greek style stuffed tomatoes

Oh my gawd. I made them. I finally succeeded in making them. THE tomatoes. My absolute most favourite Greek dish ever.

before cooking

The very first time I met Idle Husband's parents, we were offered something to eat. Just so you know, if you ever visit Greece, be prepared to eat. A lot.

Oh you just arrived and it's 9 p.m.? Have something to eat. Oh you ate 3 hours ago and you're insisting you're not hungry? No one's ever not hungry. Have something to eat. Here's your 5 o'clock dinner. Around 11 o'clock we'll be having actual dinner so be ready to eat again.

Among the huge variety of foods presented, stuffed tomatoes was one of them. Was I hungry? Absolutely not. It was around 9 p.m. and we had had something to eat on our way there. Did I end up eating my tomato and almost all of Idle Husband's? Yup.

And just like that, my fixation on stuffed tomatoes began. I had dreams about them after returning from Greece. I thought for sure I could recreate them myself at home. It's just a friggin' tomato stuffed with rice and meat. I mean, how hard could it be?

Apparently really hard. I just couldn't figure it out myself. I thought that I was missing something. Some secret ingredient. Some special Greek spice. But when I finally got the recipe, I realized it was really all in the method. There's nothing more than parsley, salt, and pepper in these. That's it. No dill. No oregano. No cinnamon. Nothing you'd pin down as a secret ingredient. Well huh.

But you know, that's a good thing because there's never going to be a reason why I can't make these. I'm never going to have to run to the store for that one secret ingredient. I'm always going to have everything on hand. Except extra ripe from-the-garden, off-the-vine tomatoes...

Oh man and winter is coming. And in the winter months, I treat tomatoes like gold. I might as well have a special tomato safe so I can effectively keep my tomato stash under control...

Oh well. I don't care! I'm just so excited I can make these that I want to make stuffed tomatoes at least once a week. Winter be damned!

from my Greek mother-in-law

for 4 tomatoes

4 tablespoons arborio rice (or other medium to short grain rice)

4 whole, ripe tomatoes medium to large in size

1 398 ml can of diced tomatoes or about 1/2-1 cup of tomato sauce

1 medium onion

2 ounces regular ground beef

2 heaping tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley (fresh or from your freezer stash!)

1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons salt

pepper to taste

1/3 cup water (more or less)

1 tblsp olive oil

Measure the rice out into a fine mesh strainer and wash under cool water. Set aside.

Slice the top off of each tomato, but leave a little bit of it attached to the side. Kind of like a hinge (a little door to your tomato filling!) and carefully scoop out the insides into a bowl. Place the emptied tomatoes into a small baking dish.

Here's where it gets weird. Open the can of chopped tomatoes and strain out as much tomato juice as possible (do not use any of the chopped tomatoes from the can. Save them for some other meal). You can also substitute tomato sauce instead. Add the juice to the fresh tomato insides you just scooped out. You can do it the Greek way and grate the tomato insides on a box grater or you can do it my cheat way and use an immersion blender to blend the chunks up with the tomato juice. Either way works. (I tried being all traditional but abandoned it before I had even one tomato done. Sorry. Hand-grating tomato insides is a punishment reserved for those in hell.)

Finely mince the onion (just think about where you're going to be stuffing it. You want the pieces to be small enough to fit in there). Again, you can totally box grate it up. I prefer a knife. That's me. Saute the onion with some oil on medium high heat until translucent. Add ground beef and cook until the beef is fully done. If you want these to be less oily, you can strain out the beef fat, but they just won't taste the same. Besides, it's only like a pinch of meat. You'll be ok.

Add half of the blended tomato juice mixture to the onion and beef; add the parsley, rice, salt and pepper and water (more or less depending on how watery the mixture looks. This is just to help in cooking the rice. If you're really not sure, add less as you can always add a little more if it reduces before the rice has finished cooking). Keep this mixture at a low simmer until the rice is done but al dente (not mushy and over-cooked) and the mixture has thickened up considerably.

how they should look before baking

Remove from heat and stuff the rice mixture into each tomato. Be very generous. Pour the remaining tomato juice mixture over the tomatoes and drizzle with the tablespoon of olive oil. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

To serve, invert the tomato onto the dish with the cut side down. Cuz it looks prettier. They taste AH-MAZING alone, but they're CRAZY good with tzatziki. Enjoy!

