Apple Strudel and My Wonderful Mentors

It's been a couple months now since Kristen at Dine and Dish launched the second round of Adopt-a-blogger, an event that pairs experienced bloggers with newbies (like me). I had the wonderful luck to be adopted by Giz and Psychgrad over at Equal Opportunity Kitchen, a blog that I had already come across and admired as one of the heavyweights in foodie blogging.


Giz and Psychgrad blog as a mother-daughter team, switching off or sometimes writing entries together. Their goal, as they put it, is to create a "living" cookbook, with colour commentary. (Yes "colour" looks strange to American readers, but we'll give them a break because they're blogging from Canada where "color" probably looks strange, or at least American.) They're not kidding when they say "Equal Opportunity". One of the great things about their blog is the diversity of recipes they post about, everything from the basic pasta, cakes and cookies, to the exotic Sri Lankan Red Shrimp Curry, and the daring homemade pizza dough. And speaking of daring, Daring Bakers is one of the many events all over the culinary blogosphere that Psychgrad and Giz bravely participate in.


It's no surprise then that this week, still overrun with apples from my CSA, after two apple-pear pies, and who knows how many batches of apple-walnut muffins, I decided to head over to Equal Opportunity Kitchen for some new inspiration. I went back to September (beginning of apple season), where I had bookmarked Giz's Apple Strudel. I didn't have phyllo dough so I made my basic pie crust, rolled it out and cut it into quarters which I wrapped around the filling. I also substituted sliced almonds for the walnuts, just based on what I had in my pantry. These strudel-inspired mini pies were delicious! I definitely suggest you check out the original recipe especially if, like me, you don't know what to do with all your apples!


Which I'm on the subject of Psychgrad and Giz, they have given me an award:



I would like to pass it on to Camille at Croquecamille, Nina Timm over at My Easy Cooking, and Ivy at Kopiaste (a blog I discovered thanks to World Food Day), all of whose photos of recent recipes have had me sitting in front of my computer muttering "yum yum, yum yum." (Yes, like a crazy person, I know.)

Speaking of Camille, I also received an award from her (I feel so showered with blog-love!):


Which I will pass right along to my mentors, did I mention they're awesome?

As well as to Alex Rushmer over at Just Cook It, whose blog truely is excellent: the man makes his own charcuterie for goodness sake. He is afraid of nothing, plus his descriptions will make you laugh (or possibly never eat pâté again, or both).

Also to Sam over at Antics of a Cycling Cook, whose blog I've been following for quite some time now and love just as much as when I first started reading it.

And to Apples and Butter, a relatively new blog with delicious recipes and wonderful photos, both exotic and every-day fare.