Native American Fry Bread

I was looking for a recipe for Fry Bread on the web and found this site, Cookin' With Three Sisters which has several recipes for it. I had never heard of fry bread before my neighbors down the road told me about it and how to make it. I did try it and it was so greasy and I wasn't sure I didn't do it right. I was right, I didn't do it right. LOL I also didn't realize it was Native American fare. I made it again this morning and it certainly turned out better than the first time!  LOL 

Old Fashioned Native American Fry Bread

4 cups flour

2 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup warm water

Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add in the shortening and water. Add only enough water to make dough stick together. Knead dough until smooth, make into fist-sized balls. Cover them with a towel for 10 minutes then pat them out into circles about the size of a pancake. Fry in hot cooking oil in cast iron skillet until brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels, serve with jam.

HOT grease.... makes a BIG difference. 

What... I didn't make any changes in the recipe?  What???  Of course I did. First I cut the recipe in half, there are only three of us here. I also use 1 C white flour and 1 C whole wheat flour and use Canola oil for the shortening. I also fried it in Canola oil and olive oil. When I was making it into the balls before flattening them I was thinking it seemed a little too dry. I didn't fix it... They were a little dry but they are tasty.  OH!  I threw in some flax seed, too. I hear it is supposed to help against hot flashes...so I try to add it to things when I remember. I really did need to add more water to the dough with the wheat flour and flax seed. Yeah. 

It IS good stuff. Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. 

Chocolate Cookies

ohhhh,,,, just makes the mouth water saying what they are... Ccchhhhhooooooocolate... yeah... that's it, say it with me... cccchhhhooooooooocccolate cookies! mmmmm..

Hubby wanted me to make some chocolate cookies for him so I found a recipe. He said he likes flat cookies. So, ok, the first pan didn't turn out really flat, so the rest I flattened with a fork dipped in sugar. I found the sugar keeps the dough from sticking to the fork and making a mess of the cookie.

Chocolate Cookies The Household Searchlight Recipe Book, pg. 125 14th printing, 1941

• 6 Tbs butter or butter substitute
• 1 1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate
• 6 Tbs milk
• 1/3 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 C chopped nuts
• 3/4 C sugar 
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 1 1/8 C flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla

Melt chocolate over hot water. Cream butter and sugar. Add chocolate and egg. Mix thoroughly. Sift flour, measure, and sift with baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add alternately with milk to first mixture. Add vanilla and nuts. Mix thoroughly. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto well-oiled baking sheet. Bake in hot over (400 degrees) 10-12 minutes. 30 servings. If desired, cookies may be iced.

So... I baked them in the 400 degree oven. It was too hot and the bottoms of the cookies were pretty dark, even being chocolate. This time I turned the oven to 350 and moved the rack up to the middle of the oven. Is working great. I've been baking them for 10 minutes. The first time I made them the dough was so thin, not like cookie dough I usually make so I added some more flour. Of course, didn't add the nuts since I'm making them for hubby and he doesn't like nuts in his cookies. Silly man.

AAANNNND of course, I used cocoa instead of the chocolate squares. This time I doubled the recipe and did you know that 12 TBS equals 3/4 C?  I didn't either so looked it up on the internet. I didn't want to measure out 12 tablespoons! 9 TBS equals 1/2 C + 1 TBS. Looked that up, too. LOL 

Did you know that adding melted butter to the already mixed mixture is harder that to add it when you are supposed to add it?  Yeah!  uh-huh... I forgot to add it to the sugar and cocoa mixture. LOL  It turned out all right, anyway.  : )

Pineapple Angel-food Cake

What a lovely treat to eat and so easy to make. My sister-in-law told me how to make it years ago, and I finally made it this afternoon.

Pineapple Angel-food Cake


Pour a store bought package of angel food cake mix into a bowl. Open a can of crushed pineapple and pour it into the dry cake mix. Stir until well mixed. Pour into a greased cake pan and bake in a preheated 350  degree oven for about 40 minutes. I checked mine after 35 minutes and it wasn't quite done. When done, take it out and cool in pan.

There ya go. Now... do not do what I did. I put mine into a bundt pan, first mistake, it isn't large enough. Second mistake is when I did what it said to do on the angel food cake package and turned the pan upside down on a bottle to cool. Part of the cake fell out and the bottle, cake pan, and cake fell over onto the counter and made a crumbly cake mess. It still tastes good.  YES! Next time I will just put it into a regular cake pan.  Yeah...   : )

Pan Seared Tuna

oohhh yeah... this was good. Denny took his first bite of the tuna and he said "This turned out good!" in an excited yet soft voice. I think he was surprised. LOL

Pan Seared Tuna Recipe by Odyssey Seafood, Treasures of the Sea package of Tuna Steaks

• Tuna Steaks
• 2 Tbs mirin rice wine
• 1 Tbs squeezed lemon juice
• 2 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 Tbs minced fresh ginger
• 3 Tbs minced scallion onion
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat stainless skillet over medium high heat for 2 minutes. While the pan is preheating, rub thawed tuna steaks with 1 Tbs of lemon juice then season with salt and pepper. Cook the tuna steaks for 2 - 3 minutes on each side, depending on thickness and how rare you want your steak. Remove from pan and place on a plate. Turn the heat down to medium and add the rest of the ingredients in order given. Let them cook for one minute. Pour over the tuna steaks and serve.

And that's exactly how I did it.  OK.. you know me by now. I don't know what mirin rice wine is, I don't have it. BUT... I did happen to have a bottle of some sort of cooking wine that I had yet to open, so I opened it tonight and used that. My fresh squeezed lemon juice came from the bottle sitting in my fridge door and my minced fresh ginger came out of the jar with powdered ginger. I didn't exactly measure everything, I guestimated and poured. aaahhh.. another thing...while my tuna steaks were cooking I put everything in the measuring cup and when it came time to put it into the pan, just poured it in from the cup, including the lemon juice, since I forgot to rub it into the tuna before cooking it. 

Hey, it still turned out good! Even when I did everything wrong and backwards and all.  LOL Hubby said it was good, and he knows!