Hello Cooking Finland! How would you like to see a little Italian flair?

Allow me to welcome myself to Cooking Finland.  I am Karen, a friend of Elizabeth, an avid cook, and in a lot of ways, Elizabeth's twin.  We not only share a love of cooking, but we both have three kids, husbands who worked for the same megacompany (read that as we met at the company's family picnic), and we both gave up the same career to take care of our kids.  Incidentally, Elizabeth became Finnish the same way I became Italian - it all happened when we got married.  I recently moved across the country, so Elizabeth has become my two-dimensional friend.

To keep things interesting in our two-dimensional relationship, I want to challenge Elizabeth to a cooking duel.  I want to bring my Italian cooking to the table and see how Elizabeth can put a Finnish flair on the same dish to make it her own.  We can start by choosing a recipe, and adapting it to be our own.  Ideally, we would love to have people submit ideas, recipes, or food types (say, tacos), and we will each then adapt the recipe to be our own. We welcome commentary, critique, and of course, your votes!

So, to start the challenge, I declare a throwdown over this little recipe I received from a friend who told me she just loved Pide Bread when she lived in Australia.  Also described as Turkish Bread, this recipe seems fitting for our first throwdown, since it claims to be both Turkish and Australian at the same time.  Why not try to make it Italian or Finnish?

The original recipe can be found here.  I made the recipe as it was written this afternoon.  I have a habit of following baking recipes the first time, and adapting them to my liking after tasting - usually that way I have a better understanding of what needs to be tweaked. I presented a "loaf" of the Pide to my friend who gave me the recipe this afternoon, and she declared the taste and texture to be reminiscent of the Turkish Pide she enjoyed down under.  We both agreed that it was fabulous served warm, slathered in butter and sprinkled with salt.

So, Elizabeth, I challenge you to make this Pide bread your own, and I will do the same!  See you here when you have proof that you have completed your mission. -K