Recipe: Stuffed peppers with sausage

There are recipes that I've known since childhood - recipes that my grandmother and mother cooked for us. I've continued to cook these in the same fashion, only to find that at some point, they get slightly boring.  Not bad, because they're still tried and tested, a staple -- but just a tad uneventful...

That's where the various sites on the internet come to the rescue - recipes that change one or more of the ingredients and pouf, a whole new world opens up.  Add to this that I twist the recipe anyway, and the end result may be miles away from the original, family recipe I had in mind.

That's how this recipe started:  My family always made peppers stuffed with minced meat and a bit of rice.  Excellent staple, great eaten warm or cold, and definitely welcome to children!  But there was this little nudge that I should try a combination that would use all those ingredients I keep in my pantry... So, in the end, to cut a long story short, I only kept the main ingredient:  the pepper!!! Everything else was modified, but the end result was so good, I think I'll start cooking these a lot more often than my mother's!!!

The Classics Club: The Quiet American

When I first read The Quiet American by Graham Greene, I was a teenager.  I studied the book for the Proficiency Diploma in English as a foreign language, and it served as material for the oral exam.  I was so impressed with its content, the descriptions of extraordinary situations, the conflict between nations, people and couples.  I considered it as one of the best novels I'd read (true, there hadn't been that many at that point), and I regarded it as a good example of classic literature. I decided to include the book in the Classics Club, because of these memories and because it had been 26 years ago - a good time to re-read a book one has loved.

New challenge: Pin it and Do it!

Calling all the crafty people out there:  October is the month to pick up your pans / needles / beads etc. and try out every idea you've pinned on Pinterest!

Trish will be hosting this pinteresting challenge, where everyone is invited to show their skills ( I can't imagine the exchange of ideas from all the bloggers...)

I've yet to decide which of my pins I will try to carry out, but they will certainly include cooking, knitting/cross-stitching and perhaps a bit of jewelry making (nothing extravagant you see...)

And yes, I admit it:  I am a Pinterest-aholic -  I will go for the 8+ level!

UPDATE:  I've created a board on Pinterest where all my pins for this challenge are listed (obviously, I will not be able to do them all... unfortunately..)

Recipe: Mediterrenean chicken wraps

With autumn coming on fast, I thought it only appropriate to include one last recipe for those lazy, summer days.  Those days when the only thing I could master was to open the fridge, look what was inside and try to make do with what I had to compose an easy, fast, summery dish that would be just perfect!
One, of course, can never go wrong with a wrap - the quintessential summer eat.  I use wraps with all types of ingredients and I couldn't be happier that I can satisfy my taste buds within minutes:

The Classics Club: The Frogs (Bάτραχοι)

The idea of the Classics Club is to read or re-read all those gems of literature that have had an important effect on readers throughout the centuries.  
Among the works I chose, I took this opportunity to also visit the ancient Greek plays, having only studied the serious, philosophical prose at school.  
I read the The Frogs (Βάτραχοι) by Aristophanes, heralded as one of the major playwriters in Athens, whose works were actually considered teaching material - this play won first place at one of the festivals of Dionysus.  I also decided to read it in the original, to feel every nuance of the words used...

The Classics Club: my favourite review

For September, the Classics Club's question is slightly more difficult:  from the reviews already published on the blog, pick the one that gets me excited to read the book in question, and offer a quote that will demonstrate this.

Why this is not easy?  Because in all the reviews I read and the blogs I follow, I always find something that will intrigue me, something that will show a new aspect to a plot, that will shine light to a part of (simingly) lesser importance.  Every time I read something, I'm bound to go and put yet another book in my TBR list...