Lucas Corner Farmhouse

Ask Adam how many loaves bricks of bread he has sampled over the last 15ish years that I've tried making. It's been....a lot haha! MamaRie always made bread making look so easy! She had at least one sourdough starter in the kitchen at all times and was making bread for every get together (or just because) and experimenting with different recipes. Cheese bread, Rosemary bread, and Pepperoni bread were pretty popular with me and my sisters. I have some sourdough starter trying to grow on my counter....but I have to say MamaRie was a lot better at it than me haha! I haven't given up on it, but it's not  my go-to for sandwich bread right now. Once I had two kids, Grandma gave me her bread machine because she said I was quickly going to run out of time to do all the kneading and rising necessary to keep bread cooked for two growing boys. I used that machine until it finally gave out on me! (Then I got a new one for my birthday from Bruce & Linda!) I think anyone that lo...

Sometimes, I just want to eat "tailgate food" with dinner. That might be why my last post was about pigs in a blanket and this post is about Chicken & Corn Dip! This is a QUICK recipe, so if you need a last minute dish to take to a party, tailgate, get together (or just a late night snack), this is the one! *Also, this recipe is Beau Approved* You can bake all this in the oven, but it works just as well in the microwave! ( These are the chip & dip bowls we have. My Mother-in-Law gave them to me and they make a great snack bowl! Amazon has similar ones in both stoneware and plastic ). Here's my notes while looking at a few other recipes to make my own. I was going to use sour cream, which is usually a staple in my fridge...but I thought I was out, then when I saw it at the back of the fridge, I knew it needed to go. I don't think the chickens would even snack on it! That said, I went to look up replacement options for sour cream when used in dips and two that ...

Like most of you, I've always made pigs in a blanket using canned crescent rolls and cocktail sausages. However, it takes 3-4 cans of crescent rolls make enough for this crew and the price has really gone up!  So....I started looking up some recipes that might make a good substitute (other than making actual crescent rolls...which are delicious!)  I wanted something buttery (of course), but didn't require any rise time either. I found a few options and came up with a recipe that was somewhat of a mix of the ones I read online. My helper followed the directions and made some delicious pigs in a blanket! We had exactly the same number of sausages as slots in my new pan , so we used that to make some bee and beehive pigs! The pan is perfect for pull apart breads, but was cute for this too! You can easily cook these on a lined baking sheet or in a round pan as well. One of the cutest cooking helpers I know! This dough makes enough to wrap 20-30 sausages, depending on how thin you ...

       This year for Christmas, we made a goal to make as many of our gifts for others ourselves. There were a few that were store bought, but for the most part, we made them! We went through a lot of flour, butter, sugar, and chocolate this year, but it was a lot of fun! I realized as I was starting to write all this down that I didn't take very many pictures at all of this entire process....so if I gave you one of these gifts and you have pictures, send them my way and I'll add them to this haha!      The boys helped out baking and making mixes, as well as coming up with their own gifts to give their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Cole worked with Adam to make wooden coasters as some gifts, and he designed and whittled mallets for his Paw & Grandpa to keep in their workshops.  He also found coupons to places in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and gave those to some family who he thought would enjoy certain stores or restaurants. :) Blake paint...

Happy Sunday! I've been working on this week's Meal Plan and came up with a new recipe in the process! While searching for some recipes to include using what was already in the cabinet, I came across a spinach alfredo dish that looked delicious, but it was made using one of the dinner meal kits from the grocery store, so I used it as inspiration to come up with my own. This is easy, and it uses cabinet and freezer staples that we keep, but fresh ingredients can easily be substituted. You'll need: 4 frozen chicken breasts 3 cloves garlic 2 Tbs olive oil 1/2 tsp salt 1 Tbs dried basil 1 box (16oz) pasta (I used angel hair pasta) 1.5 large jars alfredo sauce (about 35 oz total) 1 can cream of chicken soup 1 cup fresh spinach (or thawed frozen spinach) Place the chicken, garlic, and salt in the bottom of a Dutch oven or large stock pot and drizzle with olive oil. I got my 6 quart enameled cast iron Dutch oven from World Market several years ago, but they don't make the same...

