Yumminess in a pan

                      Crumb-Topped Apple Slab Pie

Want an Apple pie with a twist? I decided to try this after weeks of oohing and awwing over the recipe. Let me tell you....IT WAS WORTH IT! My brothers couldn't get enough, sneeking peices here and there, 'till it was...gone! I love baking and cooking, always trying new recipes, and experimenting with the ones I have, in order to better fit my taste. I am by no means an expert, but what I do, I love doing. This is what makes life fun, making ordinary daily life tasks and skills, and turning them into a project of sorts, something to be looked at with the expectation of discovery and yes, sometimes failure, but never giving up hope; overcoming the difficulty. (I really don't know why I wrote all this, I think I have bottled my little writing fingers to long over ordinary school assignments, without the opportunity for fun, poetic, sometimes even random writings, that let my thoughts and feelings vent, and reel. So, now I will stop, and you can finally get to the afore said recipe. Enjoy! :)



     Ingredients

• 2 1/4
  cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4
  teaspoon salt
• 2/3
  cup butter-flavored shortening
• 8 - 10
  tablespoons cold water
• 2/3
  cup sugar
• 1/3
  cup all-purpose flour
• 1
  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 1/2
  pounds tart cooking apples (such as Rome Beauty or Granny Smith), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (10 cups)
• Crumb Topping

Directions

1. Line a 15x10x1-inch baking pan with 18-inch-wide foil, extending the foil up over the edges of the pan; set aside. For dough: In a large bowl, stir together the 2-1/4 cups flour and the salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the cold water over part of the flour mixture; gently toss with a fork. Push moistened dough to side of bowl. Repeat, using 1 tablespoon cold water at a time, until all of the flour mixture is moistened. Using your fingers, gently knead the dough just until a ball forms.

2. Preheat oven to 375F. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 19x13-inch rectangle. Wrap it around the rolling pin; unroll it into the prepared baking pan. Ease dough into the pan and up the sides, being careful not to stretch it. Trim dough to 1/2 inch beyond edge of pan. Fold dough edge over and flute as desired.

3. In an extra-large bowl, combine sugar, the 1/3 cup flour, and the cinnamon; add apples. Toss lightly until apples are coated. Spoon apple mixture into dough-lined pan; spread evenly. Sprinkle with Crumb Topping (pan will be full).

4. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until apples are tender. If necessary to prevent overbrowning, cover top with foil for the last 5 to 10 minutes of baking. Cool slightly in pan on a wire rack.

5. Serve warm or cool completely. Cut into rectangles. Makes 25 servings.

From the Test Kitchen

• Make Ahead Tip To Bake Ahead:: Bake and cool as directed. Cover and let stand at room temperature for up to 24 hours; or chill for up to 3 days. Return to room temperature before serving.

Crumb Topping

Ingredients

• 1
  cup quick-cooking rolled oats
• 1
  cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2
  cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2
  cup butter
• 1/2
  cup pecans

Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir together quick-cooking rolled oats, packed brown sugar, and all-purpose flour. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until topping mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in chopped pecans.

Autumn Colors

   Changing of the season. Crazy sceduals. School. Birthdays. Ministry. Autumn leaves on the verge of changing color to vibrant hues. Crisp mornings. I love this time of year...Despite it's potential craziness. I am actually glad the school year has once again started. (I have ALOT of school, due to some doubleing-up so I can have all the needed credits for college.) Just two years away!! Yikes! The time seems to fly by when I'm not looking...
       
 I  love baking for my family and friends, and though my scedual very well might be hecktic, I still manage to find some time to do some baking.-My family might have something to say if I didn't.  So...here are some recipes I have recently mixed up. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did! :D
 

(Copied from my friends blog Sky Blue)

That would be three cups white unbleached flour, 1 3/4 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon yeast.

Add 1 1/2 cups water.

Mix gentle.  Take it easy with the stirring.  Don’t worry about how messy it is.

Leave that lumpy mess of dough in the bowl (a big bowl because the dough will rise), cover it with plastic wrap, and let it sit on your counter for 12-18 hours (don’t refrigerate).

