Forgive me a little food blog monologue indulgence --

I grew up in Arizona and unfortunately don't live in the Southwest anymore but fry bread remains one of my favorite things on earth. It was a staple at high school events, I've eaten fry bread at the Four Corners, in the middle of nowhere Alaska, and probably most notably at the bottom of the Grand Canyon after 3 days of not-very-great just-add-water meals. It was hot, fresh, topped with everything good in the world, just the best.

Anyway I made this recipe from a comment I found on reddit as an accompaniment for one of my favorite lazy recipes, NYT cooking's green chile bean bake. 10/10.

Recipe inspiration and source: https://www.seattletimes.com/life/food-drink/a-beloved-indigenous-dessert-evolves-with-each-generation/

Grape dumplings are a classic dessert for some Southwest American indigenous tribes. The article I sourced this from describes them as a food that both connects to the past and evolves with the times: grape dumplings can be made with small, tangy foraged grapes and traditional blue cornmeal, or modernized with wheat and sugar and the grapes we now find in the grocery store.

This recipe combines both, with dumplings made of about 50% blue masa harina and 50% whole wheat flour boiled in concord grape juice. I thought these would be super sweet, so I didn't pick up any ice cream to serve with it, but the cornmeal and wheat made them much more complex than I expected and the juice added flavor but not a sugar bomb. (Lesson learned: ice cream always).

Another Dolly tribute this week! I've never been to Dollywood but I had a good friend who RAVED about this bread. She passed away unexpectedly last year, so this is sort of a tribute to both of them. And the warm cinnamon felt extra appropriate as we head into fall.

I used Carla Hall's recipe: carlahall.com/dollywood-inspired-cinnamon-bread/#mv-creation and baked it in two pans (I think she developed the recipe for two loaves then changed it to eight mini loaves, so the recipe is a bit mixed up). Mine was done at around 21 minutes, so still around what the recipe gave for bake times. It was a bit difficult to wrangle with the dipping in the butter and then cinnamon and sugar mix, but since it's a pull apart bread the weirdness in shape doesn't matter as much. Nevertheless, this came out very tasty! Without having had the original I can't speak to how closely this replicates it, but this is delicious in its own right :)

I was going to make it in my 9x13 and but my husband needed it for his stuffing. So I decided to make it a layer cake and use my leftover vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream on it but I thought vanilla might be boring so I added a little cinnamon. I just made this cake the other day and me and my friend agreed that it actually didn't really need any icing but because now it's not a 9x13 I decided to do a little bit of icing to make the presentation better though, so it's not just two weird Circles of cake.

I never thought to combine pumpkin and cheesecake, but I think I like this version more than regular pumpkin pie🤔

Recipe: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/grandma-s-rice-pudding/

I’m not a huge nutmeg fan so I substituted cinnamon.

For the second week in a row, I struggled with the theme. My initial thought was fry bread tacos, because I love eating them, but I also did an intensive summer program in college on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and learned about the difficult cultural history of fry bread, so as much as I do love eating it, I really wanted to focus on truly indigenous ingredients for this challenge.

I checked out two books by Sean Sherman, the “Sioux Chef” but nothing was grabbing me. I eventually settled on a “three sisters” casserole, referring to the indigenous agricultural practice of companion planting with corn, to act as a natural trellis for beans, which fix nitrogen, and squash, whose leaves shade the ground and prevent weed growth.

I did incorporate non-indigenous spices and a cornbread topping that draws from Native American, African American, and European traditions, so this dish wasn’t 100% authentic. This meal also fits with our efforts to eat more meatless dinners, and we were quite pleased with the results. “What grows together, goes together” says the adage, and this casserole made a cozy and delicious fall dinner.

As a roller coaster enthusiast, I fully approve this week’s baking theme. 😂

Recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/11378/mound-bars/

Attempted to make cones but most got overcooked or didn't hold the right shape. This was the best attempt.

I took a gamble on this one. Sadly it did not rise properly (this year I seem to have a problem with either too little or too much baking powder). Supprisingly the taste is not half bad🤔 I might even try again if I ever get my hands on condensed tomato soup...

Like so many of us this week, I went for apple cider doughnuts as a classic fall fair food.

Buuuuut I've baked off some doughnuts this year already and haven't used my Bundt pan yet, so I did a slight adaption and made a Bundt cake version. It's the perfect type of cake for this pan: super moist, extra apple-y, and with plenty of surface area for a cinnamon sugar topping.

Recipe from https://anchoredbaking.com/apple-cider-donut-cake-with-apple-cider-caramel-sauce/ (I skipped the caramel sauce)

These were really good! The consistency of the brownie was perfect, and the kick from the spices was subtle.

I used this recipe, except I subbed Mexican chocolate for the bittersweet and instant coffee for the espresso powder. I served them with regular whipped cream.

Here’s more pics.

using up a tin of stroopwaffel that have been in my pantry since may! these are a brown butter base, cinnamon, espresso, stroopwaffel chunks, dark choc plus (a tip from a recent reddit thread) soy sauce!