Slapdash Baking

 The truth is I'm not much of a baker.  Bakers need to be very precise, measuring and weighing and paying particular attention to pre-heating the oven, timing the baking etc.  I prefer to bake things the way I cook: slapdash, with room to improvise and without paying much attention to measuring.
So an easy apple strudel is pretty much my perfect baking "recipe"!
I had some Granny Smith apples lying around and beginning to look slightly worse for the wear, so I peeled them up and chopped them into chunky slices.
After a quick spritz of fresh lemon juice I stirred cinnamon sugar into the whole lot: basically about 3 tablespoons of sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.

 Meanwhile I prepared the thawed phyllo dough, layering five sheets on top of a layer of parchment paper with generous brushings of about a third a cup of melted butter (for plant-based diets melted Earth Balance baking sticks work really well).

Topple the prepared apples onto one end of the prepared phyllo dough.  Then you've got the fun part: grab the full end, pull the dough up all around the apples and roll to the other side, tucking in the whole way.
You'll want the seam of the roll to be underneath the strudel on the parchment-covered baking sheet.

 Brush with whatever remaining butter you have, then sprinkle the whole thing fetchingly with more cinnamon sugar.

 I baked this strudel for about 20 minutes in a 350 oven, but my La Cornue convection oven is super hot.  Your oven might need more time.

Voila you have a gorgeous strudel, perfect for dessert on a winter evening!

The finished strudel.

I leave you with a picture of our neighbourhood in the deep freeze.  It's been so cold yet also quite beautiful, the light is low yet bright.
Today it's time to re-stock some cupboards, so I'll be out and about procuring supplies.  Then this afternoon Middle Rascal and I are off to visit with one of the Lauras and her older daughter (who's also home on a break from Uni), we'll have cocktails together as they discuss school and life, and Laura and I will remember them running around at age four and five, playing with their "habitat animals" and sidewalk chalk!
Enjoy your day today, maybe you'll do some slapdash baking?
xoxDani

Perspective

 Happy New Year!
There's something so fresh about the first day of the new year.  I was thinking about new approaches and beginnings yesterday afternoon, while I was tidying up my bathroom.  This painting, above, hangs in that room (and pretty much dominates it).  It's funny because while there doesn't seem to be lots going on in the painting (it's a simple landscape after all, painted in a slightly out-of-focus technique) to me it's quite powerfully full of potential.  I think it looks like a new slate, free of decisions, fresh, approachable.
Rather like the new year...we get to decide what kind of year we will have.
I hope yours is full of possibility and happiness, and that you are able to accomplish what you choose to!

 I had a really good day scrubbing, polishing and fluffing up the house.  MrBP was hunkered down in his office preparing for a really busy first week of January but we were able to sit down with a glass of wine by about five and settle for the evening.

 I didn't have the heart to take down the Christmas tree although I did start rounding up many of the decorations.  Middle Rascal is home until January 4th and she loves that Christmas tree... I'll wait until the 5th to take it down.

Today I'll do a bit of baking, nothing too fussy, maybe an apple strudel.  I'll definitely bake some more of that no-knead bread, in our family we can easily get through a loaf a day.  It's delicious with dinner of course but it also toasts up perfectly for breakfast and lunch.

Fresh bread in the kitchen... what could be better.

Wishing you a very happy first day of this new year!
xoxDani