When the painful wait is over, preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven is hot, put the pot that you’ll be cooking your bread in (with the lid on) into the oven, and let it preheat for 30 minutes.  What kind of pot?  Enamel baking ware or cast iron is ideal, but anything with a lid and a thick bottom (so the bread won’t burn) can withstand high temperatures is fine.

So.  Dump the dough onto a heavily floured surface and gently shape it into a round ball.  Transfer it to your heated pot (flour your hands, the dough will be sticky) and cook (lid on) for 30 minutes.

That’s it!  So easy!  Can you believe it?

And look:

Yum!





My dad took this one, just to show how fast it disapeared. "Put this one on your blog Kayla." He told me. :) I guess it was a success.  You can also make it gluten-free as I did for my mom in a seperate batch, by simply replacing the white flour with gluten free instead. My mixconsists of: 1 cup rice flour, 1 cup potato starch, 1/2 cup millet flour, 1 tsp. xanthan gum (found at any health food store.) Enjoy!



I have to share this with you as well. (Pinterest find)

Starbucks Frappuccino Ingredients:

• Starbucks House Blend Ground Coffee/Beans (my preference)
• 10 cups fresh coffee
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar, or sugar in the raw (both tasted the same)
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 cup of Baily’s French Vanilla Coffee Creamer
• 1/2 cup of Baily’s (optional)
• 1/2 cup of rum (optional)

Starbucks Frappuccino Directions:

• While your coffee is brewing, grab a pitcher and throw the brown sugar and white sugar in the bottom.
• When your coffee is finished pour directly into pitcher so that all of the sugar dissolves quickly, then stir.
• Add coffee creamer and stir again.
• Adding the Baily’s and rum are optional, I only did so because it was my birthday!
• Stir in the alcohol if you choose to and then stir again
• Let refrigerate overnight preferably

THis is such an easy, yummy, and cost efective coffee, when compared to going to the store and buying one. I'm always one to find a home-recipe instead of speanding the extra money. Speaking of which, I was cleaning/organizing my room, getting ready for the school year, and thinking to my self, "I'm so tired of the same old thing. I need some color, fun and rustic added to this room. So...I decided to do something about it. And to do it spending practicaly NOTHING. Did I succeed? Well, I think I spent altogether 20$ tops. Here are the results.

 This one was made from some old scrap wood-boards, in our wood pile. I managed to nail them together, (yes it is at dif. angles on pupose) and paint it. Kinda' fun huh? :)

Found this idea on pinterest, the never ending source of ideas on praticaly anything. (My awsome daddy helped me out on this one.)To make:  frame, small cable with cable clamps, clothes pins, nails, and pictures!

Okay, yeah, another pinterest idea.

 Old cork-board, burlap, wood stain, and thumb tacs, for top board.
Home-made chalk-board! wood and chalk paint! Easy-peasy!

 This is something my mom made me a long time ago, I just modified it by replacing the original ribbons and buttons, and used lace scraps instead.

 Mason jars. Need I say more?

 Pretty sun spots.

 May the Lord Jesus bless you as you follow in His steps. Have a good night! xoxo- Kayla

A recipe for you

                

Green Goddess Grilled Cheese Sandwich (Revised by Kayla's Kitchen)

based on all those gorgeous green goddesses out there…

makes 1 sandwich

Ingredients

2 slices bread (we used a whole wheat, but one filled with lots of different whole grains and seeds would be *awesome*)
2-3 tablespoons Kayla's Pesto (recipe below)
2 slices mild white melty cheese like mozzarella ( I used sharp white cheddar, AWSOME!)
handful fresh baby spinach
¼ avocado, sliced (more like 1/2 for me)
2 tablespoons goat cheese, crumbled (I didn't have it, so I didn't use it, and it was perfect antway.)
Coconut oil (and butter if you’re so inclined)

Kayla's Pesto Recipe

handful of basil

fresh garlic (3-4 cloves, depending on how much you like it. :)

1/2-1 tsp. olive oil

sharp white cheddar cheese (shredded) (or) you can use pamasian or mozzerella, whichever you choose is fine.

Blend all in food prosseser, until it is almost a paste. Whalla! Easy!

Directions

Spread about 1 tablespoon of  Pesto onto each slice of bread (2 tablespoons total, but if you’re sensitive, go light, the pesto is strong).

