ANNIE
HUMPHREY
Photo/Suzanne Westerly
westwriter@earthlink.net
FryBreadLove.org
I got a call one day from my sister...she asked me to make fry bread for my niece's birthday. I couldn't tell her that I had gone into a frybread slump. About a year earlier I made a batch of bread that fried flat and tasted flat. I lost all my frybread confidence. I became a closet frozen dough fake frybread woman. I felt so bad. So, when my oldest sister called...
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she did so, not knowing that I had lost my touch...that special touch that my father's mother showed me. She didn't speak english to us and so I was instructed to follow gramma around the kitchen and watch her every move...from choosing the right bowl to mix up the dough to placing the finished bread into a bed of paper towels. I was a champ. When I was just a young teenager I did a frybread demonstration in my home ec. class in school. The bread was a hit, I was a hit. Teachers approached me about my recipe. When I went to visit my friend, her mother would call me in from playing so that I could make frybread for the family dinner. She told me "You're going to make someone a good wife." That's what many elder women believe...that making frybread is a valuable thing to bring into a marriage...a successful marriage. I became overconfident over the years and made brown paper bags full of bread for feasts in my family. I think my frybread went to my head and Creator took my gift for one year...then that call came...the call from my sister. I was reluctant, but had to agree because she had to work and didn't have time to prepare the bread in time for the Birthday dinner. I finally agreed. |
I went next door and traded a bag of commodity flour for some coffee and went to my sisters house and
carefully chose a bowl. I added the ingredients...with the image of Gramma making bread in
my mind. I was gentle and loving with my dough. I could feel it's warmth. I knew that unknowingly, my
sister added the last ingredient...LOVE. I made the bread for my sisters daughter. It was her 18th
birthday. I made enough dough to make 30 pieces of frybread and when the last piece left the pan, I had
made 60 pieces of bread. It was a sign...it was a
confirmation. When you make frybread, always, always ALWAYS remember the secret and
most important
ingredient. LOVE
Annie Humphrey 5/02