Stephanie Lucius

Stephanie Lucius of Calhoun City says her favorite time to cook is for the holidays, but she and a big group of Calhoun and former Calhoun countians also enjoy cooking for lots of Mississippi State tailgating.

A couple of her favorite tailgating dishes are burger sliders and jalapeno popper dip (to which she always adds bacon.) For an early game, she likes sausage and mushroom quiche  and sausage balls.

Stephanie Lucius

The group has their own website, Mstatetailgate.com, which was set up by Polly Davis of Sabougla. They all bring food each week and post ahead of time on the site what they are bringing so everyone can view the menu. They plan to eventually add their favorite tailgating recipes to the site, which also now features game day pictures.

An easy tailgating recipe she shared is mixing a pound of browned and drained sausage with shredded cheese and a bottle of ranch dressing, then put a spoonful of the mixture in each crescent roll triangle, roll up, and bake until brown.
Stephanie has 24 first cousins, so they “have big holiday gatherings” at her late grandparents’ house, Alto and Spencer Lucius, in Derma. The Lucius family is so big, and Stephanie commented that her grandmother had many “good taste tasters” to cook for, and they loved her ham pie.
Favorites the family expects Stephanie to bring to the Lucius and Lee Christmas and Thanksgiving meals are Rotel Potatoes, which her mother Shirley Lucius started, and also squash casserole.

Stephanie says Pina Colada Cake is a good dessert for the summertime and is one shared by her grandmother Tina May Lee. She likes to serve the cake when it’s her turn to host a New Century Club meeting. They usually have cake, nuts and something like cheese straws, or dips for their meetings. She has also made Neiman Marcus brownies and stuffed strawberries for ones in the past.

The club did a cookbook several years ago for Calhoun City’s Centennial Celebration and a second one last year for their 75th anniversary.
Stephanie’s aunt Rachel Lucius “used to make chocolate gravy for us all the time,” and Stephanie makes it, but lets someone else make the biscuits. Her favorite thing is to grill–chicken, fish, steak and veggies. She loves Pinterest for getting new recipes, saying she doesn’t always follow a recipe, and sometimes substitutes a lot.

At Calhoun City High School, the staff has a potluck meal at the end of the school year and at Christmas. For those meals she sometimes brings homemade macaroni and cheese or rice casserole, and says Coach Mike Ray usually grills tenderloin. This year she’s planning on buffalo chicken dip or jalapeno popper dip.

Burger Sliders
2 lbs. ground beef
1 (1.25 oz.)?envelope onion soup mix
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
24 Hawaiian dinner rolls, split
1/2 cup sliced pickles (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°. Cover baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Mix together ground beef and onion soup mix in large skillet; cook and stir over medium-high heat until beef is crumbly, evenly browned, and no longer pink. Drain and discard excess grease. Remove from heat. Stir mayonnaise and cheddar cheese into ground beef mixture. Lay bottoms of dinner rolls on prepared baking sheet. Spread cheese and beef mixture on bottom half of each roll. Replace tops. Cover with another sheet of aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray. Bake in preheated oven until burgers are heated through and cheese melts, about 30 minutes. Serve with sliced pickles.

Rotel Potatoes
(Shirley Lucius)
8-10 red potatoes, diced, boiled, drained, set aside
1 stick of butter, melted
1 small onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes
1 lb. of Velveeta cheese, cut in chunks
Melt stick of butter and saute onion and bell pepper. Add Rotel tomatoes, and Velveeta. Cook mixture over low heat until all cheese melts. Put potatoes in 9×13 casserole dish, cover with cheese mixture and bake at 350° about 20 minutes or until heated through.

Strawberry Cobbler
1 stick butter
1 egg lightly beaten
1 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 qts. strawberries, washed and sliced
4 oz. cream cheese, cut into small pieces
Preheat oven to 350°. Melt butter and pour into 9×13 glass baking dish. Mix egg, milk, flour, and sugar in bowl and pour directly over butter in dish; do not stir. Arrange strawberries in single layer. Sprinkle cream cheese pieces over strawberries. Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown. Can sprinkle a little sugar on top.

