MaKayla Walls

MaKayla Walls’ mother, Cindy, put her in the sink when she was little while she cooked, so she got her start in the kitchen at a very young age. She soon graduated to stirring whatever was being prepared.
A senior at Bruce High School, she now not only cooks, but cans and puts jelly up, along with peas and corn.
They are a gardening family, and “we have two of them every year,” she said.
She has always liked to cook, and has been doing it all since she was young.
“I’m very much in the kitchen, usually cooking supper twice a week, on the weekends, and helping out with a big Sunday lunch.”

“A Godly woman has three quilts in her hope chest, knows how to cook, clean, put up jellies and do canning,” was her great-grandmother’s philosophy. “And if you didn’t know by the age of 13, you were not a Godly woman,” MaKayla said.

Making homemade candy is a Christmas tradition also passed down by her great grandmother.
“In sharing with others, hospitality goes a long way,” MaKayla said, quoting her.
MaKayla’s candy making favorites are orange blossoms, peanut butter balls, reindeer bait and her version of turtles. A “Southern staple” she likes to make are sugared pecans.
“Pastries are my thing. I like to do pastries–making pies and cobblers,” she said.
With her cobblers, she has tried to find a happy medium between too sweet and too tart, “I want you to be able to taste God’s fruit,” she said.

“I have made homemade pasta before, but it is a ticky and tedious process,” she said.
She has an old fashioned pecan pie recipe that has been in their family for about two generations that she made when she was young.
MaKayla likes recipes that are one-dish.
She also hunts, and likes to cook deer meat with bell pepper, onions and gravy, and serve it with potatoes and biscuits.

“I don’t really have a favorite food. I am open to everything, ” she said.
“It’s a blessing that my daddy (David) will eat most anything,” with the exception of a salad she once prepared and put sunflower and other seeds on top. “I’m a man, not a bird,” he said.
She does not follow recipes. “I’m a dare devil and I know I’m going to change it,” she said.
“It depends on the occasion,” she said about where she does her recipe searching. She likes Pioneer Woman for every day cooking.

For a party, she usually looks at magazines for things like pasta salad and pastries, or something like garlic mashed potatoes.
“If the magazine cover looks elaborate, I check it out.” She also looks at Pinterest and cookbooks for inspiration.
There is a friendship cake “from back in the day” where you start with a fruit, and add sugar as directed. It is a two-week process, according to MaKayla, and she plans to start with strawberries.

A friend told her about a pie in a cake recipe that she also wants to make. The recipe uses a key lime pie and a lime cake.
She makes potato soup often and “you can’t have that without cornbread.”
And her inspiration for the Oreo Mint Pie was the Girl Scout Thin Mints Cookies.

Chicken Pot Pie

4 large chicken breasts cooked and deboned
3 cups mixed veggies cooked and drained
2 cups flour
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1 can cream of chicken soup OR
I take two cups broth from cooking the chicken add one chicken flavor cube and dissolve it, then mix with 2 tsp. cornstarch to make my cream of chicken.
In the large boiler you cooked the chicken in, add chicken veggies and cream of chicken. Heat and mix well. Set aside. Take flour, butter and water. Mix well. (May need to add a little water to get a dough texture.) Pour into dish. Pat out evenly on bottom and sides of dish. Pour in chicken mixture. Take 1/4 of dough that is left and roll out onto wax paper. Place in criss-cross strips on top and bake until dough is golden.

Oreo Mint Pie
8 oz. Cool Whip
4 oz. cream cheese
2 tsp. mint extract
2 Tbsp. milk
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 Oreo pie crust
6 Oreo cookies
In large bowl mix Cool whip, cream cheese, mint extract and milk for about three minutes. Add powdered sugar and mix for one minute. Put five Oreos in bag and crush into small pieces. Pour them into the mixture. Pour into the Oreo crust and spread it out evenly. Take half of Oreo cookies and crush. Sprinkle over top of the pie. Take other half and place in middle of pie. Chill and serve.

Potato Soup
4 large potatoes
6 cups water
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup real bacon bits
1 Tbsp. parsley flakes
2 tsp. cornstarch
In large boiler, add water, potatoes (cut and peeled), butter, bacon bits, parsley flakes and cook ‘til tender. With potato masher, mash into smaller pieces. Then in small cup, mix 2 tsp. of cornstarch with 1/2 cup water. Mix into soup, stir until it thickens. Serve with cornbread or crackers.

Hot Spiced Tea

2 qts. boiling water
1 tsp. whole cloves
1/2 of a cinnamon stick
5 regular tea bags
1 qt. orange juice
2 cups of sugar
2 1/2 cups apple juice
Boil the water, cloves, cinnamon for 20 minutes. Add tea bags and keep them for five minutes. Remove tea bags and add cinnamon and cloves. Add orange, lemon and apple juice and sugar. Add two drops red food coloring (your choice.) Makes one gallon.

Homemade Cornbread
1 cup cornmeal
5 tsp. olive oil
1/4 cup mayo
2 pinches pepper
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
Mix all ingredients together and preheat oven to 425°. Oil pan with 3 Tbsp. olive oil and bake until golden and brown.

Summer Salad
1 pint fresh strawberries
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 kiwi, sliced
2 bananas, sliced with plastic knife
1 can peach pie filling
Mix together fruit. Sprinkle with Fresh Fruit. Pour pie filling over fruit. Mix well. Chill and serve.
I make my pie filling: 3 cups fresh peaches, 3/4 cup water, 1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch, 1/2 cup sugar. In medium saucepan, put peaches and water. Cook until tender. Add sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves. In a cup, take cornstarch and dissolve with a little water. Stir into peaches until it thickens. Let cool to room temp.