Navajo Fry Bread

 This is my latest favorite recipe for Navajo Fry Bread, not what I use for the topping though

Fry Brhttps://lilluna.com/homemade-indian-fry-bread/ead Recipe

By: Kristyn Merkley

This easy Fry Bread Recipe uses just 4 ingredients and fries up golden and bubbly with a soft, tender center that can be served sweet or savory.

Servings: 8

Prep: 20minutes mins

Cook: 4hours hrs 5minutes mins

Total: 4hours hrs 35minutes mins

Equipment

crock pot

Ingredients 

Bean Topping

▢2 cups dried pinto beans, rinsed and drained or 3 (16-ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained)

▢water

▢2-3 slices bacon, chopped and cooked

▢1 pound ground beef, cooked and drained

Bread

▢2 cups all-purpose flour

▢1 tablespoon baking powder

▢1 teaspoon salt

▢1 cup hot water, (130 degrees F)

▢vegetable oil, for frying

Other Toppings

▢shredded lettuce, sour cream, chopped tomatoes, sliced avocados, shredded cheese

Instructions 

Place rinsed dried beans in a slow cooker and cover with water. Cook on low for 4–5 hours, or until beans start to become tender.

Add bacon pieces and ground beef to the slow cooker and continue to cook on low for an additional 1-2 hours, or until beans are fully tender. (To make the bean topping using canned beans, combine canned beans, cooked ground beef, and cooked bacon and cook in a slow cooker on low for 2 hours. Set aside.)

Make the bread: Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add hot water and mix with your hands until a dough forms (dough should be a little sticky). Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 200°F. Fill a large saucepan with 1-2 inches of oil and heat over medium-high heat to about 350°F.

Divide the dough into golf-ball-sized pieces, about 1½ to 2 inches wide. On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin or pastry roller to roll each piece into a 6 to 7-inch round, about ¼ inch thick. Thinner dough will be crispier, while slightly thicker dough will stay softer in the center. For a more rustic shape and bigger bubbles, gently stretch the dough with your hands instead. NOTE: Cut or poke a small hole in the center of each piece before frying to help it stay flatter.

Working in batches, fry each dough piece in hot oil until the dough is golden and puffs up, about 20 seconds, then flip and fry on the other side for 10-20 seconds more. Set on a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Transfer the fried bread to a paper towel-lined plate briefly to drain, then place on a wire rack set over a baking sheet in a 200°F oven. Avoid stacking the pieces so they stay crisp.

Spread beans over fry bread, top with any other desired toppings, and serve warm.

Notes

Perfect frying. Make sure your oil stays at a consistent temperature of about 350°F. If the temp is too low, the bread will be tough. If it is too hot, the outside will burn before the inside cooks through.

Soak the beans. To lessen the amount of gas in the beans, soak dried beans in a large bowl of water for 8-12 hours (or overnight). Drain and rinse beans before use.

Serving suggestions. We feel this fry bread is best served with beans, but for a sweeter version, you can also skip the savory toppings and serve it with powdered sugar and/or honey.

Make ahead. Mix up the dough and store in a resealable plastic bag for 1-2 days in the refrigerator or portion the dough into 1.5-2 inch balls and flash freeze.  When ready to fry, remove from the refrigerator or freezer and let the dough come to room temperature. Fry according to recipe instructions. 

 Nutrition

Serving: 1g, Calories: 450kcal, Carbohydrates: 55g, Protein: 24g, Fat: 14g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 6g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 44mg, Sodium: 374mg, Potassium: 1021mg, Fiber: 8g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 2IU, Vitamin C: 3mg, Calcium: 136mg, Iron: 5mg

The Richins Family Spudnuts

 Welene Richins and her family lived in our ward in Las Vegas. Every October they make Spuduts on a Saturday—LOTS of them, They deliver them to family and friends. They invite people to come and help. They have special shirts and jobs.

Gary Richins passed away and then Welene sold their home and moved to Logandale, Nevada. I will add pictures from when we have gone to Spudnut Day.

