garden creek...our new old farmhouse

yep, we did, we went full tilt boogie, took the leap and bought a second home. we bought a nifty hundred years plus old clapboard farmhouse on 26 acres in mathews, va. this and my new job, which unexpectedly came together at the same time, has been a huge source of stress for me the past few weeks. i am grateful for the help of a wonderful realtor, financier and title agent to pull it all off, even if it was right down to the wire. they kept me sane, well, the best they could,  but it is not over, yet. we still have renovations and they are about to begin. ick. i know it will be all worth in the end, so i keep telling myself. bring it on. i got my paint samples, baby.

 yeehaw.

here are just a few pics to give you a little peek at our newest adventure. i will post more following the redos. enjoy.

btw, it is a three bedroom,  one bath/half, living room, family room, kitchen and what we call a mystery room.

ricotta stuffed roma tomatoes

so yesterday was my first day back to work after having a seven year break! i wouldn't really call it a break since two children, hundreds of loads of laundry, hundreds of meals and so on were involved. anyway, i was pooped. i was also later than i thought, so i quickly made a pot of pasta, sauteed some chicken and made these little ruby gems. we are getting fresh roma tomatoes from the garden everyday, now, so what a delicious use of them. i had seen the original recipe on the pioneer woman long time ago, but this is my quickie version with what i had on hand.

beth's ricotta stuffed roma tomatoes

you need: roma tomatoes, ricotta cheese, salt, pepper, parsley, basil, garlic(fresh or dried), bread/cracker crumbs and olive oil

wash, split lengthwise the number of tomatoes you want. now clean the seeds out completely, i used a spoon. sprinkle a little kosher salt on the halves and lay cut side down on a paper towel to dry a bit. meanwhile heat your oven to 400F.

in a bowl, add approx one tablespoon of ricotta for every tomato half you have. to this add some kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. the following all ingredients would be even better if fresh: basil, italian parsley and garlic. i happened to have the parsley, so i chopped roughly a teaspoon fine, a hefty shake of both garlic powder and dried basil. if using fresh, i would say depending on the amount of filling, half to a whole garlic clove minced, but same amount of basil as to parsley. it really depends how much filling and tomatoes. taste it and decide what you need.

 now fill you halves, nice and packed. smooth off the tops.

now get some bread crumbs or in my case, ritz crackers. smash fine. dip each cheese packed side into the crumbs. place on a cookie sheet, hit with a smidge of olive oil and roast for 30 minutes.

yum, yum, yum.

oh, you could easily add some parmesan cheese to the filling or on top. yehaw.

enjoy.