If you were to open my most used cookbook (Betty Crocker's Cookbook...that I snagged from Mom's cabinet when she bought an updated version ...) you would see page 199 --page with the muffin recipe-- is covered in oil, flour, sugar, blueberry stains. It's pretty great. :) This morning, I took the recipe for Banana Muffins and tweaked it to make it a little healthier.  Cole waited (not-so-patiently haha) this morning for them to cool off so he could try one! I used 2 bananas, but if you want an extra kick of banana flavor, use three (and the more ripe the better!) A few things I sometimes do with recipes to make them healthier are: *Use flax seed + water as an egg substitute* (Then I can eat the batter guilt-free!) *Use honey to replace all or some sugar.* *Use coconut oil instead of vegetable oil.* I use  LouAna  Coconut Oil if I don't want a coconut flavor and ALDI or Spectrum Virgin Organic Coconut Oil if I do want coconut flavor added. Ho...

I've been horrible about updating the blog (I do good to post something once every 6 months haha!) BUT my mom and dad gave me a serger for Christmas, so I'm feeling pretty motivated to get some sewing projects done. I'm also feeling pretty motivated to cook (particularly some freezer to crockpot meals to practice on before the baby gets here in June).  So, with those two motivations, maybe I'll start posting my projects and recipes again, right? To get started, here's "Get Well Soup."  Everyone has been sick in our house...church...town....state.... and we only felt like eating lots of soup in our house.  We had some basic ingredients on hand and decided to see what came out...and it was delicious.  It's quite possibly one of our favorite soups actually! Get Well Soup 1-2 lb ground meat (we used venison, but you could use any meat you like) 1 can cream of chicken ~1/2 jar spaghetti sauce 2 chicken bouillon cubes + 1 cup of water 1 gr...

There's an Indian restaurant in town who has a House Salad that is SO GOOD.  I've always referred to it as "Cucumber Salad" but it also has corn and green bell peppers tossed in a thin ranch dressing. I made a variation of that last night at dinner at Mom's house to go with the Lemon Pepper Chicken she made. It was DELICIOUS.  We didn't have a bell pepper on hand, but we had a can of Medium Rotel.  It added a little extra kick to the otherwise cool salad. You can eat this as a side, or pour it over chicken like we did! WENDY'S CUCUMBER SALAD 2 medium cucumbers, diced 1 can yellow corn, drained, with 1/3 cup drained water set aside 1 can Rotel, drained (or diced tomatoes for a milder taste) 1/3 cup ranch dressing Toss the cucumbers, yellow corn, and Rotel in a large bowl.  In a smaller bowl, whisk together the ranch dressing and drained water from the can of corn.  Pour over the diced veggies and toss. That's IT!...

Fireflies. Rainstorms. Crickets. Katydids. Honeysuckle. It's summer y'all... Time for another batch of Honeysuckle Jelly! You know the tiny drop of liquid goodness (ok, nectar…but it's delicious)  that you get from one honeysuckle blossom?  Multiply that by a spoonful, and that's what it's like to have honeysuckle jelly on toast. mmmmm….. :) I first made this Honeysuckle Jelly a few years ago when the house we moved into had honeysuckle all along the wood line in the back yard.  It started because we were looking for a Honeysuckle Ice Cream recipe (still haven't made that) .…it's become a family favorite. When we moved into the house we're in now, I was incredibly excited because there were two bushes in the back yard with honeysuckle vines in addition to two more sections in the back of the yard with honeysuckle.  I made a batch and gave jars to family members, then waited for the next year to come around to make m...

Stuffed bell peppers are delicious. Honestly, I always buy bell peppers with the intention of stuffing them.....but they're a bit more work than I'm willing to put into dinner on a weekday, so they wind up getting used in some other dish. Well, that happened again! This actually started out as "What's-in-the-fridge-that-needs-cooked-and-would-taste-good-in-a-stew?" Stew. After I started throwing things into my dutch oven, Adam came into the kitchen and asked me what I was making. I spouted off some combination of words that resembled: "Jambalaya rice stew with green bell peppers and corn" .... He looked at me and said, "Well it smells good...smells like stuffed bell peppers....looks like stuffed bell peppers!" Stuffed Bell Pepper Stew was born. Obviously, you can adjust the ingredients to match what you like in your bell peppers, but here's what was in my stew tonight! 1 (or 1.5) lb ground beef 1 box Jambalaya rice mix (mine is f...