{note} This recipe is adaptable depending on the number of tomatoes you want to prepare. The basic rule is 1 tablespoon of rice per tomato and adjust your liquids accordingly. There's apparently no need to increase the amount of meat. In fact, I think I added a little bit more than she originally did.

{noted} You can omit the meat and make this a vegetarian meal, too, but then you're only allowed to call them stuffed tomatoes. The Greek part would be pretty much useless at that point.

devonian gardens

And I only had my iPod camera! That's what happens when we go on unexpected adventures.

The native Alberta gardens were by far the best of the whole thing. The Japanese garden was nice and all, but it wasn't really Japanese to us. It was more a lot of Alberta plants pretending to be Japanese with a lot of rocks and water and weddings. (Actually, we didn't get to see a lot of the gardens because of weddings which is really annoying since we paid our money, too.)

This is the garden area I really wanted to see, but again, wedding. A staff member came running up to us to tell us there was one going on and we couldn't go any further. Which we totally knew since we have eyes and had no intentions of heading in that direction because of it. We were just standing there looking at what we could of the rock garden, but I guess that equates to a major wedding threat cuz he kept his eyes on us and paced anxiously back and forth (while we still didn't even try to turn towards said wedding area and were so far away, I couldn't even make out the details in the bride's dress).

I want this purple plant so badly. It was my favourite of the whole garden.

(and after SEVERAL google attempts to make out my shitty camera shot, it's called thalictrum splendide or -- are you kidding me?! -- meadow rue. Sigh. That's irritating. Would it have been so hard to label each plant with its common name as well? I know everyone is super familiar with botanical nomenclature, but that would have been really helpful and interesting, too. Like, "Oh THAT'S meadow rue!")

saskatoon pie & maple nut plus wet paint ice cream

(I had to talk Idle Husband into trying the wet paint flavour -- we didn't realize until the second cone that we could get two different scoops on one cone -- it ended up being the best out of all three. Also $2.50 for a can of pop? Please.) My favourite Idle Husband quote of the day: "What's french vanilla?"

We also really loved these stone/hypertufa planters. It's definitely something we'd like to do somewhere in the yard. It'll probably be a nice DIY for me next year. This caterpillar matched one of the weddings! I bet he didn't get kicked out.

The Japanese garden. I captured the best parts for you. (I'll spare you my sad pictures of even sadder spruce tree bonsai plants.)

Unfortunate cactus planting. Shame on you, DG. Air plants! I always want to get the ones I see at Walmart. I just don't cuz I'm irritated that an ugly figurine is part of that deal. I also don't want them to keep thinking that it's okay to do that to an air plant.

I loved the cactus and succulent gardens (duh), and the butterfly garden was neat and all, but I thought it was too small. We'd either be stuck behind lengthy gawkers or we'd be pressing up against a plant to let people by. We went around once and then out, but it would have been nice if there'd have been somewhere to sit for a while.

Overall, I didn't like how most of the gardens were set up like specimen gardens. Not really landscaped, just plants here and there with tags in front of them. There were only a few plots that worked together harmoniously. Granted there were a lot of plants going to seed so it was a little less spectacular than it would have been earlier in the year. Devonian Gardens is probably better in early August or July, but for the amount of money and the drive, I was sadly very underwhelmed. Some of the garden centers we visited this year were far more exciting (and free and we could purchase the plants we loved).

friday fixations

{cartoon song medley} This is so adorable!

{the sims on facebook} I can't believe I've gotten hooked on this game! Idle Husband was always trying to get me to play the Sims on the computer, but it looked like the dumbest thing ever. Maybe it's because Facebook incorporates your friends or maybe it's cuz the graphics are really cute. Whatever it is, it's got me trying to make the cutest Sim house ever! It's very important to me right now.

