Making Fry Bread

Not in the sense that I actually made it. It was in my dream, but it was no ordinary dream (as most dreams I remember usually aren't- ask hubby).  I was reading a few articles from my Bro-In-Law on another networking site and I think some it stuck when I went to bed.  That and I rewatched making fry bread with the lady from the Ojibwe tribe that posted a video on Youtube.

I found myself - in the dream - grabbing a ton of flour, salt, baking powder and mixing it in a bowl.  I did the unheard of and cleared out our oven to use.  Backstory in real life: our oven is never used. Why? We have super SUPER sensitive fire alarms in the kitchen and the numbnuts who thought it was a good idea to put the main heat sensor for the grounded alarms in the kitchen placed it about a foot away from a heat source on the ceiling.  Hence open the oven door for juuuuust too long and WHAM! EEH! EEEH! EEEH! EEEH! (alarm sounds that can bust an eardrum, I'm sure my deafness is enhanced because of them). So, ever since our oven has remained a storage area for all our pots and pans respectively.

But in the dream I cleared the oven out of all the clutter and cranked it on. I started to make dough balls, sectioning off and measuring what was going to be used for what. I brought out my marble rolling pin and began rolling out sizes of tortillas, pita bread and fry bread (but in the dream everything was baked). 

At one point our small galley kitchen (I'm not kidding, it's the size of a closet) filled with women from the fry bread video and more. We laughed and got our hands messy from mixing and patting out dough, and talking about fry bread. It was really that old school, tribal kind of feel- you know, where all the women gather around and just cook and do stuff together. If I could put a feeling along with that image in my mind, it's a good kind of thing.

What was really cool about this dream was that the ladies were talking about their traditions and stories that were passed down from generation to generation. Sadly, I can't remember any of them, but I remember in the dream that I kneaded away while listening enthralled by what they were telling me. It was so cool, it was so natural in the dream to be hanging out and chatting away with the women tribal members.

"Got enough dough there? You have enough to feed the whole tribe."
My response, "I hope so!"

I think I'm going to make fry bread soon. Have a cast iron pan that I want to break in, and fry bread would be a great inception into the oil world of fried foods.

And on another level, I miss going to PowWows that I used to go to as a teenager. When Mom, Dad and I packed up for the family vacation for Wisconsin, it was always perfect timing that a Pow Wow from one of the tribes was going on. I dragged Mom and Dad to any and all of them that I could get my hands on. All of them were great experiences, where I sat down to chat with people and ate some really cool stuff (my first taste of venison, if I remember correctly).

I mourn the time when I got rid of virtually everything I had bought from the Pow Wow's and my visits to Wisconsin because I was trying to downsize the clutter I had in my life. Worst mistake ever. I'm just going to have to get the things I lost all over again, from baskets, shawls, jewelry, feather fans and beaded moccasins. Believe me when I say this, I had a lot of awesome stuff.  I just wish that we could take a trip to Wisconsin now and again with hubby and son (my folks are there too) but the economy in our lives wont allow it. Not yet anyway.

Rhode Island is very much like Wisconsin in many respects, so at certain bends in the road I feel closer to the things that I have come to know and love because they are very familiar. It's very much a comfort.

I guess you can say I'm feeling very tribal for the day. Thanks to the dream and the mood of the day, I have a feeling this is going to be a good day.