It's been almost a year since I've updated my blog, but here's a good reason for that: As you can tell, he's cute, and he's a handful. :) Anywho, to start posting on my blog more frequently, I'm starting out by posting this recipe so I never have to dig through my email to look for it!! :D A friend of mine gave me this recipe with a bag of starter about 5 years ago, and I've shared it with many friends.  I've had a bag of starter in my freezer, and I've decided it's time to make it again! :D If you don't have a bag of starter around, just put 1/3 cup milk, 1/3 cup flour, and 1/3 cup sugar in a gallon-sized freezer bag (like these on Amazon). Here are the instructions! I don't have a picture of the bread yet (I'm on Day 4 of my starter), but I'll upload a picture when I do! ------------- FRIENDSHIP BREAD Do NOT use any type of metal spoon or bowl for mixing. Do NOT refrigerate If air gets in the bag, ...

Happy New Year! I was looking for a recipe to use leftover ham (we had a good bit....) and I found this in my stack of recipes to try.  It's originally from a Southern Living Casseroles mini-booklet.  The only things I changed when I made it today was that I didn't have Italian bread slices to layer in the pan, so I cubed sandwich bread and sprinkled it in the pan....and I used a little more ham because I wanted to use up what we had leftover! I probably used 1 1/2 cups instead of 1 cup.  If you try it with Italian Bread slices, let me know how it is! Layered Ham and Cheese Bake 12 (3/4-inch-thick) Italian bread slices (I used 8 slices of cubed sandwich bread) 1 cup chopped cooked ham 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided 3 large eggs 2 cups milk 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1/4 teaspoon onion powder 1/4 teaspoon pepper Place 6 bread slices in a lightly greased 11x7 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with ham and 1 cup cheese. Top with remaining ...

I got home from work with absolutely nothing planned for dinner tonight....I have a FREEZER FULL of meat, but cooking a last minute dinner with frozen solid meat is hard to do. I had about a half pound of venison sausage (it wouldn't fit in the freezer haha)....so....I looked in all of my cookbooks for a quick recipe. Keep in mind, I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow, so anything that requires milk is out (making my sausage casserole a no-go tonight!) I found a recipe for Tex-Mex Fettuccine in The $7 a Meal Cookbook that sounded good and I had (almost) all of the ingredients on hand. I want to try the original recipe one day, but until I have those ingredients, here's what I'm eating right now (which is quite tasty if I say so myself!! :) ) 1/2 lb sausage (I used medium heat venison sausage) 1/2 cup chopped onion (I buy several onions at once, chop them, and freeze them in bags of 1/2c-1c measurements, so the onion becomes a quick and easy recipe addition) 1tsp ...

Quick reminder...my Etsy Shop Giveaway ends tomorrow at midnight CST, so go enter now !! :) :) It's dinner time! What are you cooking/ordering/warming up? Tonight, we tried out The Krazy Coupon Lady's crock pot recipe and it's delicious! I put my chicken on top of spinach and Swiss cheese ((yum)) and made honey-baked carrots and sweet potato fries to go with it! Both are super simple to make and only take about 30 to prepare and cook!! WENDY'S FAVORITE BAKED SWEET POTATO FRIES Wash, peel, and slice sweet potatoes. Place on an aluminum foil covered cookie sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the fries, then sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until crispy (but not burnt!) HONEY BAKED CARROTS Put carrots in a baking dish, cover with water, drizzle honey over the top, and bake in a 350 oven for 15-20 minutes. Let me know if you've got any delicious recipes we need to try! If you followed my blog about 6 months ago, you might remem...