{pretend 7-up} This is going to sound weird, but I kinda figured out how to make something vaguely tasting like 7-up (or Sprite if you insist). You may or may not like it, though. My tastes have changed. I'm weird(er) now. So what you're going to need is a lemon, sweetener, and some club soda. Pour half a glass of water, top with club soda, add half a wedge of lemon (squeezed into the drink, too), and finally (if you want) add some kind of sugar to taste (I use Splenda). It doesn't taste 100% like 7-up (more like a fizzy lemonade) but it has that same kind of flavour that I find really refreshing. At least it's something different than water and a little less artificial than pop.

{greens, teals, and purples} I'm really loving these colours and I love them when they're mixed together. Lately, I've been wearing teal and forest green in almost every combination I can come up with. They're also perfect for fall if you look for jewel tones.

{polaroid printer} Um hello! This amazing device is totally going on my Christmas wish list!

{tomatoes} Again my decision to plant a majority of cherry tomatoes has paid off! It's a really satisfying feeling to pick that first large tomato off a plant, but cherry tomatoes can't be beat when it comes to quantity. I'll be waiting around into September for the larger tomatoes to ripen, but we've been enjoying the cherry tomatoes for most of this month. They're so sweet and juicy! The quality of homegrown tomatoes just can't be compared to store-bought. They are infinitely better.

{illegal downwriting} Two grandmas after my own heart.

Source: issuu.com via Idle on Pinterest

{got a girl crush magazine} Specifically the article, "Drawing Circles." Well, not really the article, the first picture of that article. Um, is that a little walkway greenhouse? Cuz I want it. Real bad.

fruit or peanut butter yogurt pops

Well, what can I say about these? They're delicious. They're cold. Some of them contain peanut butter. What more do you really need?

These delicious creamy peanut butter popsicles are my absolute favourite thing right now. I'm not usually so gaga for peanut butter, but there's just something about it that makes me really happy. 

Basically, the peanut butter popsicle is like ice cream on a stick. I keep imagining I'm going to put that mixture through my ice cream maker one of these days. With bits of whole peanuts and chocolate chips swirled in. 

Oh chocolate goes very well with these! Unfortunately, I did not google how to dip ice cream into melted chocolate, so my first batch of chocolate covered peanut butter pops was an absolute disaster. Not a gross disaster, just a very melty and unsuccessful disaster. Future self, take note: learn how to dip cool things in chocolate. It's important information for life.

These are blueberry fig yogurt popsicles. Why aren't there any figs in the picture telling your eyes that? Well, damn the figs to hell, I say. I bought a whole flat of them with the specific idea of turning them into delicious fig and honey yogurt pops only to find the figs extremely under-ripe. So I left them to ripen. Except instead of ripening they started rotting and continued to stay unripe, so I could only save a few to blend into my popsicle mix. I added the blueberries cuz I was royally pissed off at that point thought they'd blend well with the figs. They created a great colour and a better taste than the under-ripe/rotten figs would have on their own.

The fruit-based popsicles have a stronger tangy yogurt flavour than the other, so I prefer the peanut butter flavour (well, duh). But both are refreshing and delicious in their own ways so pick your poison.

adapted from Serious Eats

makes approximately 10 pops

2 cups plain yogurt (I used Astro's Balkan style)

1/4 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

Either in a blender or with an immersion blender (my choice: less clean-up), blend the yogurt, honey and vanilla together until smooth. Feel free to add more honey or more vanilla to taste. This is what I used for the base of each popsicle.

If you want all peanut butter pops, add 1 cup smooth peanut butter (I used Kraft's Lite version) to the yogurt mixture. Add the peanut butter a few tablespoons at a time and blend after each addition. You want to make sure the peanut butter is thoroughly combined with the yogurt and there are no big globs floating around in there. Again, feel free to add more or less peanut butter to your little heart's content. Pour into your popsicle mould of choice and freeze until set.

If you'd like a fruit popsicle, blend about a cup of whatever fruit you have on hand into the yogurt base. I added about three figs (more or less, I was really scraping here) and a couple handfuls of fresh blueberries. Strawberries or bananas would be really delicious, too. Although I haven't tried it, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest jam as well. Use the same method for adding it into the yogurt mixture as the peanut butter, and I betcha it'll turn out pretty darn swell.

{note} For some reason, the second time I made the peanut butter pops, I had one hell of a time getting them out of the mould (hence their melty appearance). They may or may not be difficult for you as well. Fair warning.