On one slice of bread, add 1 slice of cheese, sliced avocado, crumbled goat cheese, spinach, second slice of cheese, then top it with second slice of bread. Press together gently.

Heat 1 tablespoon coconut oil in a frying pan over medium low heat. (If you want to use butter, add it to the oil and let it melt). Add the sandwich to the oil and cook until bread is golden brown. Press down on the sandwich lightly, then flip the sandwich over and cook until second side is golden brown.

This sandwich is so good, I made it for my friend and her mom when they came over for lunch, and they loved it too. I hope you enjoy! YUM!

Just laugh :D

You've gotta have that friend that you can be completely crazy with, laugh until you cry, and just be silly. :}

 

 Ahah, and you thought I was sweet....

 

There are pay-backs i'm afraid

Wanted: 1,000$ each...for fellany in friendship

Bahahaha, just joking!

We're just really weird, taking pics, like this...

Who looks guilty here??? I thought so

Shoot em' up girls.

Ahhh...Friends....Enough said

 

...Thank you God for friends and laughter!!!

The life of love ~ and the people who share it with us

This last weekend we went to family camp up at Hartstone. Having our church family there, spending time with two of my very closest friends, my heart swells with gratitude for the amazing people God has put in my life. And that I get to share some of it with them.
   Walks in the evening up to the pond, laying in the tall, green, sweet smelling grass. Gazing up to the heavens, and watching the soft ripple of the mirror-like pond. Talking in soft tones, as if there really is something to be reverent of in that place so beautiful, you feel you have seen just a part of what heaven must be like. Sharing and confiding in friends you so trust, and listening, praying God would make you better the friend He would have you to be. I am so gratful for all that God has given to me. I pray I would become more in the likeness of Him every day, and show to those I love, just how much I love them, without letting my sin get in the way to flaunt it.
    
     Do you ever feel as I where you are so grateful and excited for what God is doing in your life, and yet so afraid you'll mess it up, and ruin the opportunites He sets before you? I don't want to live my life in fear, but rather the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control He comands us to bear. How is this body able to be at such war within itself? My spirit and soul pray and long and strive for what is right, all that is good and true and noble. But my flesh pulls against me untill I want to screem! I feel so much like Paul when He says "For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do" Romans 17:19  I just want my life to be an example of Christ in me, yet when I am at home, and my gaurd is down and I am tired or hungry or want things to go right, sometimes I fall into the pit of dispare, and the many questions of life come surfacing to the top of my mind untill i'm sure my head just might pop right off..................sigh....As I was sitting here I was praying with my bible sitting my my side. A gust of wind blew through the door onto my face, refreshing and rejuvinating me and causing me to send  a thank you heavenward. My bible page had also turned in the winds quake, and as I looked down I saw the verse Psalm 55:22 which says, "Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the rightous to be moved"
Is that coinsidense? I think not. I think that is a word from our Savior, a reminder of what to do in our time of need. I am reminded once again that trusting that He does have a plan for our lives, and He will sustain us in our weakness, if we will only call out to him in praise, in pain, in help, in love. This is what we are made for, to be in communun with our Father and to live our life in holy praise and thankfulness for His great goodness. This is what will shine through our life to show others the differense about us, if we will only let it. If we will only choose, pray, and praise. So I praise God now for His bountiful goodness, His love everlasting and redeeming, for the wonderful people He has set in my life, both to to love and be loved by. And I thank Him also for the hardship, painful though it may be, so I can become more the daughter, sister, friend, and witness He wants me to be. And, I thank Him for you. I pray that whatever you are going through, wheather it be good, hard, exciting, or heart breaking, that you would come to the arms of Jesus as your stregnth. Nothing else will sustain. In the good and bad look to Him as your guide, for without Him this life is empty. For HE LOVES YOU.

        Here are some of the things I am greatful for...............................

My Best Friend Hanna

My Best Friend Beck

My Best Friends Anna and Becky

My Litttle Sister Fathie

Wild Flowers

Misty Mornings at the Pond. (This is near our house at Lake Emily)

Fragrant Roses...just stop and smell them sometimes, you'll be glad you did.

And my Daddy. There are so many more things i'm greatful for, these are just a few to name for the thousands unamed.