Adam saw a recipe for Corn Flake Chicken on the box of Corn Flakes at my parents house, an he's been craving it ever since. The boxes at my grocery store didn't have the recipe printed on the side, so I googled it and found the recipe on Kellogg's website (http://www2.kelloggs.com/RecipeDetail.aspx?id=1058). Of course, we made changes... I made some delicious bake ranch chicken a few weeks ago, so we sort of mixed the two recipes into one. Here's the final (healthier!!) recipe! • Chicken (I had 2 chicken thighs, so roughly a pound of chicken...since I was I only cooking for two people. • 1 1/2 cup corn flakes • 1 egg (I recently heard that flax seed and water can be an egg sub..let me know if you know anything about that because that would make this even healthier!) • 1/2 cup milk • 1/2 cup white wheat flour • pinch of salt, pinch of pepper • 1 1/2 tbs Ranch dressing powder (the kind that comes in a packet. I bought a big bottle of it at Sam's and I...

On a plate, layer the following.... 1.Graham cracker 2.Un iced chocolate cupcake with the wrapper off 3.Chocolate fudge (I had some Ghiradelli peppermint chocolate fudge in the fridge...perfect) 4.marshmallows! Minis would probably be easier to stack, but I just had regular sized ones, so I only needed one. Put in the microwave and microwave at 5 second intervals for 20 seconds. If you do all 20 seconds at once, you might be cleaning out your microwave later... Eat with a fork!!! Or, if you're going to embrace the stickiness, just eat it! :)

Raise your hand if you've made this before!! I've heard of it a lot, and never remembered to actually buy the squash while I was at the store....well that changed today! :)  I made this (and sauce to go with it), and it's PERFECT without sauce! So...I'll be saving that for another day! :) The recipe I found was from Emeril Lagasse, figured I couldn't go wrong there! :) (The link is embedded in the picture below if you want to open it in a new window! :) ) And....to help you out, I've included pictures because I had NO IDEA what this was supposed to look like while I was cooking it!! :) Spaghetti Squash, ready to be cut! :) Cut lengthwise! (Looks like a pumpkin inside!)   Placed facedown in a baking dish. (I put about 2 cups of water in the dish and it was perfect). After baking facedown, flipping, baking some more, and taking out to cool, scoop out the seeds just like you would a pumpkin or a butternut squash.  This is what it looks like whe...

I've been meaning to make this for days...and finally remembered to!! :) They're cooking in the oven right now, and they already smell great!! The original recipe is from a book my in-laws gave me for my birthday: 1 Mix, 100 Muffins. My friend Callie and I changed up the recipe a little to make it healthier....here's our version!! • 2 cups white whole wheat flour (by the way, I was very happy when I saw that this was the same price as regular white flour!!) • 1 tbsp baking powder • 1/8 tsp salt • 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (see below for how to make your own) • 1/2 cup brown sugar • 2 large eggs • 1 cup milk • 1/3 cup applesauce with cinnamon • 15oz can of pumpkin purée Mix everything (I'm never picky about mixing wet ingredients separate from dry....oops!) and pour into cute muffin wrappers in a muffin tin. Pour any extra into a sprayed loaf pan for a little loaf of bread. Bake at 400* for about 18-20 minutes! Cool slightly and drizzle a yummy glaze of powdere...

I've been on pinterest lately....a lot haha! One thing I came across that really caught my eye was batch cooking (particularly for the crockpot). The idea is that you prepare and freeze several meals in one day so that when you have a busy day, you can start it off by plopping a bag full of ingredients in the crockpot and forget about it. As Adam and I taste test them, I'll write them up here with any helpful suggestions for the recipe! Honey Garlic Chicken Modified from thekrazycouponlady.com/2011/09/07/crock-pot-freezer-meals-im-sharing-my-recipes • About one pound chicken breasts • 3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped • 1 teaspoon dried basil • 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce • 1/2 cup ketchup • 1/3 cup honey Add all of the ingredients to a gallon size freezer bag (depending on the size of the chicken, a quart size bag could work). Cook in the crock pot either on high for 3-4 hours or on low 6-8 hours. This was really good! We cooked it longer than we wanted to......

8 oz almond milk 1 banana 1/2 cup frozen blueberries 1/2 cup oatmeal 1 tbs honey Blend, and enjoy! You could also add in 2 tbs flaxseed, but I forgot! :)