I like to call this the week of the Irish when we celebrate our Irish hertiage. We love having special family recipes on our meal plan and remembering some of the wonderful family celebrations that we have had to celebrate our Irish hertiage. Our weather has been so nice, the work on our new screen porch is almost finished and I can hardly wait to enjoy the new porch. I am hoping that we will get to have our meal on St. Patricks day on the new screen porch.

Only 3 days of February and then on to March and the beginning of spring. We have been real busy here at the cottage, my husband and son are finishing out a screen porch for us, I am so excited to get the porch screened, so we can enjoy the outdoors "bug free". We are also doing some spring garden projects that I will be sharing with you in a post this coming week. When we are busy like this it is even more important for us to have a meal plan to follow, it really does save time and money.

We are spending a lot of time outdoors right now in the garden.We usually have a break in our weather this time of the year and we are out planting onions and some of our other spring vegetables. My neighbor gave us a large basket of apples so this week I will be using some of those amazing apples in our meal plans. My husband has asked for his favorite breakfast so we will be having that for our Weekend Brunch. I sure hope you are making your meal plans and enjoying more time and money by doing so.

When I looked at the calendar I thought how can this be January is almost over. We had a busy week here at the cottage with a little break in the weather we were able to get the rest of our spring onions planted, with a little help from Max. I stewed a couple of chickens from the freezer yesterday so look what we are doing with them on the menu this week.

Fall has really arrived with chilly rainy days and the smell of fireplace smoke in the air. I am planning warm and cozy food for this week and am glad that you stopped by to help me plan this menu. I will have my favorite Pumpkin Soup and a family favorite Fresh Apple Cake on the menu this week. Come on back to the kitchen and have a cup of hot cider and a warm slice of coffee cake while we get this done.

The Cottage is ready for all the little goblins that will come knocking at the door this week looking for special treats. This is going to be a real busy week so I am planning a week of easy cooking and good food. Sometimes the best food is so easy and that's what we all look for on those busy days. This is where meal planning really pays off, we won't have to spend a lot of time wondering around in the market trying to make a decision whats for dinner, because we have it planned. I hope that you are making your meal plans to save time and money!

Happy November I am so excited that my friend will be visiting this week end and so I wanted to make her favorite soup, I am making it ahead of time so we can enjoy our visit and won't be in the kitchen cooking all day. I love making meals ahead of time especially this time of the year when it gets so busy with holiday activities, this is when meal planning really pays off. I have checked out my pantry and my freezer to see what I have on hand so now we are ready to plan The Menu. Sunday Chicken Enchilada Soup Baked Tortilla's Miz Helen's Guacamole Mexican Salad Caramel Apple Blondie Pie Monday French Cassoulet Texas Style Kale and Apple Tossed Salad Herb Garlic Bread Left Over Pie Tuesday Southern Smothered Chicken with Rice Fall Garden Hash Surprise Bundt Cake Wednesday Ladies Luncheon I am Bringing Cranberry Chicken Salad On Endive Spears Thursday Full Plate Thursday...

The Hatch Chili's are in all the markets right now and we just love to buy them in bulk and roast them on the grill. We then freeze or can them for the winter season and they are so good in casseroles and our Tex Mex recipes. When planning our meals for next week I sure wanted to include some of the fresh green chili's. Do you have seasonal favorites that you and your family like to plan some meals around? Sunday Slow Cooker Green Chili Stew Homemade Tortilla's Apple Hand Pie Monday Rancher Beans Spicy Oven Fries Corn Bread Left Over Apple Hand Pie Tuesday Bacon and Greens Pasta Green Tossed Salad Garlic Bread Jam Bars Wednesday Southwest Chicken Salad with Avocado Dressing Jalapeno Bread Spicy Skillet Peaches over Ice Cream Thursday From Full Plate Thursday Chicken A La Caroline at Sweet Carolines Corner   Polenta and Vegetable Bake at Bizzy Bakes Sweet Cherry Pie with Streu...

Are you getting your green ready? Monday is St. Patrick's Day and we are celebrating here at The Cottage. We have traditional food that we always make on St. Patrick's Day and have fond remembrances of our Irish family members. We have been real busy here in the garden getting all the spring beds cleaned and ready for planting. One of the new fun things that we are working on is our little green house, you will be hearing more about that as we go along. We better get busy on this meal planning for next week before we head out to the market. Sunday Irish Cottage Pie Tossed Green Salad Cottage Buns Irish Blackberry Crumble Cake Monday St. Patrick's Day Grandma's Irish Stew Irish Soda Bread Left Over Irish Blackberry Crumble Cake Irish Blessing May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fie...