Ham Pie
(Alto Lucius)
1 1/2-2 cups leftover ham, cubed
1 cup carrots, sliced
2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 can sweet peas, drained
Salt and pepper
4-5 eggs, boiled and diced
Milk
Crisco shortening
In large pan, boil ham and carrots approximately 30-45 minutes, or until carrots are tender.?Reduce heat to medium high. (I?usually make sure I have 1/2 pan of water left once carrots are done.?Depending on how “soupy” you want the dish to be, you can have more or less.) In mixing bowl, stir together 2 cups self-rising flour, 1/2 tsp. salt and about 3-4 Tbsp. Crisco until blended. Add 3/4 cup milk and stir until doughy. Drop mixture into water a small spoonful at a time to make dumplings. Add peas and diced eggs. Add milk as desired to turn  broth white. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook additional five minutes until dumplings are done.

Chocolate Gravy
(Rachel Lucius)
1/4 cup cocoa
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 cups milk
1 Tbsp. butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla
Whisk cocoa, flour, and sugar together in bowl until there are no lumps. Pour milk into mixture and whisk until well incorporated. Transfer mixture to saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until  consistency is similar to gravy, 7-10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir butter and vanilla into mixture until butter is melted. Serve immediately. Great with biscuits or on white cake.

Pina Colada Cake
(Tina May Lee)
1 box yellow butter recipe cake mix
1-11 oz. can mandarin oranges (undrained)
1 cup shredded coconut (you’ll need just a little extra to sprinkle on top of cake, too)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
Frosting:
1-12 oz. container Cool Whip
1-15 oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained
1-3 1/2 oz. box instant vanilla pudding
For cake, preheat oven to 350° F. Mix all ingredients well. Pour batter equally into three greased and floured round cake pans. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool and frost. For frosting: Mix dry pudding mix and pineapple, then add Cool Whip. Frost cooled cake, and sprinkle with coconut and refrigerate until serving.

Jalapeno Popper Dip
1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese (at room temperature)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup cheddar cheese (grated or shredded)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, Romano cheese mix (grated or shredded)
1-4 oz. can jalapeno peppers, sliced
2 jalapeno peppers (chopped and diced)
1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs, plain
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese mix (grated or shredded)
1/2 cup bacon pieces
Mix cream cheese, mayonnaise, cheddar cheese, bacon, 1/2 cup parmesan and romano cheese with jalapenos in mixing bowl, mixing well, then pour into baking dish. Mix bread crumbs and  1/4 cup parmesan and romano cheese together and sprinkle over dip. Bake in a 375° oven 20-25 minutes until sides are bubbling and top is a nice golden brown. Serve with your favorite tortilla chips.

Sausage and Mushroom Quiche
1 lb. button mushrooms (small fresh)
1 lb. breakfast sausages (ground pork)
1/2 cup fresh parsley (chopped)
3 eggs
1 cup cream (half-and-half)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
9” pie crust (unbaked)
Preheat oven to 400. Prepare mushrooms by snipping off stems. Cut in half, if large. Crumble sausage in a large skillet, add mushrooms, cook on medium-high heat until meat and mushrooms are lightly browned and all the liquid from mushrooms has evaporated. Drain off grease. Add parsley. In large bowl, beat eggs, adding the cream, cheese and salt. Pour into the mushroom/sausage mixture; blending well. Pour mixture into pie shell. Bake in preheated oven 25-30 minutes, until crust is well-browned and filling is set. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Squash Casserole
4 cups sliced yellow squash
1/2 cup chopped onion
35 buttery round crackers, crushed
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. salt
Ground black pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. butter
Preheat oven to 400°. Place squash and onion in large skillet over medium heat. Pour in small amount of water. Cover, and cook until squash is tender, about five minutes. Drain well and place in large bowl. In medium bowl, mix together cracker crumbs and cheese. Stir half of the cracker mixture into the cooked squash and onions. In small bowl, mix together eggs and milk, then add to squash mixture. Stir in 1/4 cup melted butter, and season with salt and pepper. Spread into 9×13 baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cracker mixture and dot with 2 Tbsp. butter. Bake in preheated oven 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Buffalo Chicken Dip
1-8 oz. pkg. Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup Frank’s Red Hot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce or Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Wings Sauce
1/2 cup Bleu cheese or ranch dressing
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1/2 cup crumbled bleu cheese or your favorite shredded cheese
Preheat oven to 350°. Combine all ingredients in one-quart baking dish. Bake 20 minutes or until mixture is heated through; stir. Serve with crackers and/or vegetables.