By Joy and Gene Allen
When we were kids, Dad took us to all the rodeos with two horses in the homemade rack on the truck and two in the trailer. He’d built a horse trailer that had cupboards on the side with a table that folded down from them. He always had a campfire and would cook dinner in his old Dutch ovens. Lima beans and ham hocks, fried chicken, fried potatoes and always fried bread. He mostly made them out of sourdough and we loved it with Mom’s homemade jam or honey. He fed a lot of cowboys over the years at his campfire.
2 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
3 cups hot water
3 cups cold water
1 tsp salt
½ cup oil
1 cup instant mashed potatoes (or boil and mash potatoes)
½ cup sugar
2 cups flour
Put the yeast in ½ cup very warm water mixed with the 1 tbsp of sugar, to rise.
Mix in a large bowl, hot water, salt, oil, mashed potatoes, sugar and flour. Add in cold water and mix well. Add yeast mixture and mix. Keep adding the flour and mixing until dough is soft and not sticky. Cover and let rise.
Pour enough oil in a cast iron (preferably) or Dutch oven so it’s at least an inch or two deep. Heat oil and put a piece of dough in to test the temperature. Dough should sizzle and float and turn a light golden brown. When you have the heat just right cut off a tennis ball size of dough, stretch it out until fairly thin, and put in hot oil. Cook on one side until sides are golden brown, then turn over. Be sure not to overcook. Serve with butter and jam or honey.