Apples + Butter + Sugar = APPLE STUDEL

As a child I remember my grandma making apple strudel before every holiday. She would make philo dough by hand, rolling it out on top of a linen tablecloth on our kitchen table. She would roll the dough out until it was the size of the table, then begin to fold it over, add a layer of butter, fold again, another layer of melted butter, until the dough was the size of a cake pan. My brother Patrick says it's called a laminated dough. Since we are beginners we bought frozen philo dough in a box. Perhaps some year we will graduate to making the dough ourselves, but this year I hoped to renew the tradition with my brother Patrick, a great chef and the family "food pornographer" along with our somewhat reluctant children. We spent a good hour peeling apples, then on to mixing in cinnamon, sugar and breadcrumbs. The really, really, hard part was layering philo dough, then brushing on a layer of butter, then adding a layer of philo dough, then brushing on a layer of melted butter, philo, butter, philo, butter, philo butter, the dough was tearing, too much butter was being used. We sent Brian off to the hardware store to get better quality paint brushes to layer on the butter. It really didn't seem to help much. I think now, the key is to keep the butter pretty warm, almost hot - that way it spreads quicker. In all it took us 3 hours to make 6 strudels, and some of you may have enjoyed one on Thanksgiving. I have some in the freezer, so on Christmas we can chow down!