My favorite recipes

Carla Hall doesn’t have just one home town. As a minister’s daughter, she grew up in several towns, including Spokane, Selah, Kellogg and Moses Lake where she graduated from high school. Colfax is truly the place she calls home because she has lived here for 24 years.

Carla met Dean at church family camp at Deer Lake. Dean taught her and many other kids to water ski. They saw each other every year at camp becoming very good friends. After many years of friendship, they decided to see if there was something deeper and there was. They married a few months later.

Carla attended Northwest Nazarene University and worked in church ministry after graduating. She was a youth pastor in Albany, Ore., for four years after college and then moved to Portland where she worked for Portland Inner City Ministries for the Church of the Nazarene. Her project was starting a girls’ home.

“It was a crazy experience,” Carla notes. “It builds the heart.”

Music has always been important in Carla’s life. A member of Crusader Choir at NNU, she toured Europe and sang in cathedrals with amazing acoustics. She sang in the Washington-Idaho Symphony Chorale before the Chorale became the Palouse Choral Society. Now she serves as the music director, also known as the worship director, at Colfax Church of the Nazarene.

The Hall clan has a variety of musical talents. Carla also plays flute and Dean sings bass. Carmen plays flute (self-taught) and saxophone, Cacey plays saxophone and piano, Dylan plays trumpet and Dane plays drums and is learning songs on piano by ear.

Carla's mother is a pianist who was in a traveling quartet in college and her father, who passed away about a year ago, played guitar.

Carla has worked for more than 20 years for the Council on Aging. The council has experienced many changes and a restructuring is in process now. The council’s services help to keep people in their own homes.

“I love being part of that,” Carla said.

Some of the services provided by Council on Aging include referrals for caregivers, transportation, food bank, nutrition program, congregate meal sites, mobile meals and Ensure for clients who need extra nutrition.

The big news is that the food bank is moving from the basement space they have occupied for some time to the former CETC building. Volunteers and staff appreciate a little more space and working above ground. The shelving that has been donated and purchased for food storage will be moved to the new site.

Having just one sister, Carla had a huge but happy transition to Dean Hall’s big family. Dean has five brothers, three step-brothers, two sisters and four step-sisters. They are like a small town when they gather for reunions and celebrations. In late June, Dani Rusch’s wedding was also a mini-reunion for the Hall family.

Dean and Carla have two daughters, Carmen and Cacey, attending Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa. Carmen is also working as a teller. Cacey is now dating the son of one of Carla’s college classmates. Carla’s mother and sister both live in Nampa and her sister works at NNU in the financial aid office.

Dylan and Dane are still at home and it is quieter without the girls. Dylan enjoys track and field but no longer wrestles. Dane is another in the long line of Hall wrestlers.

Carla’s mother taught her to bake and she really prefers baking to cooking. So she learned to prepare the sweets at home, while Dean taught her to make mashed potatoes and gravy. Dean even ate her first overcooked grilled steaks, which she described as “crunchy” with a smile. Classifying herself as a “simple cook,” she ascribes her style to having four children and a job.

Life is busy and good with boys participating in sports and band, family to visit in southern Idaho including her beloved grandchild, Jayden, a lot of family here and a job that she loves.

Recipes:

Chicken Enchiladas

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 pint sour cream

2 cans green chiles

2 cups boiled or cooked diced chicken

Stir these four ingredients together and heat.

10 medium size flour tortillas

3 cups grated Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Fill the tortillas with the chicken mixture, put in a greased baking pan, and pour the rest of the mixture on top. Sprinkle grated cheddar over enchiladas.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 30-40 minutes, until heated clear through.

Chicken Pot Pie

1/3 cup margarine

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup chopped onion

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 3/4 cup (or 1 can) chicken broth

2/3 cup milk

2 cups cut-up cooked chicken

1 10-ounce package carrots/corn/beans or any combo you like

3-4 medium potatoes, diced and boiled

Boil potatoes while making sauce. When potatoes are nearly done, stir in veggies.

Make sauce by melting margarine over low heat. Blend in flour, onion, salt, and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly, then remove from heat. Stir in broth and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir one minute.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Stir chicken and vegetables into sauce. Place pie crust in large pie plate, pour chicken mixture in, then top with second crust, cutting vents in top crust. Seal and flute edges.

Cook uncovered at 425 degrees F for 30-35 minutes.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bars

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup mashed bananas, about 2

1 cup chocolate chips (6 ounce package)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Cream together shortening, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and egg. Blend in banana and then flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread batter evenly in greased and floured 10 1/2” x 15 1/2-inch jelly roll pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and beginning to pull away from sides of pan. Cool. Cut into 30 bars.

Banana Bread

1/2 cup margarine

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 ripe bananas

1 teaspoon soda

2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 275 or 300 degrees F.

Put ingredients together in order given. Pour batter into greased loaf pan. Bake in slow (275 to 300 degrees F) oven for 1 1/4 hours.