enjoy today!

November is truly a food lovers season. We love looking in our food and recipe basket for the seasonal foods and recipes of November. Thanksgiving is our big holiday this month and a food lovers holiday!  We see pumpkins just about everywhere we go, they are in the markets, pumpkin patches, and front porches. I use them for decoration, but mostly love them in a delicious recipe on my table. Sweet Potatoes are one of the farmers crops here in our area and we see Sweet Potatoes in the farm stands, back of pick up trucks, and in our very own gardens. November is a great food month to enjoy!

Welcome to November, a food lovers month! What a fun month to plan food with so many traditional plans and recipes. We are well into our fall now with our temperatures dropping daily. We were busy this past week getting as many of our plants in the house and protected in the barn as we could. Now I am ready to cozy up with a cup of pumpkin spice latte and make some great meal plans for the week.

  Welcome to our last party of October, and our Top Ten features from last weeks party! Are you ready for all the trick or treaters that will be coming to your cottage, tomorrow is Halloween. We have all of our treats ready to go and our decor in place. I am so happy to see you here today and hope you enjoy the TOP TEN VIEWS FROM LAST WEEKS PARTY! We are excited to see what you are sharing for the party today, it's going to be a good one!

  The Neiman Marcus Chicken Casserole is still as popular today as it was when it was served in the old Neiman's café. It has a crunchy top with a creamy and flavorful inside. It is light yet makes a great covered dish for any event. It is one of my favorite pot-luck recipes. 

  It is hard to believe that we are going into the last week of October with our meal plans. Time is flying by, but we sure are having fun on the ride. We have so many fun places to visit in our community just now. There are October Fest, Haunted Houses, Trunk or Treats, Fall Festivals, and of course our amazing Farmers Markets. For now I am in my happy place on the screen porch writing a very special meal plan for the next week.

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, 766, it is so good to see you here today. We had a fantastic party last week with some great food, fun tablescapes and a kids corner that the kid in me sure loves! I am excited to present the features from that party. I sure hope you enjoy them! I can't wait to see what you will be sharing with us today We have saved you a place at the table so come on in and join the party!

We love a weekend brunch and often times look for a special breakfast bake or casserole to serve for our brunch or breakfast. Our Country Sausage and Potato Breakfast Bake is just one of those special recipes that our weekend brunch group just love. This is a very simple recipe that does not take that long to set on the table. The flavors of Grandma's country kitchen rolled into one great breakfast bake!

  Hello everyone, we are really busy here this week and I am looking forward to sitting with you while we make our meal plan for the week. I love this time of the year when we can use the seasonal foods and include the colors of fall in our plans. One of my favorite fruits to use this time of the year is apples, fresh and crisp and just delicious on a plate of fall foods.

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday 765 we are so happy to see you here today! The pumpkin harvest is in full swing and there are pumpkins everywhere. Some are on tablelscapes and some are in delicious recipes that we all enjoy. We have some great features for our party today that I sure hope you enjoy. I am looking forward to the party with you today and so many other talented bloggers. If you want really good food this is where you come, to Full Plate Thursday, every Thursday!

  This is a delicious retro recipe that I made for my kids when they were in high school. It was always a great recipe to go to when they would bring 3/4 of the football team home for dinner. It has great Italian flavor and is a real easy recipe to make even at the last minute. This is a great go to recipe still to this day!

Hello everyone it is meal planning time here at the cottage. I was with a friend the other day in the super market right at rush time. I observed some women wandering up and down the isles trying to figure out what to make for dinner. It made me feel so good to know that my dinner was in the slow cooker and would be on the table in no time after I went home. Planning my meals every week allows me to save time and money. 

  Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, 764, it is so good to see you here today.  We are enjoying the great outdoors today, it is beautiful weather here in East Texas. So far we have had an extended late summer and late fall, but our food plate looks like fall is in full swing. The links that you brought to share last week are so inspirational for a fun filled fall with delicious food!

  Our Slow Cooker Old Fashioned Ham and Beans bring back so many memories of Grandmothers table. If you stayed long enough with my Grandmother you would find that at least one if not two days a week some kind of beans would be on the menu. This ham and beans recipe is the same that she would serve at her home. The only difference is the Slow Cooker, which she did not have. She simmered her beans on a wood stove that cooked all day, and you could smell them all over the house.

Coming to you today from the screen porch and welcome to October. We are excited to be in the beginning of fall as we plan our meals for the next week. I sure am grateful that we have home grown and home canned vegetables on hand. I was at the local super market yesterday and some of the prices are out of sight. I don't know what they are in your area, but here they are out of sight. It makes it more important as we move along to plan our food and food dollars. It's going to be a great week with some yummy food!

  Hello friends, it is so good to see you today! Welcome to Full Plate Thursday, 763 and October! October is such a fun month here at the cottage. Our community calendar is just packed with Farmers Markets, Fall Festivals and even Hay Rides. We have some amazing features today from our party last week. Fall foods and fun activities are everywhere. I sure hope you enjoy the features and stop by to say hello to these very talented bloggers!

  What's In Season and How Can I Use It? That is the question that we address in our Food and Recipe Basket. Fall garden production is hardy here because we still have temperatures that allow production to continue. Although we still have some of our summer production available, some of the all time favorite fall products are ready to harvest in the month of October.  The apples, collards, and dried pinto beans have been abundant. I love all these fruits and vegetable's and look forward to making the recipes that we will be presenting to you for our October Food and Recipe Basket. First In The Basket Apples Old Fashioned Apple Salad Retro Carrot Apple Soup Apple Cider Chicken Apple Bread Pudding Pie Vintage Apple Cobbler Apple Skillet Pie Apple Doodle Cupcakes  With Caramel Frosting Apple Butter Cake With Maple Frosting Apple Nut Cake Apple Bundt Cake with Caramel Glaze Collard Greens From Garden To Table Collard Greens Cajun Collards and Sausage Gumbo Collards and Must...