By Santee Ross, University of Montana

Spring weather in Wyoming and I’ve even found here in Montana, is random. One minute it will be nice and sunny, the next it’s snowing. But for those fleeting windows of time when the sun is demanding an afternoon nap and the grass is a welcoming bed, spring weather in the Rockies is beautiful.

Here in Missoula people are starting to stay outside longer by taking walks by the river and playing ultimate frisbee. I’ve never understood the concept of ultimate frisbee. It’s a piece of plastic that flies like ten feet when you throw it, doesn’t get more ultimate than that.

Anyway, all the smiling people and the good weather lately has got me wanting to go on a picnic. I mean an actual picnic, not the kind of picnic where you grab fast food and sit by the river. I want to pack the food in advance, take a nice hike somewhere and enjoy the spoils of my kitchen with some friends. And by spoils I mean what my college-kid budget will allow me to cook.

So this week’s Rez Recipes will be for a picnic kind of day with frybread and wojapi. They are items that are easy to pack and if by the time you eat them they’re cold, they still taste good. Let’s get started.

Frybread:

Now I know there are many different ways to make frybread and every tribe has their own style. So this is a disclaimer asking you to please don’t crucify me for the way I make frybread. This is the way I was taught and if you got your own way, it’s wrong--jokes. Seriously though I’m kidding. You can make frybread the way you were taught--it’ll just be yucky. Kidding again. Now let’s get started.

What you’ll need:

• 2 cups of Bluebird Flour
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• 1 cup of water
• Shortening to fry it in

So what you do is:

• Combine the flour and baking powder in a big bowl. Then you add the water and mix it all up. I like to keep flour nearby so if it gets too sticky I can flour that baby up.
• In a big frying skillet put a lot of shortening to fry up your dough. You want enough to fry in but not so much that your dough is drowning because then it won’t cook.
• You also have to have a feel for the right temperature to fry at. You want that perfect golden frybread. For my oven at home it’s the fourth dial between medium high and high.
• Now you knead out your dough, work it into a circle and poke a hole in the middle. You fry it up on both sides and voila, you got awesome frybread.

Again this was the way I was taught and there are millions of different ways to make frybread. I have family that add milk instead of water, they add eggs, they add yeast, they add sugar or they fry it up in oil. There are just so many ways to make frybread. You could even go the real urban Indian way and go to Walmart to buy the Woodenknife frybread mix but be prepared for some serious teasing.

Wojapi:

Otherwise known as the greatest thing invented since chocolate. For the Lakota you can’t have frybread without some Wojapi to dip it in. Wojapi is basically chokecherries that have been turned into a sugary delight.

What you’ll need:

• 2 cups of fresh chokecherries you went out into the wilderness to pick- jokes. Actually any kind of berries work here but chokecherries are traditional. The berries can be fresh or frozen.
• Water
• ¾ cup of sugar
• 3 tablespoons of cornstarch

So what you do is:

• In a saucepan add your choke cherries, sugar and a ¼ cup of water. Stir this all up and bring it to a boil.
• While you’re waiting for it to boil you can add in a small cup or bowl of cornstarch and a ¼ cup of cold water. Mix this all up so that there are no clumps.
• So when your chokecherries are boiling you slowly add the cornstarch mix. Stir it around gently and let it simmer for a couple minutes.
• When it’s pretty thick you can remove it from the stove and enjoy. If it’s too thick you can always add water to thin it out.

Frybread and Wojapi are a perfect picnic combination. They can be eaten while on your hike or after, or both is how I prefer eating my picnic meals.

Tip: My frybread is the best. Kidding. Guys I’m just kidding.

Santee Ross (Hopi/Lakota) is from Lander, Wyo.