    Remember Jesus Loves You and wants you to be His and then you can see the beauty in everything He's made. It's really amazing seeing things through a godly persective. So once again THANK YOU GOD!!!!!
                                                               xoxo- Kayla
    

The "Giant' hit

So....guess what? Yesterday I went with best friends, Anna, Sawyer, Becky, Shayla, and Morgan, for Becky's 15th birthday to a Giants game!!! And...Buster Posey hit a home run!!!!!! YEY!
     After going to a Dodgers game in L.A. with the family I went to Vagas with a few weeks ago, watching the Giants was a blessed change. (Not that I didn't enjoy going to the Dodgers game, I just am a born and raised Giants fan, and after watching the Dodgers play, it was a confirmation of my beliefes in the Giants.
      Incase you're wondering, yes, the Giants did win. They played the Padres with a 7-1 score. :D

Buster Posey is Awsome!

                                             

                      So...who's your favorite baseball team? Is it the Giants????

                                       Are you a fan of Buster Posey like me???

                             
 We all had so much fun, between singing way off tune in the car with Sawyer's funky upbeat music, french-fry wars at in 'n' out, (Sawyer started throwing them at Becky, who in turn threw them back at him...only I was inbetween them on the seat, and then they ran out of fry's, so they used mine as I leaned back trying not to be hit with the many flying fry's going back and forth. No success in that i'm afraid. Morgan started thowing them at me next, and you can't simply leave that alone can you?? NO. Poor beck had fry's in her hair, by the time we were done.) And then watching the Giants and Posey's home run, was so amazing. :D On the way home we were no better. Anna started a game/riddle and we were going at it and ended up playing like 7 different variations of the game. We didn't end up getting back until 12:30 at night, but the day was well worth the fatige of the night. I just love my friends :)     
      
        Been to any games lately? Have any funny story's to share? Id'e love to hear from you any time.
                                                     
                                             Blessings from our Lord,

                                                        xoxo -Kayla 

Home Sweet Home

Have you ever gone on a long...ish trip and felt like Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz when she says, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home," Towards the end of it? Well...I have.
     A friend of ours asked if I would go with her and her family to Las Vegas to be a 'nanny' to her five kids. I thought, "well why not? I love kids, and it would be fun to go to Vegas, right?" It was fun, however now that I am back, I feel as though home has never felt so good, so right, so...HOME! My own bed, my own house, my own family!
      Here's some of the stuff we did in Vegas.  After the first day of going to the pool to swim with the kids in 117 degree weather, we decided our regular scedual would be changing to fit that of the suns demand. So from then on, we understood why all the other Vegas dwellers stay up long into the night and seemingly disapeer in daylight. Ours for other reasons than to gamble the night away. It was just to hot to be out in the sun. Someone asked me if I would ever want to live there, and my answer was that, It is fun to visit, but... #1. It is WAY to hot! #2. I simply could never live in the city, nomatter how grand. I guess I'll always be a small town country girl. :D 
        Instead of trying to describe everything to you, I'll let the pictures do they're job of story-telling.

Our first moments in Vegas

The largest gold nugget in the world, weighing over 61 pounds!

This is at the Gold Nugget Casino/Hotel. We went there to see both the gold and this tank that holds sharks and fish surrounded by a swimming pool and a water tube/slide that go's through the midddle of the tank. (You can see a person sliding through in the pic)

One of the many Hotels in the city. (I was told around two million tourists come to see Las Vegas every year.)

 Eiffle Tower in the Perisian part of Vegas

Lights, lights, and yet more lights!

Bellagio Fountains

Zip lines going down the length of Freemont street. AWSOME!!!

In the Bellagio Hotel

The Amazing Coka-Cola store, where you can get a coke from any country. Unfortunatly we didn't get achance to stop there, but it sure looks fun!

 A friend of ours and, Paul Draper. He is a magician, and of course the kids love him to no end. You can check out some of his videos on you tube. :) 

   So, if you asked me if I had fun my answer to you would be yes, and I am so happy to finnally be home. What are you doing this summer??? Go anywhere fun? I'de love to hear from you by comment or email.
                                                     Blessings to you all, xoxo -Kayla