How Did We Miss This in South Dakota?!

We’re in South Dakota tonight for this week’s stateside meal adventure. As we mentioned in a previous post, the Mount Rushmore State was one of Miss A’s favorite places to visit this past summer – and now it just might be her favorite cooking destination too. The South Dakota Peach Kuchen has been a hit on our breakfast plates this week and tonight South Dakota’s official state food, Fry Bread, was also a big winner.

South Dakota Fry Bread can be served as a main dish with taco toppings or as a dessert/snack with cinnamon and sugar. Of course we tested both options! Our taco toppings are courtesy of Laura at Manna & Quail who posted her Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos recipe last night. Thank you Laura! This recipe truly saved us a ton of time tonight (Seriously dinner was done and cleaned up by ten after six!), and it was just the healthy topping we needed.

We prepared the slow cooker recipe around 11 a.m. this morning and then went about our day. At around 1 p.m. we began to thaw the frozen dinner rolls in a greased muffin tin.

Once thawed, about 3-5 hours later, roll the dough into 6-inch circles. Now they are ready to fry or place on the griddle. We fried six of the dough circles in oil in a heavy skillet and cooked the remaining six on a greased griddle. Since the griddle makes this a much healthier meal, we figured that we’d test out the taste difference between the two cooking methods. If frying the dough, once the circles are golden brown, remove and drain on paper towels. For either methods it’s helpful to keep the cooked fry bread warm in the oven while cooking the remaining dough. Now, that’s it! They are ready to serve.

The taco toppings were perfect for the fry bread and truthfully we couldn’t tell a difference between the fried ones and those that were cooked on the griddle. They were equally delicious. Dad, Mr. N and I all helped ourselves to seconds and Miss A devoured her first serving.

As for the dessert, we have another winner on our hands. The cinnamon sugar was delicious and a nice contrast to the taco toppings. The fried version, however, was better this time.

Tonight’s dinner comes highly recommended. It’s very easy, very fast and very tasty. And if you opt to use the griddle, it’s also healthy. Tonight got 3 spoons all around. Maybe even a 4 from Miss A who was chanting, “I need more sugar! I need more sugar!”

Print this recipe: South Dakota Fry Bread

Hail, South Dakota

Miss A is at the helm again! Not only are we touring the culinary delights of Russia at Miss A’s request, but it’s also her turn to pick our stateside adventure. This past summer we took our western road trip which included South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. South Dakota was easily one of Miss A’s favorite spots from meeting “Cornelius” at the Corn Palace in Mitchell (with whom she has a definite love/hate relationship – she loves to talk and giggle about him, hates to see him), to the peeking prairie dogs in Custer State Park and to “hikin’ it” in the Badlands. So it came as no surprise to us that Miss A chose the Mount Rushmore State this week, and we’re all happy she did.

Today we all spent the afternoon in the kitchen baking up several different dishes, including the South Dakota Peach Kuchen. The Kuchen is the official dessert of South Dakota – making it an obvious (and delicious) choice. We adapted this recipe from Midwest Living Magazine. Continue reading