{noted} If you want some of each, I split the yogurt mixture in half in order to get half peanut butter and half berry. Just make sure to halve both the peanut butter and fruit amounts for each half of the yogurt.

DIY: invisible gate

One of the things that irritated me at our old house was the gate latch. It was one of those sliding bolt-type locks. It's not that it was particularly hard to use, it was just very annoying trying to reach it and slide it over from the other side and it was even more annoying trying to shut it since I had to line the bolt up into its little slot (and the gate was less than straight). And those few times I didn't line it over completely or didn't put the little handle down, the gate wouldn't close properly and I'd find it swinging open. And I'd never be able to open it with one hand or push through it with my shoulder. Oh no. And can I just mention how terrible it looked? Like, really terrible. Not modern at all. (I'm starting to realize that nothing's ever modern when it comes to things like this. What's up with that?)

Then I saw this post from The Art of Doing Stuff and I really loved the idea of using a magnet as a latch. I thought it was so smart and actually in the realm of possibilities for me. We have a Lee Valley Tools! I don't have to order anything from the internet! (Which is probably the number one reason why this was possible for me. I still haven't gotten over this ordering-online hiccup of mine.)

Of course, I didn't install it myself, our neighbour did. But I did have to explain to him what was floating around in my little brain and I did have to sit back and cross my fingers that he actually understood what it was I was asking, so it's almost as if I did the work myself!

Thankfully, he understood it PLUS he made it even better than how I would have done it.

This is the back or inside of the gate. I still have to find a handle, so it's not quite done yet. Just use your imagination to install a modern looking handle on the right side. I'm thinking long and black. (Oh. There's a "that's what she said" joke if I've ever read one.)

This is the front of the gate. It doesn't look like a gate, does it? I think that's the absolute best part! The original plan discussed with us was to put handles on both sides and cut a little hole out of the wood for a latch or, you know, we could totally (in your slow-mo voice, please) do the string over the top thing, too.

Jaw drops. Speechless. Eyes glazed over. It was pretty much at that very point that I thought, "As scary as it is for me to drive to foreign places (especially foreign places where I know construction exists), I MUST find this magnet. I may not be able to have the super modern cool fence of my dreams, but damn it, I'm going to have a friggin' awesome gate."

So you want to see how it latches?

The top board magically comes apart (ok, not magically), and one piece becomes the latch! This is the part I didn't think of. If you cut the boards on an angle rather than just a straight cut, the seam is even more invisible. Who'd've thunk it?!

The latch is a super-powered rare earth magnet. It's really strong. Before installation, I had to slide the two pieces apart so I could separate them. I couldn't pull them straight off each other. And these magnets come with a warning to keep them away from electrical devices and credit cards. Thank goodness the guy at Lee Valley Tools said something cuz it's so small, I was just going to pop it in my purse.

They don't have this particular style online, so I can't link it for you, but I promise it's at the store if you go (they keep these behind the counter, so ask unless you want to spend two hours of your day looking around Lee Valley Tools -- which isn't a half-bad way to spend two hours of your day, actually. They have some great stuff).

It took me a while to decide to purchase this style over the other since Karen from The Art of Doing Stuff used these, but I liked how the two-piece model was a little more straight-forward for installation (since I wasn't doing it myself and I didn't really want to invite him in and sit him in front of the computer so he could see how it was done).

The best part was that this one magnet cost me only $3! That's it! An entire gate latch for $3 (plus some wood pieces that were going to be used anyway). I love that the most!

So maybe by now you've had a chance to look at Karen's gate (and if not, you should cuz her fence is super cool and if there weren't dumb fence regulations and standards around here I totally would have wanted to copy that, too) and maybe you're wondering why we didn't counter-sink the magnet into the wood like Karen did. The reasoning behind it was that if the gate should shift during the winter or settle, it'd be a lot easier to unscrew the magnet and move it if we had to. Plus it's less work. Less work is always better, right?

the metal striking disc is screwed onto the gate

Now maybe you're thinking, "Hey! Won't you hit your head on that piece of wood sticking out?" And to that I'll quote Idle Husband, "What? Am I stupid?!"