Cheeseburger Chowder

 We found this recipe from the November 1999 The Friend magazine and love it.  Here is the link to the recipe in The Friend: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/friend/1999/11/kitchen-krafts?lang=eng

Cheeseburger Chowder

1 pound (.45 kg) lean ground beef

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 cup coarsely shredded carrots

1/4 cup chopped onion

5 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 can (10 1/2 ounces/298 g) beef broth

5 cups milk

2 cups peeled, diced potatoes

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1. Brown the ground beef in a large kettle; drain off the grease. Add the celery, carrots, and onion; cook until tender.

2. Stir in the flour and salt. Then add the beef broth, milk, and potatoes, and bring just to a boil. Reduce the heat to low; simmer and stir for 5–10 minutes or until the potatoes are done.

3. Turn off the heat, add the cheese, and stir until it melts.

We usually use powdered milk and beef base rather than fresh milk and beef broth.  That lets you use as much water with beef base as needed to cook the potatoes and you can boil it without worrying about scalding the milk.  Then you mix double strength milk in water and add that, it will cool it enough to add the cheese without it being so hot that it curdles the cheese.

Zucchini Cake

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but I know and trust anything that comes from the kitchens of these women, my friends. It was posted on Whitney Montenegro's facebook page.

Mulligan Stew

 Boil 3 cups water drop 1 lb hamberger into boiling water add 3⁄4 tsp salt and 1⁄4 tsp salt. Add 1

onion chopped. Turn to simmer and dice 1 cup carrots, 1 cup celery and 2 cups potatoes.

Add to soup. Add extra water to cover top of potatoes. Cook until tender. Thicken with 1 1⁄2

cup cold water mixed with 1⁄2 cup flour. Let come to a boil to check thickness. Can add

more flour/water mixture if desired. Add 2 cups frozen green peas. Add more salt and

pepper if desired.

Stir let simmer until peas are hot. Serve with sour cream if desired.

A Really Good Pumpkin Cake (aka Gordon's 3rd Birthday Party Cake)

Beat together

 3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups pumpkin puree (if it's watery fresh pumpkin or if it's not watery pumpkin 2 cups and 1 cup of the drained pumpkin juice, if you use canned pumpkin you may want to add a bit of liquid)

Add:
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger (or about 2 teaspoons fresh ginger)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir together (sift if you want):
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder

Mix flour mixture into wet ingredients.

Pour into cake pan and bake at 350 for 35-40 min or in muffin or baby bundt pans and cook shorter time.

Aria originated this recipe for Gordon's 3rd birthday celebration in Hawaii and we repeated it when they came for Thanksgiving (2025).

Aria says it's Gordon-approved when made it with cream cheese frosting. I sprinkled Trader Joe's pumpkin spice pumpkin seeds on top of the the batter before cooking and it was delightful. These are only available seasonally, make sure you pick up extras in October. They are also wonderful in my cabbage/apple/pomegranate salad and sprinkled on pumpkin pancakes batter before you flip the pancakes.

I planned to have the cake for dinner after we picked up Gordon and family from the airport. I also taught seminary that morning so I made a double batch to have it for seminary.  When we tried it the texture was off ...  Kim thought is was still raw ... it wasn't ... I just forgot to add the leavening.  

So I re-made a double batch, this time with the leavening agents and it worked out better. They were a hit at seminary.

When Spencer tried the first batch he thought it still tastes great and said it's almost like the texture of a pumpkin fudge.

Crustless Ham Quiche

 

Crustless Ham Quiche

 8 oz cubed ham (1cup)

½ pound fresh mushrooms

2 tbl butter

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 cup small curd cottage cheese

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

¼ cup flour

½ cup diced onion

1/3 cup milk

2 cups shredded gouda or guyere cheese

¼ tsp salt

4 tabasco drops

 

Saute mushrooms in butter iuntil tender. Drain, set aside. In a bowl, combine eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, parmesan, ham flour and milk. Saute onions in butter and add to the bowl. Also all the mushrooms. Add gouda cheese ,salt and tobacco.

 

Pour into a 10in porcelain pie plate, greased

Bake 325 for 45 minutes (until knife comes out clean)

Let stand 4 min before cutting.

 

For a 9 x13 casserole dish 1 ½ times the recipe bake 1 hour or more.

Can be made the night before and baked. In the morning put foil over pan and warm in oven on 200 or 250 degrees for 40minutes or longer