The neighbour brought it up before anything had been built and I had this weird worry dream where all I could think about was how many times I'd bump my head on it and maybe I should think of a better way to install it and oh god! I have to tell him before he installs it and oh man! What if he installs it before I can tell him?! (worry worry) But now that it's there and I've had a chance to walk through it, the wood part is completely not in the way. Unless we were to walk rubbing right up against the house and inch our way around the post, there's no chance either of us will hit it.

The only other thought I've now had is to put a couple hook and eyes on the hinge side so that I can lock it closed or lock it open. I'm still kind of thinking about that. I know that this gate has a tendency to swing shut so a hook to keep it open would probably be really handy. More pondering needs to be done!

So if you were looking for a super simple latch that's easy to install, makes your gate invisible, and is super cheap, this just might be the latch for you!

hey, man!

I got a little box of treasures this week.

Someone's grandma's old recipes. I don't know why anyone would ever give this away.

There are a few intriguing recipes. A lot of recipes for zucchini. I liked the idea of zucchini jam -- from Esther; Quite a few healthy granola-ish recipes, like this one for nut milk; And, of course, a lot of cookies and cakes. Golden honey carrot cookies sounded like something I have to try.

I had to laugh at the salad section. It only contains the jello, whipped cream, and fruit kind of salads, all happily named, "salad." It wasn't until I started reading ingredients that I caught on.

But the best part was what was printed on the back of some of the recipes cut from old newspapers.

Let me quote one of my favourites, a portion devoted to finding penpals.

...Age:14; Birthday: June 12; Favourite colour: purple; Favourite song: Too much Tequila; Favourite singer: me; Favourite actor: Kookie; Favourite saying: Hey, man! Favourite animal: wolf; Food: Spearmint and Juicy Fruit; Drink: H2O; Costume: bobby sox and blue jeans (etc.); Pet peeve: conceited boys like Jimmy F.; Secret ambitions: to become a beatnik, be first human on moon, live to be 21. All kidding aside (against my usual policy), I would like to have lots of penpals. Kookie fans, Elvis fans, horse lovers, and anybody interested in teen talk grab a hunk of wood and lead and scrawl me a line.

So I did some research.

muesli

I am so in love with muesli right now! It's about the easiest breakfast to make, it fills me up, and it can be customized any way you like!

All you need is:

1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats

milk

fixings!

It's very important to combine the oats and milk first so the oats have a chance to soften. I find that by the time I've decided on add-ins and added them in, the oats have had the perfect amount of softening time. About 5 minutes or so (if you really need a time limit). 

I don't have an amount of milk for you because I've never measured it. Just pour a little in until the oats are covered. Remember that the oats are going to soak up some of the liquid so if you want your cereal more liquidy, like typical breakfast cereal, you should add more milk. I prefer it if the oats soak up almost all of the milk so I err on the lighter side. It would probably take you a couple breakfasts to figure out what you like best. You can also use any type of milk you want. I've used unsweetened soy milk and plain almond milk.

Once you've started your oats softening, you can go ahead and add whatever the heck you want! Regardless of what I'm adding, I always start with a teaspoon of vanilla. It really adds a nice flavour. And while I've tried other extracts, vanilla is the only one that doesn't taste out of place (or strange and alcoholic).

I also prefer to sweeten it with sweetened shredded coconut. It's weird, I know. But it adds a nice flavour (cuz I love coconut) and I've found that it's easier to measure out and combine with the whole mixture than honey. (Although honey is very good when I've used it.) Of course, you can sweeten your muesli with regular sugar, brown sugar, Splenda, or nothing. And if you're adding really sweet fruit like bananas or raisins, you might not even want to bother. Again, this is really a breakfast option that's customized for you. You make it the way you like it!

My favourite bowl is cinnamon raisin (with almonds and coconut, obviously) and it's kind of my default bowl if I've run out of fresh fruit. But that's cool with me cuz raisins are like candy!

fast weekend

{also Idle Husband is awesome and such}

blue, white, and pink

About an hour and a half away there're some amazingly tall and bushy delphiniums that are currently packed with flowers. I brought a humongous bunch home with me.

I wanted to show you the rose I planted earlier this summer.

I guess this means it likes its new home. (*smiles)

guest post with Hot Polka Dot: vanilla mint chocolate chunk ice cream

What can I say about my blogger pal, Lindsey? Well, for starters, her blog, Hot Polka Dot, is fantastic. She's always coming up with new and exciting recipes with amazing pictures and stories to go along with them. But she's not only baking and cooking. Oh, no. She posts great tutorials, how-tos, kitchen tips, fashion inspiration, and DIYs. You'll just have to click on over to her blog to see all of the inspiring things she's got going on. I swear you won't be disappointed.

I won't keep you from this dessert any longer (although I suspect you've probably skipped all of this upon reading it was about ice cream). Here's Lindsey with the most delicious and refreshing vanilla mint chocolate chunk ice cream recipe:

I'd like to tell you that this lovely mint came from my own personal garden. I'd like to tell you that I whispered sweet nothings to it as I lovingly raised it from a seedling to glorious maturity. I'd like to tell you that my backyard looks like something out of a Barefoot Contessa with a lush jungle of waist high rosemary, basil, and thyme. I'd like to tell you that when planting my herbs this spring, I had the forethought to include mint. But I can't. I won't lie to you.

The truth is my sad little herb garden -- which consists of six dollar store terracotta pots with the wrong potting soil -- is infested with aphids and hasn't been watered in three days. It's dry, brown and rather piddly. It's not pretty.

So no, I will not be making fresh pesto from my own basil. And no, I will not be garnishing my pasta with chopped parsley. And no, I will not be stirring chives into my sour cream to make baked potatoes extra special. And I will most certainly not be making creamy potato salad with my own sprigs of dill.

Let's just be real here. I buy my herbs from little containers at the supermarket. Frequently they're wilted and often smushed. I buy hot house tomatoes because they're cheaper than the vine ripened tomatoes. I am a dirty dirty herb killer.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about ice cream. I've always wanted to make vanilla mint chocolate chunk ice cream with fresh mint and real vanilla bean and, I've got to tell you, I wasn't disappointed. The mint leaves create a cool mint flavour with a bright fresh from the garden taste that just can't be replicated with all the extracts in the world. The unexpected bonus of using fresh mint was the subtle hint of green that tinted the custard. The vanilla bean sweetens and deepens the flavour while adding yet another layer to the experience. Of course, it couldn't be complete without chocolate! I promise you'll never want that grocery store mint ice cream again!

{vanilla mint chocolate chunk ice cream}

makes about 10 servings

source: adapted from KitchenAid's French Vanilla Ice Cream

printer friendly

2 1/2 cup half and half cream

1 vanilla bean

3 cup mint leaves, packed

8 egg yolks

1 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 cup heavy cream

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 cup milk or semisweet chocolate chunks

In a medium sauce pan, heat the half and half cream, whole vanilla bean, and mint leaves on medium heat until it starts steaming. Take it off the heat, cover it, and set it aside for an hour to allow the mint flavour time to infuse.

Reheat the cream mixture on medium heat until it's very hot but not boiling. Strain out the mint leaves and set aside the vanilla bean.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and sugar on low speed until they're blended and slightly thick, about 30 seconds. Pour the hot cream gradually into the egg yolk mixture while it's mixing on low.

Slice open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds with the edge of your knife. Stir in the vanilla seeds, whipping cream, and salt then refrigerate it for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Once it's sufficiently chilled, mix it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. In the last few minutes of mixing, add the chocolate chunks.

Serve it with a garnish of fresh mint leaves. Enjoy!

how to idly clean jewelry

Grab your tarnished piece and try it on in every possible combination cuz obviously you haven't worn it in a while. (Please choose only your cheapy-fakey pieces for this method.)

Then take it off your finger, dummy. It's easier to clean that way.

Grab the toothpaste you used to brush your teeth this morning (or at least I hope you used it this morning).

Plop some on your ring.

Smear it around and really rub it in. If you have an old toothbrush, that'd be handy, too.

Depending on whether you're cleaning one piece really quick or all your pieces at once, you may or may not end up with super cool mint hands.

Rinse off the toothpaste and check it out. This is after one rubbing. You might have to go through the steps a few times to get what you want.

This is after two scrubbings. Good enough for me!

Supa clean!